Firefox 3.5 release not hot enough to blip on Google’s radar
Mozilla released Firefox 3.5 into the wild on June 30, prompting millions of downloads and a ton of mentions in tech press and blogs all over the world.
Considering all this attention, Firefox should have been a pretty hot search topic on Google that day. Right?
But no.
Looking at the top 100 trending topics on Google for June 30, there is no mention of Firefox to be seen anywhere. We looked at a couple of the following days as well, but with no luck there either.
We have no doubt that Firefox-related searches increased, but apparently not enough to make a dent as one of the top trending topics.
This says a lot about the average Web user: tech remains a niche topic. Even a major Web browser release didn’t make it into the top 100 trending searches on Google.
Like we’ve said before, “Tech just ain’t that hot on Google.”
We all know 
Big sites and services like Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter and many others rely heavily on open source software to run their operations. Happily, this isn’t a one-way street. They are also giving back to the open source community, not just by contributing to existing projects, but sometimes by open sourcing their own internal projects, giving back something completely new.
Think about the software you use day to day. Depending on your profession and interests, what you use will vary, but some applications tend to show up over and over again. Microsoft Word and Excel, Powerpoint, Photoshop, various web browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox, Skype, iTunes, and so on.
Is Facebook taking the first steps towards making itself an internet-wide payment platform?
Supercomputers. There probably isn’t a tech geek out there who doesn’t find them intriguing. Huge, hulking computers with performance that’s ages ahead of what we have on our desktops. They are the most powerful computing devices on the planet.
Tully
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Why would the masses search for something like the firefox upgrade? Most likely got the update notification when they started the program, or knew it was out and just went direct. It’s not surprising at all that they weren’t part of the trending topics when you consider how more internet savvy FF users are than, well, any other browser (especially more savvy than those who use the pre-loaded garbage that comes with their PC)..
ryan
July 30th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Also it was a point release, not a 2.0/3.0/4.0 etc one. Devs usually reserve big features for .0 releases and that’s responsible for some of the reduced buzz.
PYDOT
August 7th, 2009 at 5:10 am
What else do you expect? Firefox has some bugs in it since 1 year, some critical never fixed. 3.5 was released and they discovered in hours a serious security flaw. The last 3 updates from Firefox where buggy. We should call it Firebug.
Stay with Opera or Chrome. This are solid browsers with a 100% patch history. Firefox is all funcy but if you want to be hacked, go Firefox…
Its also very slow know comparing to Safari, Chrome and Opera.
I used to love Firefox but lately they cannot keep up with it. It crashes allot and its slow, without addons at all.