Just wondering what has caused Firefox' decline over the last few years? I've used Friefox now for probably around 10 years and I've never had a problem with it, and still love it to this day, but a lot of people now use Chrome, and it seems more less tech savy people prefer chrome too, I remember when Chrome first came out and my geek friends started making the move, I tried it, and honestly, I hated it, I've got Firefox set up how I like, my main toolbar set out how I like with just a handful of buttons (back, foward, refresh etc) web dev toolbar, no script, ad block, colorzilla and measureit, and in comparison, Chome just seemed too 'basic', too minified for my liking, and even now when I open Chrome to check new site I've developed works fine in the browser, I still don't like it...

 

But what made the majority of internet users switch over to it, I've just been looking at the latest stats over on W3, and Chrome has 44.5% of the market share, and Firefox is down in 3rd place with just 14.2%, its almost as though its become the IE from 10 years ago in browser use statistics!

The build-in web browsers in most handheld devices are webkit browsers. So in the stats which group browsers by engine (Webkit Gecko etc.) most mobile users will count as webkit users which is the same as Chromes/Safaris browser engine.

As People like to use the same software on all their devices and it's easier to change default browser on a PC than on a phone some users might have changed to a webkit browser on their desktops/laptops (just a guess)

Edited June 16, 201511 yr by Nillervision

I like both for browsing, but for developing Chome's dev tools are by far the most advanced so I mostly stick to that when I'm developing. They're both pretty much equal when it comes to what extras you can install.

It because of promotion. Chrome full of great names - Paul Irish, Addy Osmani, lots of video, books and ads. That's all. And in Chrome its pretty easy to grab the scripts, pics and styles:)

For things like localStorage and responsive layout I agree. But for the most part I find the Firebug add-on for Firefox much easier.

 

Sorry, but there's a whole heap of performance metrics and other tools that you get from the chrome dev tools that you just cannot get from firebug. They are both equally easy to use imo, clearly the one you use most of the time will feel most familiar, that doesn't make it better. Have a look at some of the tutorials and articles that Paul Irish has written, he covers this stuff in detail.

 

@@fleur I doubt that any non-dev has ever heard of Paul Irish or Addy Osamni so that's not really making any significant impact on Chrome's popularity.

Edited June 17, 201511 yr by rbrtsmith

To be honest, I keep meaning to do this but then something else crops up...I've read about 60 pages of the You Don't Know JS book this morning for example on the back of purchasing it after reading glowing reviews of it in another thread.

 

I could quite easily do full-time hours on just learning! One day, I'll 'know it all' I'm sure :/

 

I've just purchased the first three myself. Haven't got around to reading anything yet, too busy, but looking forward to the first chance I get

 

 

 

One day, I'll 'know it all' I'm sure :/

 

We can wish!

To be honest, I keep meaning to do this but then something else crops up...I've read about 60 pages of the You Don't Know JS book this morning for example on the back of purchasing it after reading glowing reviews of it in another thread.

 

I could quite easily do full-time hours on just learning! One day, I'll 'know it all' I'm sure :/

 

I know the feeling, there's so much I wanna learn. I think we could easily just do learning full time, and then we still wouldn't touch everything. It's kinda fun, but at times can feel frustrating and overhwelming too. But we can take light from the fact that everybody will feel this way, even the experts

 

I know the feeling, there's so much I wanna learn. I think we could easily just do learning full time, and then we still wouldn't touch everything. It's kinda fun, but at times can feel frustrating and overhwelming too. But we can take light from the fact that everybody will feel this way, even the experts

 

Same! I often tell myself to write a list of everything I want to learn. Then the next week, I learn of something new or someone mentions a new bit of kit that I've never heard of and my list changes. It is overwhelming and I wish sometimes I could pick something to learn and just do only that.

 

Same! I often tell myself to write a list of everything I want to learn. Then the next week, I learn of something new or someone mentions a new bit of kit that I've never heard of and my list changes. It is overwhelming and I wish sometimes I could pick something to learn and just do only that.

 

I think it's important to choose what we learn wisely. for me it's spending most of my time learning fundamentals rather than frameworks like the ones found JS. I've spent 000's of hours learning vanilla js but barely any time learning any of the frameworks - I do plan to learn React and am learning Node, but It's dangerous to spend a lot of time on a framework that might be obsolete in a short time without spending significant time working with the language it's built upon. I tend to choose what frameworks or tools to learn based on what the big name devs are talking about, if a number of them recommend one I'll learn it. Hence I am choosing to learn React over the others. Just don't have the time to learn them all, so we gotta make the best of the situation.

Edited June 17, 201511 yr by rbrtsmith

I totally agree with this. I actually find some frameworks can be used without really understanding them anyway...this is why jQuery is so popular in my opinion.

 

I have the same attitude with server-side languages; for example I think PHP should be learned before WordPress, but lots of people disagree I'm sure.

 

I don't disagree

It's marketing. Google have thrown money hand over fist at Chrome, whereas Firefox is mainly reliant on word-of-mouth.

Chrome happened

I personally like chrome. when i start working as front-end developer my senior told me to use firefox because it easy and it has a lots of addons most important firebug. but 32.0 and later versions of firefox starts hanging and i kinda stuck then i moved to opera. i really like the discover option in opera you know it just keep you update what happening outside.

Well i think Google has promoted its services so many times that's why Chorme is the best browser.

I absolutely agree with that statement. In addition I'll tell that Chrome uses more memory than Firefox for relatively fresh starts when multiple tabs are opened.

Edited April 25, 201610 yr by VerdinaNET

Google is adding new extensions and addons to improve their browser, the biggest reason for chrome to become the best browser in 2016 is because chrome has google to back it up. And Firefox is constantly losing market because the users are switching to chrome.

There is a reason chromebooks and chrome browser are popular, as google done their research and understood the large majority of people that use the Internet and use computers, prefer simple devices/browser with less options.