edited the heading of the question. I think most of us here are reasoning why more people are not using firefox (because it was the initial question), but none of that explains why it's actively losing marketshare.
I don't agree ideologically with Firefox management and am somewhat of a semi-conservative (and my previous posts might testify to that), I think Firefox browser is absolutely amazing! It's beautiful and it just feels good. It has awesome features like containers. It's better for privacy than any mainstream browser out there (even counting Brave here) and it has great integration between PC and Phone. It's open-source (unlike Chrome) and it supports a good chunk of extensions you would need.
This was about PC, but I believe even for Mobiles it looks great and it allows features like extensions (and I hear desktop extensions are coming to firefox android?), it's just a great ecosystem and it's available everywhere unlike most FOSS softwares.
So why is Firefox's market share dying?
I mean, I have a few ideas why it might be, maybe correct me I guess?
- Most people don't know how to use extensions well and how to use Firefox well. (Most of my friends in their 30's still live without ad blockers, so I don't think many are educated here)
- It's just not as fast as Chrome or Brave. I can't deny this, but despite of this, I find it's worthy.
- It's not the default.
- Many features which are Google specific aren't supported.
- Many websites are just not supporting firefox anymore (looking at you snapchat), but you would be right in saying this is the effect of Firefox losing it's market share not the cause (at least for now) and you would be right.
But what else?
I might take time (a lot of it) to get back at you, thanks for understanding.
occasionally I’ll find websites that don’t work 100% because they were coded primarily for chromium based browsers. FU Google
If it's only quality would be being foss, I would understand. But that's not case case. The main quality of firefox (I think) is that you have no chance for privacy whatsoever with other browsers. It's not just the current state of chrome, but from time to time google always does something to make chrome worse than before, and it's even expected because that is in their interest
I can relate to it, but practically privacy is the least my concern. Why should I be upset about a company abroad knowing my advertising data or history, it doesn't have any impact on my work
I can't say that I praise what they do. But when there is any practical advantage I cast aside privacy and go for it.
Data points get connected. Ads are served. For some people, that's enough of a privacy violation. The next step is selling your information to insurance companies.
Because they'll use against you what they have found out.
Advertising networks want to get you to buy things you don't need, or at places where you probably wouldn't want (higher price, garbage warranty process).
They are also used for deception campaigns*, which is made more efficient by showing you those ads that may have a better chance to catch your attention.
* an example is false political propaganda, which was youtube spreading in unskippable ads in my small country, before and while elections were going. It was a great success to them. multiple local channels were trying to block these with minimal success (channels have tools to filter ads their guess see), as somehow blocking by category or by uploader channel did not work, only blocking every single such video, which is ineffective because new ads from those scumbags still get shown.
Insurance companies may also change your rates when they find out something about you from data brokers, which includes diseases you don't even know you have.
Media platforms (social media, video sites like youtube, movie sites heavily using recommendations) know your rough (or finer) worldview, your interest, what makes you click and such, and they'll first put you in an echo chamber where they form your opinions by showing you news and other media that you want to see (which is not necessarily true, and can also miss the bigger picture, but you'll most likely accept it with the least questioning), and then they also form what you see by their agendas: they know what gets your interest, they can use that to show content that makes you stay for longer, and they can also show content that spreads information that is in their interest and about which they know you'll still read it or at least think about it.