Internet Explorer Usage Increasing at Chrome and Firefox’s Expense

Yesterday, we mentioned in our news that Windows 7 has finally surpassed Vista in overall usage, so on a somewhat related note, how about we take a look at browser shares today? As hard as it is for some of us to believe (myself included), Internet Explorer has changed what was a continuous decline into the absolute opposite. It’s even beginning to push Firefox’s and Chrome’s numbers down!

According to Net Applications, IE accounts for 60.74% of the total number of Web browsers used to access the Internet. Obviously, that’s an incredibly large number, but broken down, the numbers become even more interesting. Of that 60.74%, 26.87% belongs to IE8 (a good thing), 11.43% to IE7, and, *shrug*, 16.97% to IE6. The other 5.47% is split among the other or unknown IE versions.

At the same time, Firefox’s share has gone down almost an entire percentage point, from 23.81% to 22.91%, while Chrome’s dipped just a wee bit from 7.24% to 7.16%. Compare this to IE’s gain of 0.42%… we can see where some of the blame for Firefox’s and Chrome’s drop can be laid! Regarding the other browsers, Opera has seen a 0.18% boost, while Safari inched just a bit ahead with a 0.24% bump month over month.

I have to admit, I’m a bit surprised that IE’s usage is growing, and while I don’t have anything particular against IE, it’s still notable that after a rather long continuous decline, Microsoft has somehow managed to spin things around and deliver an increase two months in a row. And with Firefox declining and now sitting at 22.91%, it looks as though it’s going to have a rough time hitting that elusive 25%.

Last month, we told you that we’ve seen IE drop more than one percentage point on multiple occasions, but there were anomalies where IE gained share once in a while. Still, for years it was unheard of to have IE gain share two months in a row. Now that both June and July were positive months for Microsoft, we’re wondering if IE’s long decline has really started to reverse, and whether we’ll see IE below the 60 percent mark again. A lot will depend on how well the IE9 beta is received in September.