While Microsoft may be making headway with its new Bing search engine, its Internet Explorer Web browser is seeing a marked decline in use.
According to July figures from StatCounter, Internet Explorer versions 8.0, 7.0 and 6.0 have a combined share of 55.36 percent as of Monday evening. Meanwhile, Firefox versions 3.0 and 2.0 hold 28.69 percent of the browser market.
StatCounter notes that Mozilla’s Firefox 3.5 browser has already gained a sizable share of the market.
“The fastest version yet of Firefox has certainly sprinted out of the blocks with 2.06 percent usage in the U.S. in a short time,” said Aodhan Cullent, CEO of StatCounter. He proceeds to add the obvious: “This latest addition boosts competition for Microsoft Internet Explorer in the browser market wars.”
Meanwhile, according to StatCounter’s figures, Internet Explorer has lost 9.27 percentage points of its global market share during the past 11 months.
Still, these browser market share figures are difficult to pin down with precise accuracy, according to many.
As of Monday, Net Applications displayed this line on its browser market share page: “This report's data is currently under review. It will become available as soon as possible.”
In Europe, Firefox has an even better chance at knocking off Internet Explorer in the near future. Across the pond, Firefox has gained 39 percent of the market, compared with Internet Explorer’s 46 percent share.
Opera’s browser is also picking up market share in Europe, reaching 8.47 percent in June. Its global market share is still lagging at 3.27 percent, up modestly from 3.1 percent in July 2008.
Though Microsoft’s browser dominance is in immediate danger of becoming a thing of the past, according to the general consensus, it can hold its head high because of Bing. Net Applications pegs Bing’s market share at 5.31 percent as of Monday evening, which would make it third according to the firm.
It trails Google with 81.22 percent and Yahoo! with 9.21 percent.
Search engine rankings from comScore and Nielsen that include Bing have yet to be released.
Sources:
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=012001D166O0
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/07/is_internet_exp.html
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/07/06/2009-not-the-year-of-internet-explorer
http://www.pcworld.com/article/167893/web_browser_wars_michael_jackson_version.html
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-US-monthly-200807-200907
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/search-engine-market-share.aspx?qprid=4
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