Recently Opera’s market share increased from 0.87% to 0.99%, when I was discussing about it with a group of nerds (I really like Opera Browser and I’m always glad to see their progress 
), the nameless mental giant came and stated: “with only 1 percent of share Opera has no importance at all!“.
Dude… I wish you would know the number of all internet users at first!
Below you can see a chart that shows current Browser Market Share (provided by Net Applications). This is nice, but you can say you have seen similar ones coming in news many times before, so that’s nothing special. Ok, but in general all these charts have a little disadvantage - they don’t feed your imagination. So people are starting to think that Opera has only few users, and of course no one uses other browsers like Konqueror, K-Meleon, or any other. Fortunately, we possess some info about global internet usage…
According to these numbers there are already around 1,244,449,601 people connected to the web (yes I know it looks amazingly, cannot see it in stats of my sites ) - let’s calculate how many of them use respective browsers:
- IE (around 969,052,904, one another chance to say “I hate Bill Gates!”)
- Firefox (around 184,800,766, thanks to Google & their affiliates?)
- Safari (around 62,844,705 - say hello to all users of Mac)
- Opera (around 12,320,051)
- Netscape (around 7,964,477)
Now you’ve got to know that Opera’s 1% is THAT much, and why social bookmarking version of Netscape.com was a success.
November 15th, 2007 #
Well said. These percentages can often be misleading.
Daniel
Opera Software
November 15th, 2007 #
Hello Daniel, I’m glad to see you there.
Yes they may be misleading, as well as total number of all internet users is only an estimation. But let’s say being “around the truth” is enough to get the ball rolling (especially if there’s no way to collect better data)
November 15th, 2007 #
I suppose most opera users are on Apple computers.
This means they have more money than sense.
In my book that makes them the most important user group of all
78% IE is shocking, I thought it would have been a lot lower than that by now…. The behaviour of MS regarding IE / standards was one of the worst things that ever happened to the Internet and they should never be forgiven for it….
November 15th, 2007 #
Then this is the high time for us to make something for Opera Community. I think we can start with Opera girls. What do you think?
Everything is already covered at opera.com. I have no other ideas, srsly…
November 16th, 2007 #
Opera is in a completely different league altogether. When I first started using the internet (via dialup) I tried many different browsers. IE was featureless and bland, Netscape was primitive and Firefox was unheard of. Opera was like a leap into the future and still is.
The only reason I’m on Firefox is the number of addons available and also because I’ve gotten too used to it.
And thanks for not using Alexa statistics.
November 16th, 2007 #
Opera Browser is better than FF - for e.g. when we talk about speed of work, or memory usage. Surely this is the best choice for common user that doesn’t need any browser extensions!
Also the way that FF wastes memory of my PC makes me sick every time I open more than 5-6 tabs…
November 16th, 2007 #
think we can start with Opera girls.
What about these girls?
Daniel
Opera Software
November 16th, 2007 #
Daniel, forget the girls! What about the guys?
http://my.opera.com/Ilya%20Shpan%27kov/albums/showpic.dml?album=408050&picture=5754941
It is good to see you back Bart. Here in the UK things seem to have taken a turn for the best, on some of my sites IE use has dwindled to below 60% and IE6 is down to around 20% use on most sites.
I think that Opera is a pretty good browser. It has by far the best JavaScript debugger of any browser. It actually lets you debug you JS in the browser in real time! Saying that, I don’t think that their Javascript is as good as it could be. The only real problems I have with Opera are that it doesn’t support units of measurement correctly (em, ex etc), it has a few issues with margin and padding and it strugles with dynamic loading of JS.
Even though IE is by far the worst infliction on the bank balances of all good web developers, IE does have some good points: It has the best image rendering, it has best support for XML (data islands, XSL etc.) and its JavaScript engine is much faster than Firefox. Its just a shame Microsfot focused on all the stuff thats not important, but couldnt get the basics right.
