Internet Explorer loses ground to Firefox and Safari

Web analytics firm Net Applications is reporting that Microsoft Internet Explorer continued to stumble in its position as the world’s most popular web browser during December 2008.

Although Internet Explorer is by far the most widely used program for accessing websites, it has slipped from a 75% marketshare at the start of 2008 to 68.15% during December 2008.

Mozilla Firefox (21.34%), Apple Safari (7.93%), and Google Chrome (1.04%) all appear to be benefiting as users either choose alternative web browsers or run an operating system not supported by Internet Explorer (in other words, anything other than Windows).

What I always find interesting is to compare these usage figures, which are collated across a very wide spectrum of web usage, with what I see myself when I look at details of how people are viewing this blog. You could argue that the typical…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.