Firefox's Steady Fall from Grace

Last week for the first time ever we learned that Google Chrome is beating Firefox in total number of users, a decline we see graphed out in today's Chart of the Day. It's not only that Firefox, made by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, lost its No. 2 spot just behind Internet Explorer to a sleek browser from a hot-shot and decidedly for-profit tech outfit like Google. The most trouble aspect for Firefox in the chart from StatCounter is that Chrome is clearly cutting into Firefox's market share in its rise to the top. Graphed below are the major web browsers' market shares over time since Chrome's launch in September 2008. Yes, Internet Explorer clearly is suffering the most since Chrome came on to the scene, but Firefox, the old tech-savvy-person's web browser, took a big hit too (and we have bit of a soft spot for that little fury fox gracing the browser's logo). Consider: at its peak in November 2009, 32.2 percent of web users used Firefox when only 4.7 percent used Chrome. Google has since increased its browser's market share nearly sixfold to 26.8 percent this month, while Firefox dips to 25.5 percent. Which maybe explains why Firefox still finds itself partnered with Google despite the competition -- Firefox has to hold onto all the revenue streams it can for the time being, including its reportedly $85 millon deal making Google the default search engine on Firefox. As Matt Yglesias at Slate notes, over 80 percent of Firefox's revenue came from that deal.

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