Competition For Internet Explorer ??

It's a long time since DRNO published anything on browser market share, for the simple reason that IE has not really been sharing it. However, according to online analytics provider WebSideStory, the Microsoft titan has seen its portion of the US market falling closer to 90% in the last two months following the arrival of Firefox.

The Mozilla-based browser, now championed by the open source movement, has grown its US browser usage share by more than a third in the four weeks to 3rd Dec 04, from 3.03% to 4.06%, following a 13% rise in the previous four weeks. Conversely, Internet Explorer's usage share fell 1.09% to 91.80%, following a 0.32% drop in the previous 4 weeks; and since June 4, 2004, when IE's usage share first began to drop due to security concerns, it has lost a total of 3.68%.

Rand Schulman, WebSideStory's Chief Marketing Officer, says Firefox's gains are 'clearly accelerating', adding that 'Much of it has to do with the release of Firefox's version 1.0 on November 9, after several months of offering a preview version. Firefox's stated goal of gaining 10 percent of the market over the next year no longer seems unattainable'.

U.S. Browser Usage Share
	Browser	Dec 3rd 2004	Nov 5th 2004	Oct 8th 2004	Jun 4th 2004
	IE	91.80%	92.89	93.21	95.48
	Firefox	4.06	3.03	2.66 *3.53
	Non-Firefox Netscape and Mozilla browsers	2.83	2.95	3.05 *3.53
	Other	1.25	1.07	1.03	0.95
	* WebSideStory did not track the Firefox browser separately until Oct. 2004. The June 4, 2004, figure includes all Netscape and Mozilla-based browsers, including Firefox.

WebSideStory's data comes from more than 30 million daily Internet users in more than 200 countries, passing through 20,000 sites worldwide. It publishes monthly user trend reports at www.websidestory.com/datainsights/

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

• WebSideStory, Inc.
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