In Brief: Firefox's year-end Browser Share speaks of Serious Challenge

Microsoft's Web browser, Internet Explorer (IE), has lost 5% of its users in the last year. IE now has just over 85% of market share. Almost all this change can be attributed to an increase in users of Firefox, which now has just under 10%, but Safari also picked up a small but significant set of users each month throughout 2005. And this group may grow, as Microsoft decided to turn its back on supporting IE for Macs during the year gone.

Netscape is now clearly on the way out, with only about 1.5% of the market at year end. Opera has been almost static in market terms over the last year, with a half percent. The Opera browser's business model changed in 2005, when it abandoned its two tier approach of free-with-ads and premium without. This seems to have had no discernible impact as yet.

The data above was compiled from global traffic statistics from websites tracked by NetApplications' HitsLink.com.

Use Your Users’ Language - And Use It Well!
Source: Multilingual Search, 20 March 2010
 
British English is very different from (US ) American English and Australian English. It is so very important to use your users’ language.

Cyber-criminals don't need Technical Skills
Source: SFGate, 19 March 2010
 
The unexpected downside of great usability.

Advice on Designing Mobile Sites and Apps
Source: Poynter Online, 18 March 2010
 
Series of useful tips from a recent panel discussion.

Website Usability and Conversion
Source: UsabilityBlog, 17 March 2010
 
Useful presentation on the relationship between website usability and conversion.

Tips for Usability Testing with Children
Source: Econsultancy, 16 March 2010
 
Not even chocolate will help you here.

The Hygiene Factor of Usability
Source: inspireUX, 15 March 2010
 
Is it true that usability can no longer take us 'beyond lack of dissatisfaction'?

The Business Benefits of building Accessible websites
Source: Econsultancy, 13 March 2010
 
There’s a good business case for making your website more accessible to the UK’s disabled community.

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
Source: BBC, 12 March 2010
 
Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

The Net generation, Unplugged
Source: The Economist, 11 March 2010
 
Is it really helpful to talk about a new generation of "digital natives" who have grown up with the internet?

Rewriting the Human-Computer interaction Handbook
Source: CIOL, 10 March 2010
 
Indrani Medhi of Microsoft Research India has developed text-free user interfaces (UIs) to allow any illiterate or semi-literate person on first contact with a computer, to proceed with minimal or no assistance.