Toms View of the World

http://www.a-rush.co.uk/8…26/browser_wars

Another interesting article in blogspace that I’ve come across

gaining with web developers

Firefox is a growing trend - and one that’s good for the internet as a whole.I’m not going to get into, or start a "My browser is better than yours"
debate - they all have their strengths and weaknesses, however a
cross-platform browser based on the same core code has got to be a good
thing.

As the author of that article reflects, it’s likely that the trend will jump once Firefox reaches v1.0.

Firefox’s "add-ins" are what make it great (compared to IE) -
anythign that can block pop-up ad’s by default is a good thing - and as
it can also block those horrendously irritating noisy, animated flash
adverts that expand to take up half the screen, bounce around a bit,
then expect you to click on them just to get the page you’re trying to
read. Those two features alone make it a serious contender.

What i will say however is that the browser I use at home, on
a day-to-day basis, is Firefox. I have to use IE at work ‘cos it’s the
"corporate standard" - however both this site and Coasterclub.org were primarily designed in Firefox, and should be sufficiently standards compliant to render correctly in both Firefox and IE.

Looking at the logs for Coasterclub.org
makes interesting reading - yes, it’s still 90% IE - but the
interesting thing is the changes. A year ago it was 98% IE, and six
months ago 94% - so we’re seeing a definite shift away from IE and
towards other browsers - Gecko engine browsers (including firefox and
Mozilla) make up 3% now, six months ago 1%, and a year ago, weren’t
even showing up they were so few and far between.

Something to think about - if you’re not already designing for non-IE browsers - you’ll need to soon.