Google Chrome becomes UK's second most popular web browser

Google's Chrome is Britain's second most popular browser, a sign of the internet giant's increasing grip on the UK search market.Three years after launch, Chrome last month captured 22% of UK users and marginally overtook Mozilla's Firefox browser, according to the web metrics firm Statcounter. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is losing market share to Chrome but remains the most popular browser for UK users with 45% – although it has a head start by being pre-installed on almost all computers sold in Britain. Apple's Safari is UK number four, with a 9% share.

Google's rise in the browser market is in part down to nationwide advertising – Chrome is the first Google product advertised on British TV – but is largely attributed to its speed.

Lars Bak, the Google engineer responsible for Chrome, said the goal had never been to attract a huge user base, but to energise a dormant browser market: "Speed is a fundamental part of it, but it's also about the minimal design and the way it handles security. If you as a user try [to load] a webpage and it feels snappy, it's really hard to go back [to another browser]. It has shown that people spend more time interacting with the web."

Unlike most of Google's talent based at its Mountain View headquarters in California, Bak works from a converted farmhouse in the Danish countryside two hours from Copenhagen. He has become obsessed with speed, and despite numerous tests that show Chrome outstrips all rivals, he thinks it could be much faster. "You should never be happy with [existing] speed," he said. "Of course it gets harder to make substantial gains, but it's all healthy competition. From the beginning we wanted everybody to be fast, and now all browsers are fast. I'm absolutely flabbergasted [by the improvements made by rival browsers]."

Chrome is the number three worldwide, with a 20.65% market share according to Statcounter. But analysts expect it to edge ahead of Firefox, which has dipped steadily since January. Microsoft's Internet Explorer has also fallen heavily, to 43%, with warnings about security vulnerabilities.

Google last month announced its Chromebook laptop, based on its browser and seen as another ambitious attack on Microsoft; it will be made by Samsung and Acer, companies that previously made computers running Microsoft's software.

Unlike most computers, the Chromebook has almost no capacity to store and hosts most data online in a "cloud". Bak said: "The Chromebook is really important because it tries to simplify the machine – it is basically no maintenance, which means you can cut the price. If all you are doing is using a browser it's a fantastic tool."

Mozilla and Firefox 5: Upgrade or Die!

In shifting gears to a faster pace of development and release, Mozilla has opted to abandon security support for Firefox 4 immediately upon the release of version 5, which came out this week. This could be a risky move, since many users neglect to update their browsers immediately for various reasons, despite the pop-up reminders Firefox periodically displays.

Mozilla released Firefox 5 earlier this week, just three months after rolling out Firefox 4 and a month after it released version 5 in beta.Version 5 has "more than 1,000 improvements," which include the "Do Not Track" privacy feature and support for the CSS Animations standard, among other things.In its rush to make the Web better, however, Mozilla is taking criticism for not making it especially clear to users that it would stop issuing vulnerability patches for Firefox 4.


That has given rise to concerns that users who delay updating for various reasons may not realize they'll lack protection against the latest malware."Firefox 5 is the security update for Firefox 4, and we do not plan to release a Firefox 4.0.2," Johnathan Nightingale, the Mozilla Foundation's director of Firefox engineering, told TechNewsWorld.


Should Mozilla have more forcefully notified Firefox 4 users that they have to upgrade to version 5? Should it include automatic updates instead of just sending users a pop-up window reminding them to update their browsers?


Fear and Loathing in the Browser Update World


The rapid-fire release of browser updates -- Mozilla aims to issue a new version every three months -- may leave some users bewildered and others bothered.One issue some users have pointed out is that Firefox add-ons and plug-ins aren't updated in sync with the release of new versions of the browser.That might leave users in a quandary: Lose your plug-ins or lose your security.


"Users who don't wish to update are exposing themselves to potential security risks," James Reid, manager of threat research at Webroot, told ."On the other hand, upgrading now may create issues with existing plug-ins, which may not immediately be supported in Firefox 5.0," Reid said.


Incompatibility between users' Firefox add-ons and version 5 of the browser could be one of the main reasons they may delay upgrading their browsers, suggested Francis Brown, managing partner at Stach & Liu.Add-ons are one of the key reasons for Firefox's popularity.


In retrospect, Mozilla could perhaps have been more explicit about dropping security support for Firefox 4, Brown remarked. For example, it could have included a note about terminating security support for version 4 in the notification prompt to upgrade to Firefox 5, he said.