Safari in my oppinion is the best browser for getting the basics right, but is beat hands down by Konqueror for CSS support. Firefox has to beat them all though, in part due its excellent construction, on top of which we build cool plugins
In the Microsoft arena, I have good news for you. Another chapter in the fallof Microsoft has been written with the flop of Vista in Japan. Sales of the new Mac OS are three times that of Windows Vista.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/mac/news/index.cfm?newsid=19672
http://bcnranking.jp/sys_imgs/news/2007110810393065261.gif
November 25th, 2007 #
Wow, that was a great post…
It’s always interesting to find out what statistics actually mean, especially when it’s on a subject like this.
It’s also suprising just how many people still use IE. I suppose with it being the only browser available at schools, businesses and workplaces, etc… it would get the most use. It seems the commercial world is not ready to rely on Open Source yet.
November 25th, 2007 #
I’ll switch to Opera when it has anywhere near the amount of plugins as FF. Until then, I’m gonna rock out with my Fox out.
November 25th, 2007 #
Internet explorer is probably so widely used because the average joe doesn’t need or want the multiple extensions and functionality of firefox or opera when they are straight away given the device that lets them check out ebay or amazon and the kind of simple things that most people do. When it comes down to it, a web browser is a web browser in most people’s minds. Although as a geek i will always prefer firefox
November 25th, 2007 #
If Firefox doesn’t get the ’script error’ thing fixed soon I’m dumping it.
November 27th, 2007 #
Anyway I’m FireFox user here. Anyway I seldom use IE if some of the websites require me to use it.
November 27th, 2007 #
The thing that explains the large increase in Opera is the nintendo wii. 12 mil sold most have web browser. The main reason why i use ff insted of Opera is Opera is proprietary and non open source is lame!!
December 3rd, 2007 #
Firefox is an amazing browser that will only continue to grow in popularity for years to come. What surprises me most about it is how it’s becoming more positively viewed and acceptable in the corporate environment. If businesses were to start adopting Firefox en masse you would surely see its numbers rise and IE’s decline sharply.
December 7th, 2007 #
@ Daniel: You need more girls for your marketing!
@ David: Thanks for a comprehensive comment, gimme more. IE does have some good points - it sounds like a blasphemy against Open Source
@ I’m content: You’re right - it’s unbelievable how many people don’t know how to use a computer - they only learn how to use Microsoft’s products. That’s not ok, especially if fighting against wrong habits is pretty challenging.
@ Zeno: Sadly, they’re not planning any plugins. That actually means that if you want to use extensions, you need Firefox. At least you’re forced to use two browsers.
@ benny boy: Good point. I think I can add that many people still think that Opera is an adware program. There also may be a problem.
@ Mythy: Which one do you mean?
@ MerDuriaN: You are pretty charitable. If some websites require me to use IE I simply don’t use that websites. Yes, sometimes it hurts…
@ Wii user: 0,12% increase should be around 14,933,395 users. Opera’s user agent at Wii shows Opera/9.30 (Nintendo Wii;U; ; 2047-7; en), so probably you’re right - users of Wii may be a large part of it.
@ Jon Holato: I hope so!
December 10th, 2007 #
The author isn’t English speaking. It’s obvious by the way he writes. The article sounds like a caveman wrote it. Yes, that 1% number is a lot of people but you can’t take that number alone, it’s not important. The important number IS the percentage in relation to others.
So the statement “with 1% Opera has no importance at all” is VERY true.
Trust me, no company is ever going to be happy with a 1% market share. That is a FAILED business in all respects. No matter how you look at the numbers.
December 10th, 2007 #
Wakey wakey Dan, he’s Polish…. self taught English… I think he does very well, can you blog in Polish???
December 10th, 2007 #
@ Dan Reynolds - I’m failing to comprehend just how the author’s ability to write in the English language is relevant to the browser market share study from Net Applications. So far, my hypothesis is zero. I’ll bet you 20-1 that you can’t write as well in his language as he can in yours, so save your linguistic tirade for somewhere else.
While you’re right that it is important to look at the percentage in relation to others, it is also important to consider the different sizes of the companies competing for browser market share. Although IE has dominated and will for the foreseeable future, Microsoft is a massive company and therefore has the expectation of maintaining such a dominant position. A company like Opera is much smaller and therefore has a more reasonable goal.
