An upswing in new Internet browsers, FireFox
SOURCE: NY Times
In Search of a Browser That Banishes Clutter
By JULIET CHUNG
Published: August 12, 2004
FOR Katherine Sandlin, a barrage of pop-up ads was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back - in this case, her reliance on Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Even before her home page could load, thumbnail-size advertisements would crowd the monitor urging her to apply for a credit card or find love online. So she asked around for other ways to browse the Web.
One software switch later, Ms. Sandlin is reveling in a pop-up-free existence and spreading the word about Firefox, a free Web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation that has a built-in pop-up blocker. Ms. Sandlin is so devoted to her browser that she has taped a note to her monitor warning guests not to click on the desktop shortcut to Internet Explorer. "Do not touch the blue 'E!' " the note says.
"I didn't want to fool with it anymore," said Ms. Sandlin, 51, an administrative assistant at Halifax Community College in Weldon, N.C. "I spent more time clicking pop-ups than I did surfing the Web."
The popularity of Web browsers other than Internet Explorer could still be defined as cult. In the United States, the five most popular browsers after Internet Explorer - AOL's Netscape, the Mozilla Foundation's Mozilla and Firefox, Opera Software's Opera and Apple's Safari - together have about 5 percent of the market. Internet Explorer has 94 percent, according to WebSide- Story, a Web analysis firm.
But for the first time since Microsoft's browser beat out Netscape to gain dominance, its market share is eroding as users like Ms. Sandlin shift to other browsers.
No one is forecasting the demise of Internet Explorer, but the most recent data from WebSideStory show that of visits to Web sites the firm tracks, the number made using Explorer declined 1.3 percent from early June to mid-July. At the same time, use of other browsers - Firefox and Opera in particular - rose...
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