Firefox Has User Retention Problems

[Nomad559]

http://www.e-consultancy.com:80/news-blog/363983/firefox-has-user-retention-problems.html

Around 75% of people that download the Firefox browser don't actually use it regularly, according to figures from Mozilla.

According to the Mozilla Wiki (via ZDNet), approximately 50% of the people who download the browser try it out, but only 50% of those become regular users.

The company has come up with a 12 point plan to deal with these issues, including changing the Firefox icon, making downloads easier, and adding a support function.

The latest browser market share figures show Firefox usage has dropped slightly - it fell to 14.37% in July from 14.55% in June, while Internet Explorer claimed 78.98% of the market. IE7 accounted for 33.1% of the market.
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http://wiki.mozilla.org/Retention

75% of the people who download Firefox don't become active users
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2007/08/08/75_of_the_people_who_download_firefox_dont_become_active_users.html

[RufusTFirefly]

1. How strange!

I started using Firefox a few years ago and haven't stopped. In fact, I get quite bent out of shape on those rare occasions when I am compelled to use IE.

[alstephenson]

10. Me too! I've been using Firefox for a couple of years.

It's not perfect, but better than IE in my opinion. Do people really make a choice of browser based on an icon???

[Augdog20]

44. Questions about Opera

Yep, I admit: I'm one of those that at likes the Firefox icon.

Does anyone have this problem?: my computer is saving every single little and big image that I come across in Opera. (They all begin with the letters "opr".) I go through a laborious process to empty my cache of these images.

[sakabatou]

2. But, but Firefox is so much better!

[rodeodance]

3. I love the icon I am a 100% user.

[Yael]

4. I have been a user for several years now but have recently (in the last month) switched

to Opera. I love their speed dial function (there are FF plugins to do that) and the footprint is SO much lighter. FF has known memory issues and if you don't close the browser and relaunch once in a while it can take upwards of 250,000 of system memory.

[eleny]

7. How often do you relaunch?

[Yael]

A few times a day.

Ctrl-alt-del will allow you to see what programs are eating up system memory. If things start feeling sluggish, I launch that program manager and kill any services that are hogging up the works.

Opera has been much more stable for me the past few weeks.

[JPettus]

31. That's odd

I know mine does that too, but I don't have to re-launch but once every few days, like once or twice a week.

[eleny]

35. I probably relaunch that often, too

Thanks

[Nomad559]

13. I've been using Opera

on all my systems for years, It's a great browser.

?click

:)

[nealmhughes]

30. I use Opera for daily stuff and when I am doing research, as I like the ease of switching widows.

But I also use SeaMonkey, too which has Firefox and Netscape both built in, Netscape as the html editor, and there are some google extensions that Opera doesn't handle like Google Docs.

[thunder rising]

19. 250,000 what ... unit's are generally in order

bytes, kbyts, mbytes, terabytes?

[Yael]

26. The task manager reports in KBs

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Been using Firefox for years

love it and don't intend to use the big blue E except at work.

[ananda]

6. I use it as my personal preference.. but

sometimes it won't work with some sites.

Then I use Safari.

[dubeskin]

8. I love Firefox!

It is, in my experience, been the greatest browser ever! However, I've been using it less lately since DU doesn't work for some reason on FF. But still, FF has the greatest adaptability to any operating system, and is extremely easy to use.

[Greyskye]

12. odd

I'm running FF right now (and have been for quite a while), and haven't noticed any issues at all with FF & DU.

[JPettus]

32. same here

I almost never run IE. I run FF on a Windows box here in the office and FF on my Linux box in my room.

[TomInTib]

9. My sons swear by it.

But I am not about to try to learn anything new.

Hell, it took me years to figure out how to post on DU (actually, my girlfriend at the time did it so she wouldn't have to hear me talk back to the computer constantly).

[Cronus Protagonist]

11. IF they made it switchable between HTTP 1.1 and 1.0 I would use it

My firewall doesn't do HTTP 1.1 so I can't use it. I must have downloaded ten ormore versions of it to try to find one that works. Looks like I skewed the stats a bit....




http://cronus.com/ Check out the newest articles!

[bananas]

20. Have you tried changing network.http.version?

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http.version

[Cronus Protagonist]

24. Woooo Hooooo! Thanks for that !!

That was the answer to my dearest wishes. It worked! I no longer have to use IE! I've tried so many things to make this work and couldn't locate how to do it. Even the Moilla boards were unable to do it and bam! There you do it in one fell swoop! You made my day!

