Microsoft Internet Explorer Use Grows

[anyweb]

IE increased usage from 59.8 per cent to 60.3 per cent, according to new statistics from Net Applications, an analytics company that monitors browser usage across a large network of websites. It was buoyed by increasing usage of IE8 that offset the decline in IE7 — and by what web developers no doubt hope will be only a temporary pause in the decline of the despised IE6.

 

 

The change in fortunes was significant enough that Microsoft couldn't resist crowing about IE's progress in a blog post on Thursday. "We certainly don't judge our business on just two months of data, but the direction here is encouraging," said Ryan Gavin, senior director of business and marketing for Internet Explorer.

 

Although IE has long been scorned by web developers for its out-of-date features and its lack of compliance with web standards, Microsoft is working hard to change the browser's image. The IE9 Platform Preview bare-bones browser prototypes, of which three have been released so far, are steadily accumulating modern features in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and JavaScript. And Windows, despite the browser ballot that in Europe presents Windows users with a choice of browsers besides IE as a result of an antitrust settlement, remains a powerful means of distributing the software.

 

Some of IE8's gains probably can be ascribed to the growing use of Windows 7, which ships with that browser and is showing some signs of finally being a successor to Windows XP that people actually are embracing. Net Applications showed that the browsing usage of Windows 7 climbed from 12.7 per cent to 13.7 per cent from May to June; Windows Vista dropped from 15.2 per cent to 14.7 per cent; and Windows XP dropped from 62.6 per cent to 62.4 per cent.

 

Meanwhile, IE's biggest rival, Firefox, dropped in usage from 24.3 per cent to 23.8 per cent. And third-place Chrome climbed from 7.0 per cent to 7.2 per cent from May to June.

 

In fourth place, Apple's Safari rose from 4.8 per cent to 4.9 per cent, and Opera slipped from 2.4 per cent to 2.3 per cent.

 

 

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