Lessons from the Browser Wars: Are They Missing Something?

The Harvard Business School newsletter, Working Knowledge, recently published an interview. Lessons from the Browser Wars, with Harvard Business School professor Pai-Ling Yin, who co-authored a paper, "Economic and Technical Drivers of Technology Choice: Browsers." She and Timothy F. Bresnahan looked at the importance of technical progress versus economic forces in the diffusion of technologies by looking at what happen with web browsers. They found that the critical economic force was browser distribution with a complementary technology, personal computers (PCs). The essence of their thesis was econimic “distribution had a larger effect on the rate and direction of technical change than technical browser improvements…Widespread use of the Internet spurred rapid expansion of the PC market in the late 1990s.” They felt Microsoft won over Netscape because it captured all the new users entering the market.

Now they feel it is too late for new browsers such as Firefox because there is not a massive new user base and these new browsers will have the problem of convincing people to switch browsers rather than simply picking which brower should be their first one as Microsoft did when it won over Netscape.

Now these Harvard people are pretty smart to figure all this out. However, they also might be protected by their institutions from the problems facing many ordinary Internet users. When I faced the recurring problems of viruses, spyware and adware, the first thing the PC repair person told me to do was switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox as it is much better at controlling these problems. Firefox was free, easy to install, and so far has not kept out of any Internet activity I want to engage in. I also use Safari on my new Mac, The Mac was another switch I made in the face of the spyware, et al problem. The authors also mentioned Camino for the Mac which I have not used

The authors do say that Firefox only has a small percentage of the user base and these are mostly tech savvy users. Now I am not tech savvy – remember I got 6 out of 100 on the geek test. But I do listen to people who I think are tech savvy like my friend Peter Gloor who endorsed the PC repair person’s advice.

I also see people at meetings who I think are tech savvy using Firefox, not to mention many of the IBMers I see. Firefox seems to have a bit of a cult following, like Amazon did once long ago. But, and this seems big to me, it also addresses one of the major problems that non-institutional users face who do not have the protection of corporate firewalls, - spyware, adware, and viruses. I think the HBS people are overlooking this issue. They did say that if Microsoft feels that the security issues are getting too large, they could throw some of their big stash of money at solving the problem. It may be tto late then.

I should say that I have nothing against Microsoft and I continue to use many of their products. I also think that Sharepoint has gotten much better and plan to learn more about it, However, I think they may be missing something here.

Comments

[Andy Havens]

Firefox is also more "social." More hack-able, mod-able, mash-able. We're going around another curve where the ability of software to let you have your way with it (and to let you have other people's way with it, but in your way) is going to be a huge driver.

I have friends who have switched to Firefox after I give them the 15-second description of the allmighty "search engine box," and how they can add 100's of their own engines and, now, grind their own blended engine. I have others who have switched due to other, similar plug-ins and hacks that are available in Firefox, but not IE.

Bugs and viruses are unwanted, outside interference with your software. Hacks, mods and plugins are WANTED outside interference. Firefox is a much smarter porous membrane for which software gets in, based on users' choices. That's going to be key.

Will IE eventually be as hackable as Firefox? I don't know. It could happen. But I don't see "open" or "extensive" as being archetypal Microsoftian adjectives...

[Barb McDonald]

I am a Firefox devotee, mostly because my husband controls our computers, but I have to say it has been nice not to have to worry about the garbage that comes with IE. I have done a bit of reading (mostly on slashdot) and, if you read those tech-savvy folks, you'll find that IE IS the problem -- all of the bad stuff that works on IE and not on Firefox is because IE is crap -- it creates the holes that allow the problems in. M$ is such a behemoth that they can't fix problems without creating more whereas, since Firefox is opensource, anyone can fix a problem -- if they know how, anyway. But there are LOTS of folks who know how.

Anyway, that's my rant on this particular subject. I think word of mouth is going to move people outside of corps away from MS pretty fast.

[Bill Ives]

Andy and Barb - Thanks for your views. I largely agree with you. I try to take a neutral view on Microsoft and use their office sute. I am also looking more into the capabilities of Sharepoint. However, I think they are making a big mistake by not addressing the security issues on IE. I have enjyed using Firefox and Safari and have no problems gaining access to any site on the web through them nor have I had any performance issues. It is nice to not have the problems I got using IE.

[Barb McDonald]

Bill,
Thanks. My post sounded more vituperative upon re-reading it than I intended.

FYI... for $40 you can get a program that emulates MS Office on Linux. It's incredibly accurate and a heck of a lot cheaper.