SAN JOSE, Calif. — Blake Ross, the 19-year-old who created the Firefox Web browser in his parents’ house near Miami, has done something big software companies have sought to do for years: capture market share from Microsoft Corp. In the five months since Firefox was released, the program has snared 5 percent of the market from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, according to San Diego-based research firm Websidestory. Microsoft has dominated the market since surpassing Netscape Communications Corp. five years ago. “I don’t think I am Bill Gates’s worst nightmare, but this is a serious pride issue for Microsoft,” said Ross, a Stanford University sophomore who began work on Firefox two years ago while doing an internship at Netscape. Firefox is distributed using a free, open-source model that lets anyone modify the program. The growth of Firefox is a threat to Microsoft because it could be used as the basis for programs that bypass Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which generates $11.5 billion in annual sales, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland, Wash. Microsoft has responded to the growth of Firefox by speeding up work on the next version of its Web browser, said Rick Sherlund, Goldman, Sachs & Co.’s software analyst in New York. The new Internet Explorer will have more resistance to viruses and other malicious programs. Mike Nash, a Microsoft vice president, said the company is accelerating its browser development to boost security. “If you look at the number of security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer versus Firefox, we feel very good about where we are,” Nash, 42, said in February. He wouldn’t disclose specific features of the next version. About 30 million users have downloaded Firefox, and Ross predicts the software will capture as much as 15 percent of the browser market in the next year. “Six months ago, I would have said the browser wars are over,” said Gary Barnett, an analyst at London-based researcher Ovum. “Now I have changed my tune. … Firefox (has) done some cool things and out-innovated Internet Explorer.” Microsoft spends about $10 million and has a few dozen people working on Internet Explorer, said Rosoff. That contrasts with Netscape’s prime, when Microsoft was devoting more than $100 million a year and 1,000 workers to Internet Explorer. “The fact is that they abandoned the browser market,” Ross said of Microsoft in an interview Thursday. “We heard from customer after customer that the Internet is way too hard to use. People are tired of dealing with pop-up ads and spyware. People were tired of the Internet experience, so we wanted to reduce these headaches for them.” The two browsers have many similarities, such as built-in pop-up blockers. Firefox’s main differences from Internet Explorer are its ability to be customized — users can download countless free “extensions” to enhance the browser’s functionality — and how it displays many Web sites on tabs within the same browser window. Also, hackers target Firefox less than Internet Explorer, making it a safer alternative. Internet Explorer’s U.S. market share fell to less than 90 percent in a February survey by Websidestory, the lowest in three years, down from a high of 97 percent in March 2003. Firefox has 5.7 percent. Investor concerns about slowing revenue growth, competition with the free open-source operating system Linux and security flaws have damped gains in Microsoft stock. The company’s shares underperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in seven of the past nine quarters. Microsoft has forecast sales to rise as little as 8 percent for the year ending June 30, the slowest growth in company history, down from an average of 38 percent for every year in the 1990s. The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, which tracks Web security attacks, said in June that users could improve security by switching from Internet Explorer. Firefox has flaws. Symantec Corp. found Firefox had 21 security flaws compared with 13 for Internet Explorer between July 1 and Dec. 31. Internet Explorer had more “high severity vulnerabilities,” Symantec said. When Microsoft first released Internet Explorer in August 1995, Netscape controlled 80 percent of the market. Microsoft hobbled Netscape by striking contracts with Internet service providers, requiring them to feature Internet Explorer instead of Netscape. America Online bought Netscape for $9.8 billion in 1999, and then Time Warner Inc. bought AOL. Ross got his start at age 14 finding and fixing bugs for Netscape out of his parent’s home. By 17, he was in his second year as a Netscape intern when he began to tinker with the code in the company’s Mozilla browser along with co-worker David Hyatt. The effort eventually resulted in Firefox. Ross next met with directors from the Mozilla Foundation, a new nonprofit group started by former Netscape employees with the financial backing of Oracle Corp. and IBM Corp. Sitting around a picnic table outside Netscape’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, the group agreed on a plan to back and distribute Firefox. Firefox became popular with people like Daniel Camputaro, a software developer at telephone company Verizon Communications Inc. in Howell, N.J., who were concerned about security. Camputaro started using Firefox two years ago when the program was still in testing. “Internet Explorer has a very big problem with security, and Microsoft refuses to fix the issues,” said Camputaro, 27. “You are exposing your computer to all kinds of nasty stuff. Firefox filters out most of that.” Firefox will have to move from “evangelizing to the sandals and start evangelizing to the suits” to sustain growth, Ovum’s Barnett said. Mozilla marketing manager Rafael Ebron, 28, says the word about Firefox is spreading. He said he spent the time on a flight in February to San Jose explaining Firefox to fellow passengers and handing out his “Guide to Firefox.” Ross is leading the effort to promote Firefox through the spreadfirefox.com Web site, which has organized 70,000 volunteers to spread the word on college campuses. He is enlisting Web page creators to track how many visitors to their sites use Firefox. “We don’t want to dominate; we just want enough share to make sure that there’s a choice,” Ross said. “Anybody who thinks Microsoft will keep innovating if they quell us is silly. They won’t do anything unless we push them.”

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