Firefox catching Internet Explorer in browser wars

Data from Nielsen//NetRatings shows that Internet Explorer is still the main browser of choice for 88% of Britons online, but its share of the market has decreased by 9% over the last two years.

Firefox is now the main browser for almost 12% of Britons online, up from just over 1% in September 2004 – a relative increase in market share of 768%.

Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings, said: “Aside from its supporters’ claims of its superior security and functionality, the open source nature of Firefox and its competition with Microsoft has a huge appeal to those who believe in the egalitarian and participatory ethos of the Internet. In other words, Firefox represents, for many, Web 2.0 and IE Web 1.0.”"

Britons who use Firefox as their main browser average 28% more time online and view 41% more web pages than the average Internet Explorer user.

Firefox users spent an average of 24.4 hours online in September – browsing 2,070 pages – compared to 19.1 hours and 1,473 pages for the average Internet Explorer user

Further data shows that Firefox has a more male-centric user-base - 62% of its users are male compared to 52% for Internet Explorer.

Whilst both browsers have an equal affinity with under 35 year olds, almost one third of Internet Explorer’s users are over 50 years old, compared to only one fifth in the case of Firefox

"Firefox has a more male-centric and slightly younger user-base and its users are more heavy consumers of the Internet than their IE counterparts. This presents an interesting paradox - whilst its software more closely represents the new phase of user-generated content, or web 2.0, the composition of its audience more closely mirrors that of the early days of the Internet,” Burmaster added.