Twelve million + users isn’t too shabby for a company of Opera’s size. It’s nearly 1/5 of Safari and we know how tremendously successful Apple has been. Not to mention, Opera has made a significant name for itself in the mobile space with Opera Mini.
Thus, I happen to think it’s doing quite well and this study from Net Applications shows continued Opera success. You can criticize my argument if you want, but you certainly cannot attack my English.
December 10th, 2007 #
Dan Reynolds Says:
“The author isn’t English speaking. It’s obvious by the way he writes. The article sounds like a caveman wrote it.”
For a non-native speaker I reckon he does a good job of expressing himself in English, and for what it’s worth your writing is rather stilted and clumsy.
December 10th, 2007 #
People make fun of language in an argument only when they are losing.
December 11th, 2007 #
@ Dan Reynolds: A caveman? No, please… not that! Anything but that! Frankly speaking - Opera Desktop revenue for the first quarter of 2007 is 3 million dollars. And if you really think it is a failed business - you’re an idiot.
@ Jez, Jon, Matt, Marc: Thanks for reassurance. I am embarrassed a little bit
December 20th, 2007 #
[...] ki ie 1.sırada ama bunun nedenlerini uzun uzun yazmayacağım malum siz de az çok bilirsiniz. burada dünya üzerinde kullanıcıların internet tarayıcılarını kullanma oranları verilmiş. [...]
December 21st, 2007 #
beatiful ms ie 7
December 22nd, 2007 #
firefox is my main man…
December 23rd, 2007 #
Thanks for your comments guys. I am really starting to think that I should produce more posts like this in future
December 27th, 2007 #
I think there were some very good points made, and a few terrible ones, i.e.: Dan’s comment about the author’s English. Opera is a great browser, definitely preferable to any MS browser, that’s for certain. It does have it down points though(as most of the browsers do). It has some poor CSS implementation, and it’s javascript isn’t perfect, but it does render the js faster than any other browser.
All in all, I think FF is the best browser out there by far in terms of overall ability and performance, and as a web developer myself, I’d really like to see more people using FF, Netscape and Opera.
Most of us have one thing in common, which is we hate IE. All we can do is spread the greater knowledge to our friends and family, even by upgrading their browsers ourselves. Everyone I know who I’ve transferred over to FF will never go back to IE.
December 29th, 2007 #
That’s right. When you simply cannot buy a computer without Windows installed on it, all we can do is spreading the word. The world’s greatest marketing from Redmond versus a bunch of computer geeks. This is nice isn’t it?
December 30th, 2007 #
[...] Şu an itibari ile dünyadaki tarayıcı kullanım oranları alttaki resimde görünüyor. (Kaynak) [...]
January 1st, 2008 #
I love opera… It has never crashed on me… SUPER fast browsing.. and………it speaks
it read this whole page for me hahaha!!
January 1st, 2008 #
haha, that is funny, actually. Hey, I’m a FF man, but as long as you’re using something decent that’s not IE, then it’s all good
January 3rd, 2008 #
Netscape Navigator is dead
January 3rd, 2008 #
Is it? I wasn’t aware. I rather like it since FF is built from it, I find them very similar. PS - nice smiley at the bottom of the page
January 8th, 2008 #
@ Grallis: I like your approach.
@ sibvaleo: [*]
@ Igor: Lucky you. My newest-stable installation (Opera for Linux) crushes very often, also there is an unsolved problem with Flash. Firefox, that has MAJOR problems in memory usage, became my default browser none the less.
January 8th, 2008 #
@ Florchakh
Yea… FireFox does use up alot of memory!!! But i dunno… opera has not crashed on me by itself yet.. love it .. one of my favorite features is the speedial LOVE IT haha.. and umm yea flash works kinda weird in Opera but that doesnt really bother me.. still works
January 11th, 2008 #
Are you aware there is some kind of speedial for Firefox too? It’s the Fast Dial extension. Works pretty fine
January 21st, 2008 #
@ Florchakh
Yea i have the Fast Dial for Firefox installed aswell… honestly i think it sucks :/
January 21st, 2008 #
Alright then, you’ve got one another reason to use Opera Browser. Keep rocking with Opera and install it on any computer within your range. Our goal is common - we need that TERRIBLE program go down!
