Internet Explorer Use Keeps Falling

In the past month, use of Microsoft Corp.s dominant browser fell another 1.5 percentage points to 90.3 percent. Meanwhile, the Mozilla Foundations Firefox browser rose 0.9 percentage points to reach 5 percent, Web analytics provider WebSideStory Inc. confirmed Thursday.

The numbers reflect shifts that occurred between Dec. 3 and Jan. 14. WebSideStory samples more than 30 million daily Internet users from more than 200 countries to determine the browser-usage shares.

The percentage of users browsing with IE has steadily fallen since June, while Firefox and some other competing browser have shown gains. Over that time, IE use has dropped a total of about 5 percent from its perch at 95.5 percent.

Surveys from another Web analytics provider, OneStat.com, have reflected a similar pattern and even put IEs worldwide share below 90 percent.

Firefox, which is Mozillas standalone browser, was released as a stable version in November.

WebSideStory tracks Mozillas other browser with a category that includes browsers from America Online Inc.s Netscape unit. That category dropped slightly to 2.6 percent in mid-January from 2.8 percent a month earlier.

Remaining browsers, which largely are Opera Software ASAs namesake browser and Apple Computer Inc.s Safari browser, showed a gain of almost a full percentage point. They reached a 2.1 percent usage share, compared with 1.3 percent a month earlier, according to WebSideStory.

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