THANKS!

[petersjo02]

14. I'm a Firefox pup

Using it several years now, and I like it MUCH better than IE.

[SeattleGirl]

15. I recently switched to Firefox, and I love it.

Much better than Explorer.

[rucky]

16. It's the bestest!

Live bookmarks, Sage reader, rarely a crash.

then again, I downloaded it for my wife and she like IE6 better (huh?!)

[Richard D]

17. I only use Firefox . . .

. . . and if a site won't run on it, I just use the IE Tab extension to run a tab in internet explorer.

[havocmom]

18. Me too. And I put it on 4 other computers that I use occassionally

so I don't have to deal with IE.

[jkshaw]

22. I've never used IE

I went from Netscape to Mozilla to Firefox, but I go back to Mozilla to work on my web site. That's the only thing I don't like about Firefox -- it has no composer function.

[southerncrone]

21. I'm among the ranks that uses Firefox exclusively for @ 2 years now

Hate sites that require you to use IE.
FireFox is a much better browser IMHO.

[mcscajun]

23. Good lord! I only use IE when a website absolutely won't work with Firefox

and I must use that particular website.

I actively convert everyone I know to Firefox (and Thunderbird, a marvelous e-mail client).

What's NOT to like, I wonder?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

25. Get the Firefox extension called:

"IE TAB".

[mcscajun]

29. I already have that.

:)

[madrchsod]

27. i have used mozilla since it started

i cannot figure out why anyone would use internet explorer. i still use opera every now and then for some things that mozilla does`t have.

[madrchsod]

28. i also downloaded seamonkey

and when i`m bored i go there to play around http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

[betrue2meonly]

38. Browsers....

I use Opera for certain things, Firefox for others, and IE7 quite a bit, also. I am one of those old farts who didn't enter the internet world until a couple years ago, and had to learn too much too fast because my first PC was a custom job set up by a teenage gamer, and I had a lot of problems.
Now I will try SeaMonkey, too. I use as few plug-ins as possible, and use the three browsers for how they advantage themselves.

I use IE7 for going bringing up gmail, yahoomail, and hotmail, and searching with Google. I like it's "Favorite" system off the tool bar. Also downloads are more efficient and simple with IE7.

I use Opera for surfing and multiple browsing. The way it displays Bookmarks with two full panes side by side is quick. It loads quickest and switches windows the quickest. That helps because I am out in country where I can only get dial-up. Don't like its download system.

I use Firefox for my political stuff, and personal blog, writing letters, because of its editing ability. Don't like it's download system.

[0007]

33. I wouldn't use anything else! Fuck the others especially IE. nt

[ramapo]

34. All Seamonkey for me

I don't know why they split the mail client out into a separate product (Thunderbird). Both Firefox and Thunderbird are fine products but it is annoyingly inconvenient to not have one integrated product.

Seamonkey solves the problem. Works great.

[Exultant Democracy]

36. So Firefox has user retention problems and IE maintains almost %80 market share?

Now that is just funny.

[Connonym]

37. I have to use IE for work but everything else is Firefox at my house

[camero]

39. I use it all the time. It's great

Plus the adblocker works like a charm.

[TheOtherMaven]

40. Firefox and Java need to talk

One of the reasons Firefox is having trouble may be the known - and very serious - incompatibility between it and Java 6.x. Firefox 2.x.x.x. detects this incompatibility and SHUTS DOWN THE JAVA EXTENSION so you can't use it.

Java 5.x still works okay - but it's a major pain in the tush to have to back down to it and block automatic updates so you don't get caught up in the same problem again and again.

I don't know who broke what, but Firefox and Java need to talk to each other and get this problem fixed. They needed to do it MONTHS ago.

I still use Firefox (wouldn't consider going back to IE), but am thinking about trying some of the alternatives just BECAUSE of the Java problem.

[AmyDeLune]

41. Is this their new icon?

:D

[That Is Quite Enough]

42. I loves my FireFox! I don't know how I got by on IE...

[FedUp_Queer]

43. This is all very funny

I guess if you are cursed enough to settle for anything Windows, then the "choice" is between IE and Firefox. Me...I'll stick to Safari. Microsoft is just so awful!