Mozilla has a reputation for updating their browser on a fairly regular basis. I often feel that every time I use the browser it requires some kind of update. But this does not stop me from using their product as it is 1,000 times better than anything Microsoft has released in the form of Internet Explorer. Until very recently Explorer was the browser of choice for nearly 50% of all internet users. It is no surprise that it was the target of numerous viruses and attacks.  As people become more technologically savvy and understand the benefits that other browsers provide over Explorer the amount of users that choose alternative browsers is increasing daily. It is fair to say that most browsers are potential targets for viruses and malware as IE is becoming less and less common. This requires constant updates and improvements to boost the security and integrity of the applications. Mozilla has updates on an annoyingly consistent basis and seem to have their security issues under control.

This is the first time in ten years that Microsoft was not commanding 50% of the browser market share.

As more Internet Explorer users switch to other browsers, companies like Mozilla must make sure that their products are ready to provide users with the best functionality possible. There is nothing worse than losing clients to your competitors because your product is lacking.

A historic day was just passed, where the amount of people browsing the web on Internet Explorer dropped below the 50% mark. This is the first time in ten years that Microsoft was not commanding 50% of the browser market share. This is good news for companies like Mozilla and Google. For the first time in years there is a growing demand for a browser that is more secure, user friendly, and simply works better than the Explorer we are all so familiar with.

To help promote the browser and attract new users, Mozilla has released Firefox 8.0. There are a number of improvements that make the browser easier to install or upgrade to from an existing version of Firefox. The list is quite long, but here are a few of the more important changes.

• Add-ons installed by third party programs are now disabled by default. This is a huge improvement as many people had add-ons that were installed by programs without their knowledge. Now this is no longer an issue for less savvy Firefox users.
• Jumping on the “fresh content” band wagon, a Twitter search bar is now included where the familiar Google search bar is located. Twitter is an excellent source for current events and ongoing news stories, for those of you who did not know. This is one of my favorite additions.
• They don’t go into much detail about this, but they have apparently fixed some stability and security issues. Just making the browser a better overall piece of software.
• HTML5 is the wave of the future, in anticipation to the increased popularity they have added support for HTML5 context menus.
• When upgrading from an earlier version of the browser a one time pop-up menu will be displayed asking what add-ons you would like to remove or carry over to the new version of Firefox. Makes the installation a breeze, and you are no longer required to go track down your favorite add-ons.
• Tabs will not be loaded immediately after a crash as they did in the past. Firefox requires the user to request the tabs to be reloaded individually. This should help with the frustrating problem of Firefox crashing, and then upon re-opening the program, trying to load the pages that caused the original crash.

The changes are welcome and couldn’t come at a better time. More and more users are running away from Internet Explorer by the day. Firefox and Chrome are poised to take these users from Explorer. As long as Mozilla can continue to produce quality updates and improvements that users actually want and need, they could potentially overtake Microsoft as the dominate force in the browser market. I love my Firefox and am rooting for them. Show your support by downloading Firefox 8.0 today.

http://www.mozilla.org/firefox/