Is firefox's future looking bleek?

Over time I have faithfully installed virtually every version of the open-source browser and, while I cut and modified between email clients, web-editors and word processors, I mostly stayed loyal to Firefox. That was till about a quarter gone. That was when I first installed Google's Chrome browser as more than a test version. Till then I had always had a copy of Chrome to hand, but just for testing purposes, and never as my daily browser. Nevertheless Firefox ( I forget which version ) was playing up and consistently crashing, so I chose to give Chrome a genuine chance. Initially I abhorred Chrome.

It felt sporadic, empty and lacking in features. It looked half finished. Continuously , Chrome gets to you. Rather than empty spaces you start to find out how much screen space you have. Rather than feeling lacking in features you wonder at the power concealed under the thin interface. Rather than feeling like something not really finished you begin to see the technique in obvious craziness. Switching back to Firefox could be a shock. For one Firefox feels slow. Even without too many extensions loaded, Firefox start up time can be amazingly maddening. Then there are all those toolbars. My opinion is that Mozilla is continuously reducing the quantity of toolbars and cutting down on excess buttons, but when you have experienced Chrome, even Firefox's best attempts at being streamlined feel ham-fisted and crowded. There had been a point when Firefox felt like a lungful of unpolluted air when compared to Web Explorer.

Now it is Chrome that makes Firefox feel dated and swollen. Not quite good enough Obviously the Mozilla Foundation knows that a rising number of previous fans are now making the switch across to Chrome, and that while Firefox's share of the market is dropping Chrome's is climbing. The answer from the foundation has been to boost development. This week the foundation released Firefox five, the 1st release in its "rapid release" plan. The plan is to roll out new versions of the browser each couple of months, terminating by year-end in the releasing of at least Firefox seven. It sounds a bit like a nice idea, and it mimics Chrome's rapid-fire release schedule, there is, however, an issue. Releasing a major release ( version 5.0 ) of a browser advocates big changes from prior releases. Sadly , Firefox 5.0 is nothing more than a ( minor ) upgrade to Firefox 4.0. There are some changes, like support for CSS animations and such like but nothing much on the surface that roars out "new version". What's the point of releasing a upgraded version of Firefox that is a change in name? There had been a point in time when a new release of Firefox was a major event. Can any person remember when the Firefox community essentially spent cash on print advertising to mark new major releases? On this occassion, the common thread from users round the web was : "There's a more recent version of Firefox? I do not even remember seeing a beta version." Manifestly , huge launch campaigns don't always guarantee great new features. Nonetheless releases went out with little fanfare don't instil confidence either. To the Mozilla Foundation's credit there are sufficient changes under the hood of Firefox 5.0 to to make it a fair deal quicker than prior versions, but is it enough to stop the tide of users moving away? Unfortunately, I don't believe it. Once Firefox was the trend setter in the browser market. Now that title is held by Chrome, which is allegedly matchless currently.

Almost every major, minor and immaterial release of Chrome has enough goodies under the hood to keep even us jaded geeks contented.

It's troublesome for any person to keep up. Firefox is going to work a lot tougher to keep its share of the market and do a far better job of promoting itself. Simply upping the version number is not sufficiently good.