Once the mighty, all-conquering colossus of internet browsers, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer continues to lose its market share, with new data on browser use trends revealing that it’s now used by less than 6 out of 10 surfers.
The stats come from web analytics boffins Net Applications, whose May 2010 study showed IE continuing to decline, Firefox and Opera remaining more or less static, Safari edging forward very slowly, and Chrome hurtling along at breakneck speeds.
Microsoft’s vintage Internet Explorer 6 is now used by fewer than five per cent of web browser users worldwide, but their Internet Explorer 8 is in fact growing faster than Google Chrome (but that growth is offset by the hefty decline of IE 6.)
Here’s ArsTechnica with a feast of facts:
Between April and May, Internet Explorer dropped 0.26 percentage points (from 59.95 percent to 59.69 percent) and Firefox fell 0.24 percentage points (from 24.59 percent to 24.35 percent). Chrome jumped 0.32 percentage points (from 6.73 percent to 7.05 percent), Safari gained 0.05 percentage points (from 4.72 percent to 4.77 percent), and Opera increased 0.13 percentage points (from 2.30 percent to 2.43 percent). While IE still dropped the most and Chrome still gained the most compared to the other three competitors, the changes weren’t as significant as in previous months.
Note that Firefox has once again slipped back from its 25 percent share, with the growth of Chrome being the most likely culprit (in Chez Wirefresh, we’ve in the process of transferring to Chrome after becoming frustrated with endless Firefox/Java crashes and random freezes).
