Tiddly Gossip ...

[@TiddlyTweeter]

In 2017, between January & the end of October Firefox's browser share dropped from 15.4% to 12.1%.

https://www.w3schools.com/browsers/

Here on Tiddly Gossip we await the results of its "Armageddon" of November--to see whether that is reflected in its stats.

Pensive moments like this recollect the debacle over "The Saddest Music In The World" competition in which the outcome was initially ambiguous https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6S6TPVLuYw, though definitive later.

TiddlyAuntie
On Tiddly News 24/7

[Mark S.]

It's not precipitous. FF share has been steadily degrading at about 3 percent points per year while Chrome has been building at roughly the same rate. We would expect that in 4 or 5 years FF will be somewhere between Opera and Safari in usage.

Given the big G's track record, once they have the entire market cornered they'll probably sell it to a company that makes fishing tackle.

Mark

[@TiddlyTweeter]

What interests editors at Tiddly Gossip is whether FF expedited a stab-myself-in-the-foot route as part of a bend-over manoeuvre.

The decline of good stuff in the face of a mega onslaught that DEFINES the territory seems inevitable. But no one asserted boo to the goose.

The whole myth the net needs to be secured in a "Google Way" is exactly what may lead to the fishing tackle sale.

TiddlyAuntie

[Birthe C]

Please TiddlyAunty,

Your arguments sounds true to me, but please remember that we are not all fluent in the English language - I often have difficulties understanding your points. This time "boo to the goose" and "fishing tackle sale". Of course I imagine something, but have no clue if that was what you meant.

It is not only browsers going in this direction - everything is going in the same sad direction.

Birthe

[Mark S.]

The fishing tackle reference is my fault. I made it in the prior post. The big G famously sold their very popular SketchUp (after decimating competing CAD software) to a company that made, among other things, equipment for tracking fish.

-- Mark

[Birthe C]

Thank you, Mark

It was not about language after all. Knowledge is everything ;-).

Birthe

[@TiddlyTweeter]

Dear Birthe C

I have asked before that people write in their own language. :-) I have no addiction to English.

Especially for figurative speech I'd welcome other languages than English. I like working it out :-)

BTW, "Boo to the goose" just meant, in the context, being over-timid, unnecessarily subservient to the idea that Google's way ahead was the best or only one.

TiddlyAuntie

[TonyM]

Birthe,

Don't be too concerned, I am fluent in English, perhaps even above normal, yet tiddlytweeter and others love poetic and reference filled prose.

I am inclined to support this deviation from tech speak, for creative and community reasons, but often it is too much work for me to understand.

For those with English as a second language I expect it would be almost un-readable.

I would assume when serious communication is required. the unexplained references and poetry will be avoided.

I have totally given up on sheep (reference to previous sheep theme posts)

Regards

Tony

[Mark S.]

:-) I have no addiction to English.

It's just aphasia going through (read it out loud).

-- Mark

[RichardWilliamSmith]

While we're telling gossip, I've heard that Google Chrome can't keep a secret. In fact, Google don't seem to be institutionally capable of producing software that isn't also spyware (viz https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/30/16719012/google-uk-class-action-iphone-safari-cookies). Don't trust companies who have the word 'evil' in their motto, I guess. 

Mozilla is a non-profit corporation who have done more than most to safeguard a free and open internet and they deserve our support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Foundation

I personally look forward to playing whatever small role I can in the resurgence of Firefox. The Quantum engine (https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2017/11/14/introducing-firefox-quantum/) really is *much* faster than the old one. It's faster than Chrome and much better suited to the privacy-aware environment that we're in. I think we may well see yet another reversal of fortunes in the browser wars.

[PMario]

On Thursday, November 30, 2017 at 2:50:23 PM UTC+1, @TiddlyTweeter wrote:

In 2017, between January & the end of October Firefox's browser share dropped from 15.4% to 12.1%.

There is a good article about: Why it's difficult for FF to get back market share:

https://amosbbatto.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/mozilla-market-share/

have fun!

mario

[RichardWilliamSmith]

Traditionally, the internet has specialised in difficult things ;-)

From your link:

"To maintain its influence over the development of the web, the Mozilla Foundation will need the support of millions of passionate users who not only appreciate the technical benefits of its software, but also the Foundation’s advocacy for their rights on the internet."

At it's heart, Chrome was always a cynical ploy to insinuate Google's services into the fabric of the web and, even though we knew it, we accepted it because it was so shiny and fast. I'm still in awe of what Google have been able to achieve as a company, especially what they did for the early web, but most reasonable people can see it's gone too far at this point. They literally own a slice through the whole stack, from fibre-connections to javascript frameworks. The temptation to start being evil must be quite strong at this point.

They, along with Apple, have Firefox essentially locked out of the mobile space at the moment, though interestingly the article also points out that:

"Samsung, LG and Alibaba offer their own web browsers for mobile devices, but they are based on WebKit, not Mozilla’s Gecko engine"

These companies, and others, might well reconsider their options now that that the best choice on many metrics is Quantum. We'll see. Even if Firefox remains locked out of the growing mobile sector, there's no reason not to expect them to increase their share on the desktop over the next 12 months.

Regards,

Richard