Gotta Go With the Update Flow


The need for online security may outweigh users' reasons for not upgrading their browsers."This isn't like Microsoft Office or an operating system, where it makes sense to stay with an earlier version for compatibility or cost reasons," Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat, told TechNewsWorld.


"You get Mozilla's software for free, and consumers should know by now that, just like they do for Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) Acrobat or Flash, they should update their browser whenever an update is available," McGregor said.


"As a manager of threat research, I consider the benefits of patching known browser vulnerabilities more important than many of the inconveniences that may come along with early adoption," Webroot's Reid affirmed.


Should We Get Updates on Autopilot?


Google automatically updates its Chrome browser in the background, so it's always protected against the latest threats, a practice that perhaps paid off when it survived the Pwn2Own 2011 competition unscathed earlier this year.Opinion is divided on whether other browser vendors should follow Google's lead.


"For the average user, I recommend automatic updating of their browser, the way Chrome does, as many users simply ignore updates otherwise," Webroot's Reid stated.Automatic updates would be a good thing because browsers are a security feature, In-Stat's McGregor said.


However, automatic updating of the Firefox browser will reduce its appeal."One of the best things about Firefox is the degree of control and customization that users have over the browser," Brown pointed out.


"I think giving the end user the option to install updates now or wait until a more convenient time to do so is definitely the right approach," Brown explained.


The Paradox of Speed and Security


The release cycle for new versions of browsers has been drastically shortened as the players seek to trump each other's products with newer and better ones.That bumped-up product cycle has both advantages and disadvantages."Security is typically the first area to be sacrificed when developers are under increased pressure to get out new software releases," Stach & Liu's Brown pointed out.


"The industry will need to be vigilant in scrutinizing the security of new browser releases," Brown warned.On the other hand, hackers are ramping up their assaults and coming up with inventive new attacks, so browsers whose vendors lag in issuing an update pose a security risk.


"Hopefully, this rapid release approach will also result in the faster patching of security vulnerabilities," Brown remarked.That's exactly what Mozilla thinks."By releasing small, focused updates more often, we are able to deliver improved security and stability even as we introduce new features, which is better for our users, and for the Web," Mozilla's Nightingale said.


"If a serious security issue is found between regularly scheduled Firefox updates, we will release an interim update quickly, as we always have," Nightingale stated.





source:technewsworld

Firefox Strategy is a Recipe for Failure

Firefox 5 was launched as planned and on schedule this week--and also marked the "end of life" for support of Firefox 4. Mozilla's rapid release schedule, and the strategy to essentially make each new release a requirement to continue support paint Firefox into a corner where only loyal hobbyists can reliably use the browser.

Were you hoping for a patch or update to address the security concerns with WebGL in Firefox? Well, if you are using Firefox 4, don't hold your breath. The "fix" for the WebGL issues in Firefox 4 is to upgrade to Firefox 5.

For consumers, it probably won't be a big deal. Firefox 5 is more like Firefox 4.1, or Firefox with some minor tweaks and updates. Compared with Firefox 4, Firefox 5 is the sort of update that many users would just automatically enable, and--if it weren't for the new version number--might barely notice. Internet Explorer gets a cumulative update patch every Patch Tuesday, and it automatically installs on PC.

For companies and organizations, though, it is another story. The lasting, tenacious, endurance of Internet Explorer 6 is a testament to how stubborn some IT departments can be about moving to a new version of a browser.

Organizations interested in Firefox 4 might not even be done deploying the browser, and now it is already obsolete. Does Mozilla expect IT admins to halt deployment of Firefox 4 and switch gears to implement Firefox 5? Does Mozilla think that IT departments need to pick up the pace and rush deployment of Firefox 5 so they can get some use out of it before it is rendered obsolete by Firefox 6 in August?

One reader, AgentF, commented on  about Mozilla's rapid release strategy to say, "One of the reasons I haven't fully adopted Chrome is because of the regularly scheduled major releases. It's hard trying to help out clients if they all have different versions of the software," adding, "The web doesn't drastically change every few months to warrant major releases."

Mozilla has shot Firefox in the foot. The result will be that Mozilla will continue to churn the market share of Firefox loyalists--Firefox 4 will plummet, and Firefox 5 will climb to the top...until Firefox 6. Rinse and repeat. Basically, the same percentage that use Firefox and switch from FF4 to FF5 will be the users likely to jump from FF5 to FF6.

The rest of the world--particularly companies--however, will shy away from the Mozilla browser because forcing users to upgrade every two months to keep up with the latest release just to maintain basic support and security updates is too much of a commitment.