Let’s face it; Google Chrome is the apex browser currently out there. It is the ‘great white’ of sharks in its own rights. It is fast and first choice browser for anyone who is looking for speed while browsing. StatCounter places its market share of the browser market at 60%; tell me that is not a top of the food chain feeder! Well, the new Firefox Quantum wants to challenge that!
There was a time when Mozilla’s Firefox browser was the people’s favorite browser. It saved us from the insecurity, bloated, and sluggishness of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. However, the last five years have been anything but good for the browser.
Google Chrome first overtook Firefox as the most popular browser back in late 2011, and it kept growing in popularity to reach the 60% market share as of now. Hell, even Apple’s Safari browser seems to be doing better than Firefox; Mozilla has been seriously struggling to get noticed.
Nonetheless, no one can question the privacy and security provided by Firefox. It is the one mainstream browser that respects users’ online privacy and security, while Chrome has been accused of being a data mining machine for Google to better serve users targeted ads.
The Mozilla Firefox comeback
The guys over at Mozilla promises us that they sat down, brainstormed and have finally got right all the things they were doing wrong to make Chrome surpass Firefox. They also assure us that with the revamped Firefox Quantum, you (the user) will get unprecedented speeds faster than on Chrome, with less memory usage, but with a still great level of respect to privacy and security.
The Firefox Quantum has been in beta testing for two months now, and the 57th version of Firefox has these upgrades for the public use. Mozilla promises you that Firefox Quantum (Firefox 57) is twice as fast as the now two-months-old Firefox 52. It also consumes 30% less RAM that the memory hog Google Chrome.
Mozilla also says the new Firefox uses a new engine that will make switching between tabs smoother than ever before. The engine has been complemented by a new streamlined UI dubbed Photon that sort of resembles the mobile browsing experience.
SVP Mark Mayo explains: “We looked at real-world hardware to make Firefox look great on any display, and we made sure that Firefox looks and works like Firefox regardless of the device you’re using. Our designers created a system that scales to more than just current hardware but lets us expand in the future.”
The biggest task ahead for Mozilla is convincing users (who are already hooked to Google services) to substitute the Google-made browser, Chrome, which has been customized for churning out the search engine’s service optimally. Some users are hate that they love using Google so much; it’s undeniable, they got the most superior products from the mobile OS space, to online services.
The best line of attack Mozilla can have, one that will potentially get people to at least pay attention, is the alleged lack of respect of user privacy on the Chrome browser. Secondly, of course, their new Firefox Quantum browser must kick ass when it comes to speed and reliability. Then, and maybe then, does it stand a chance to take on, and defeat the people’s favorite Chrome browser.