January 28th, 2008 #
[...] we have got to know how much Mozilla has already made on Firefox, and have the data of actual browsers popularity. Depending on 2005, statics of popularity showed that Mozilla was having something about 20% share [...]
March 26th, 2008 #
FireFox FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 29th, 2008 #
I prefer internet explorer. Im using it for a long time.
March 29th, 2008 #
What do you like better about it, Paulette?
April 1st, 2008 #
@George: Internet Explorer seem to work faster than any other browser designed for Windows machines. And this is not an exception - if you compare the speed of other Microsoft products to other software for Windows, you must notice that they all seem to work a little faster than others.
At that point, I think that developers at Microsoft have an access to the better documentation, and some tools that are not available for other companies producing software. That’s beyond any doubt - and I guess that Apple goes same way with Mac OS X.
April 1st, 2008 #
@Bart
Only problem is IE 7 is slower than IE 6 and FF3 is faster than FF2 and also faster than IE6
April 2nd, 2008 #
@bobjr777: Dude. I did not say that they have a “better team“. See, developers at Mozilla did a great job on improving the performance of Firefox 3, and you cannot say that on any releases of Internet Explorer
April 15th, 2008 #
That can’t be right…
*Checks*
if (browser == “Firefox”)
{
ieUsers += 5;
firefoxUsers ++;
}
I see the problem!
r33lix at gmail dot com (Replace the 3’s with e’s)
April 15th, 2008 #
My name was linking to “Payday Loans”… you need to update the TC plugin, I think the later version solves this problem.
April 15th, 2008 #
@Reelix:
@Jez: Actually, it IS the later version. But you know what - I am starting to think that GETTING RID of that Show Top Commentators plugin should solve the problem ideally. No loans, no ringtones, no porn, and no fags adding “thx great post bro!” below every post they see!
April 15th, 2008 #
Yup, I took it off my site for the same reason… don’t forget to add me to your blog roll if you do
April 19th, 2008 #
[...] Şu an itibari ile dünyadaki tarayıcı kullanım oranları alttaki resimde görünüyor. (Kaynak) [...]
May 1st, 2008 #
Why does everyone hate MS? Without them, the internet wouldn’t be near what it is today. I use IE because it ALWAYS works, no stupid ass errors like you get with FF.
Look at the number of MAC users… that’s how many people would be on the internet today if it wasn’t for Microsoft.
May 1st, 2008 #
“Look at the number of MAC users… that’s how many people would be on the internet today if it wasn’t for Microsoft.”
That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. It is like saying “look at the number of people eating mcdonalds. if it was not for mcdonalds, these people would starve!”
Besides Microsoft has little to do with development of internet. In fact, because they do not obey the standarts, they are ruining it now.
Sometimes I think that people get really harsh and sometimes unfair when they are attacking some microsoft products, but then I see 90 percent of commenters defending windows are really ignorant and have not seen anything outside the microsoft world.At the end I think MS deserves these attacks. I am not claiming th idea that “if you are ignorant you use windows” on the quite contrary “if you are only using windows, you usually get ignorant and can not obtain any info outside MS world”. If you are talking to some linux guy or apple guy(OK not good and appropriate expressions, let us use it this way), you usually see they know a lot about windows. But if you are talking to some MS guy, you see that they usually have no clue about what is going outside MSworld. At most they tried other products at most for a couple of days, but yet they amuse me when they try to defend MS by attacking other products.
microsoft is a monopoly, and it must be dealt the way that governments supporting free markets deal with monopolies in other sectors of market. But yet we do not see that, on the quite contrary, despite all these questionable things done by MS, it is usually backed up.
