Firefox is the new IE

Firefox is the new Internet Explorer and is fighting off Chrome, which is killing Firefox faster than Firefox replaced Internet Explorer.

There was a time when everyone used Microsoft Internet Explorer and hated it so much, it was called Internet Exploder. Microsoft was called the 900 pound gorilla for continually using their brute force to keep IE installed by default. At the time Firefox was the perfect replacement, faster, lighter, standards compliant, and plenty of add-ons when you want something extra. Web developers used Firefox to do everything until the last minute when they would perform a few quick tests in IE, curse, then add some special tricks to make the Web work in IE. IE was doomed.

Today Firefox is expanding faster than IE and Microsoft is forced to copy the good features of Firefox into IE.

There is just one problem. The 900 pound gorilla named Microsoft is replaced by the 1000 pound gorilla named Google. Google is tricking people into installing Google's Chrome Web browser by placing misleading links on the Google search page. Lots of people ask me why Firefox has changed on their computer and it is usually an accidental installation of Chrome.

Often they ask me why Firefox is broken because Chrome is so bad compared to Firefox. Ho hum. There was a time when you had to talk people into using Firefox despite some things being broken. The current Chrome is trash compared to Firefox but people are rushing headlong into Chrome like lemmings.

Google does not have the problem of trying to talk people into anything, Google just trample all over every computer because they are always there in the search page with a big button telling you to upgrade and few people read the fine print. Firefox usage will drop down to the level of Opera and other specialised Web browsers used only by those who require something special.

Now Web developers are stuck with two problems, Chrome is full of bugs requiring special code and tricks, just like IE, plus Google change Chrome ten times faster than Microsoft change IE, making Web developers work far harder to try to make Web pages compatible with Chrome. One company estimated they could save $100000 in development time by not supporting Internet Explorer. By extension, the same company would save a million dollars by not supporting Chrome.

The problems with Chrome take longer to find, compared to IE, because the IE problems are known and the solutions are known. Many CSS and Javascript libraries are prebuilt with adjustments for IE. I have not found any attempting to fix Chrome problems.

Today Firefox is the dominant Web browser, the way IE was a few years ago, and IE is fighting to catch up. Over the last few months Chrome burst into second place much like Firefox was a few years ago. By the end of 2012, Chrome will replace Firefox as the top dog and Firefox will be another IE scrabbling to catch up on whatever gimmicks Google dumps into Chrome.

You might like Chrome. I am one of the people who has to waste bucket loads of time trying to fix problems caused by Chrome, with some problems disappearing in one version only to surface again in the next. I am one of the people wasting time on thousands of extra keystrokes and mouse movements every day when stuck with Chrome. Chrome has already wasted $5000 of my time this year and IE has not wasted that much of my time for several years.