Browser wars – is it party time?

Mozilla will be releasing the new version of its browser – Firefox 3.0 sometime in June 2008. Mozilla is not leaving any stone unturned to make the launch of Firefox 3.0 a success.

• Mozilla wants all its users to download the new version on the very first day.
• Mozilla is encouraging folks to have download parties. None in India so far 🙁

So where does the browser war stand now? As of May 2008 the market share is as follows,

• Internet Explorer – 73.75%
• Firefox – 18.4% and will grow to 20% by July 2008
• Safari – 6.3%
• Opera – 0.7%

It is interesting to learn that 50% of ReadWriteWeb’s readers use Firefox. That lead me to check how the browser share was split on oneindia.in. In Jan 2006 about 4.5% were Firefox users and in June 2008 it has increased to 7.6%. I think it is safe to assume Internet Explorer rules in India. But then the other way to see this – if Firefox has 18.4% of the browser market share and on oneindia.in it is 7.6% – can we assume Firefox is not way too behind in India when compared to the rest of the world?

Recently the popular blog software – WordPress – held its 5th birthday party in San Francisco and urged users to host parties in their area. Opensource is taking ‘social networking’ or ‘social partying’ to the next level. Let us party 🙂