And a small note for Dan Reynolds: Yes I am not a native speaker, and yes my english is far from flawless:)
May 2nd, 2008 #
@Brad: “The Internet? We are not interested in it” - guess who said that thing. I can give you one hint - his first name is Bill. You say IE *always* works, and you know what - I agree with that point, just in case majority of websites that you browse should work properly in that browser. But see - the fact that you can use IE on a daily basis without getting any errors - it has nothing to do with Microsoft.
You can browse all the websites with Internet Explorer only because some people did a damn hard work on adjusting those websites to your favorite browser. If you read more about standards and how do the things work in web, you will clearly see that development of MS Internet Explorer *should*not*be* going that way, definitely. I won’t be replying to your second point because that guy below already did that - needless to say in that topic.
@cmfrtblynmb: Thanks for a comprehensive dude, I appreciate it a lot. If I can add something - every time I try to forget about the typical practices of Microsoft and all the crapware that company has produced so far (just to give a careful consideration to one of their new products without being a prejudiced buddy) I am always forced to regret it later. Even if some stuff looks fine in the beginning (Silverlight may be a good example), in the long run their *typical* way of doing business always turns out.
May 2nd, 2008 #
Hi Brad,
MS have a bad rep because they tried to kill Netscape, reducing the choice of browsers for users, and trying to use their browser to push their own services.
They fragmented standards on the internet making it extremely difficult to build sites that worked in both IE and other browser, despite being part of W3C, where they are supposed to be setting (and adhering to) these standards.
They try to force their users to use IE (you try and un-install it, or get to the windows update pages in other browsers) again, trying to keep other browsers out of the market, controlling their users blah blah blah.
On intranets they are even worse…
They have behaved pretty badly, but, thankfully all they have done is dig themselves into a large hole in terms of backward compatibility with all the rubbish they put out in the past.
On the issue of standards, their “Sharepoint” application still does not put out compliant code… that is how much MS care about their customers / accessiblity / the wider community.
MS is all about “locking you in”… making sure MS products only work well with other MS products… and that is what they tried to do to the internet… create an internet that was compatible with them… and to hell with the rest of us.
They deserve all the flak they get… and more.
May 4th, 2008 #
changed to FF years ago.
Great.
got lots of others to change too.
One thing, about a year ago(?) IE released a new version that makes text look a lot better.
How did they do that and why don’t the others do it?
Can’t be rocket science…
For new users of computers they could easily go for IE for that reason alone.
May 25th, 2008 #
@rocket_man: I guess that you mean IE7, but I can’t see any info about *fonts* in the list of significant changes coming in that version. However, I am about to say that different look of fonts should be related to browser configuration and fonts installed in your system - just compare the results you can get with browsershots.org, same pages on different browsers & systems may look very different.
May 31st, 2008 #
[...] the dark, Firefox is a Mozilla-made web browser that is completely customizable. Firefox is used by 15% of all internet users around the world. That may not seem like many people comparatively to the 78% [...]
May 31st, 2008 #
Im happy to be in the 15 % that use Firefox
June 1st, 2008 #
thanks Bart
Maybe I have versions wrong, what i am inerested in is what has MS done to make the difference between
this version http://api.browsershots.org/png/original/13/135f99f22aac44ebe10226fae0b51548.png
and this http://api.browsershots.org/png/original/8e/8ebe6ce94da4c0f6f94964f4e70d3b87.png
The font is Verdana in both cases, but the rendering is not the same - the later one is thicker and nicer to look at. Firefox has not followed suit giivng IE an advantage, because to users it looks better making them think IE ( yuk) is a better browser.
What is it that IE is doing to make the font look better on the screen when up to the version that included this font enhancement, fonts were fonts, whichever browser. ??
June 2nd, 2008 #
@rocket_man: You’re welcome. I think I know what do you mean - the thing is called font smoothing. Although I didn’t find any official info for IE7 (except this one - official blog of Internet Explorer), there is a number of places where you can read about that technology.
it clearly proves your suspicions, the way IE7 displays fonts is different. Here’s a relevant quote I found on this website:
July 13th, 2008 #
[...] Florchakh [...]