Firefox Lacks Staying Power

A lot has been made about Mozilla's Firefox and its steady ascension up the web browser food chain. Rising almost ten percentage points in market share over the past year, the main alternative to Internet Explorer has had a tough time keeping users around once they download the application.

According to Mozilla, about half the people who download Firefox actually give it a try and only around half of those folks continue to use it on a regular basis. The company views these somewhat troubling rates as an "incredible opportunity" to improve user retention. They have developed a 12 point plan to help them achieve this goal.

One of the main challenges Mozilla faces is the common perception that the door to the Internet is the "blue e icon" (the shortcut to the IE browser) on a user's desktop. Other notable action items in the plan include placing the Firefox icon in a more ideal location, making add-ons more accessible, and developing a "stickier" start page.