Still, the numbers are grim for Firefox, which appears to have lost ground to Google Chrome, another open-source browser that went into wide-release in 2008. “[I]f the last three months are any indication, Firefox will never hit that 25 percent market share mark that looked all but certain just a few short months ago,” writes Emil Protalinski of Ars Technica.
In a blog post published today, Protalinski suggests that “Mozilla may have to start advertising its browser as much as Google does Chrome (on Google.com, YouTube.com, and so on) or even striking distribution deals with [equipment manufacturers] like Google did with Sony in September 2009.” Google has aired several surprisingly clever Chrome ads, such as this one. As Protalinski points out, in late January, Mozilla unveiled Firefox 3.6, but even that upgrade hasn’t been enough to raise company fortunes.
So what’s up with Firefox? Some analysts see it as just a case of the Next Big Thing – Chrome is shiny, fast, and buzz-worthy. Moreover, writes OStatic’s Sam Dean, “Google continues to upgrade Chrome at a very rapid pace, reminiscent of the pace that Mozilla updated Firefox at for years. Mozilla has said that it won’t continue to deliver Firefox upgrades at that pace, which could be an opportunity for Google and Chrome.”
