Neowin.net

This article was kindly guest written by David Bennett for Neowin.

Firefox, many would have us believe, is taking over the world. As I write this article, I'm told the browser has been downloaded almost six million times in just over two weeks, and one survey is suggesting Internet Explorer use has dropped to below 90% for the first time in years. Onestat.com's statistics say IE usage has dropped by 5% since May, while Mozilla Browsers have grown by just the same amount. IE6 is being used by just under 81%; IE5 by 4.2% and 5.5 by 3.7%. Firefox usage is sitting around 4.5%.

This has all prompted claims from its advocates that it's going to take over Internet Explorer's crown as the most-used browser on the net. Unfortunately, open-source fans, that just isn't going to happen.

Firefox is a great browser. I won't deny that. I use it myself. But then, I, and indeed most of you who read this article, are far from typical internet users. The typical internet user couldn't even tell you what the word "browser" means. They simply know that if they click on that pretty blue "e" on their desktop, the internet opens up in front of them. They don't care about web standards; open source means nothing to them; and if you use the words "tabbed browsing" in front of them, you might as well be speaking French. This is the group which now uses the internet most-of-all: the don't-cares.

Internet Explorer, we know, got to this point of domination through a variety of tactics, forcing the dominant Netscape out of the market. It's been said this wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the fact that IE4 beat Netscape 4 hands down (it did... I had to use Netscape 4 the other day, it was horrible). But the fact is, it would have happened anyway. For it was around this time that the internet really came into its own. Sure, it had been around for years earlier, but now there were more and more ISPs, easy connection deals and a variety of incentives to sign up and go online for the first time. And, just at this time, an icon appeared on 90% of the computer desktops in the world - handily labelled "Internet Explorer". Whether people know what a browser is or not, there's no doubt in their minds what this program will do.

And we're still in the same position now, a good few years later. We have a net dominated by people who don't know and care even less about how they get to their favourite site. And surely, the only way Firefox - or any other browser, for that matter - is ever going to get the crown back is if Bill Gates has a mild brain tumour, suspends IE and decides to bundle Firefox with every copy of Windows from now on. Think of it... instead of having the big "e" labelled "Internet Explorer", you see a different icon - but the title underneath it reads simply "Internet". That's what most people think of the web as anyway, so there'd still be no doubt over what to click on.

View: OneStat.com - Browser Stats

I feel I should point out that even if computer manufacturers start installing Firefox at their end, it won't make a jot of difference. The techies will be annoyed as it most likely won't be the absolute latest version when it gets to them, and they'll just have to update it anyway. The don't-cares, meantime, will still see their traditional big "e" and instinctively click on that. You could label Firefox "better internet" and it still wouldn't change the fact that people are creatures of habit.

The wonderful people over at spreadfirefox.com have managed to raise enough money for a full-page ad in the New York Times telling everyone of the joys of the browser. Unfortunately, as great as that is, I quite simply can't see it having that much of an effect. Remember the marketing push when Windows 95 came out? There was a massive TV campaign; billboards everywhere; Microsoft even subsidised The Times newspaper for a day, making it free for everyone - on the condition that it came with a special supplement telling of the wonders of this new operating system in terms ordinary people could understand. Firefox, unfortunately, isn't going to get anything like that amount of publicity. Sure, it's attracted a lot more attention than probably any other browser release in history. But think of where this attention has been focused - most, if not all, has been in tech magazines and on tech websites aimed at people who will already have heard of, and for the most part be using - or at least have tried out - Firefox.

So I've come to the conclusion that the only way to get Firefox used by the internet population at large, and to stop all these stupid spyware exploits and viruses clogging up our precious bandwidth every two days, is guerilla tactics. We need to employ our own version of Microsoft's campaign of the '90s, and simply remove any sign of Internet Explorer from their computers. I don't go in for the customising of Firefox to look exactly like Internet Explorer, partly because Firefox with Qute looks 100 times nicer than IE ever could. But this campaign could be very effective. It's simple: go onto your friend/flatmate/work colleague's computer and get rid of the desktop IE icon and any links from the start menu, quick-launch bar and so on. Install Firefox and make icons in exactly the same place as they'll simply go there to launch it anyway. But make sure you rename them to "Internet" - we don't want our dear friends getting confused, after all. This is something I've already tried out a couple of times and it seems pretty effective. If they're tech-savvy enough to notice that something is different, simply say: "Oh, it's a new version" - then show them some of the new features included. Hey, we're not saying they've been included by Microsoft!

This, I am convinced, is the only possible method for getting Firefox usage to account for even 20% of internet surfing. 50%? It's unrealistic, to be honest. But if it even gets to a fifth, that's enough users for web "developers" to stop simply building sites which will only operate in Internet Explorer. Losing around one in 20 customers, as at the moment, is bad enough; losing one in five would, quite simply, be unforgivable.