Microsoft Internet Explorer: The worlds most popular browser?

From the Developement Department at Ingenux
By Jeremy Ramsey

There was a time when industry leading web developers would not have thought twice before confirming that Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) was the world’s leading web-browser. MSIE's popularity is driven by its leading support for new technologies, it's ease of use, and it's integration with the world's leading operating system, Microsoft Windows.

However, since the introduction of Mozilla's 'Firefox' line of browsers, these views of browser dominance are significantly changing. In 2002, prior to Mozilla's introduction into the web community, the MSIE line of browsers accounted for 83.4% of web-surfers on the net. One year after its introduction in 2003, Mozilla was offering a browser that supported many of the same features as MSIE. 2004 saw Mozilla take off in the internet community accounting for 16.5% of web-surfers on the net.

Since the rebranding of the Mozilla browser line to the new "Firefox" family, they're support and loyalty has continued to thrive. In 2006, Firefox 2 was released, this latest edition from Mozilla saw added support for the majority of MSIE features as well as several features that MSIE did not have at the time, including the ever-popular "tabbed-browsing". Within a year of its release, Firefox had skyrocketed to nearly 40% of web-surfers preferred browsers, while MSIE's popularity had stumbled to 56%.

2008 saw the release of the latest version of Mozilla's Firefox browser, Firefox 3. This version is nearly interchangeable with MSIE and provides additional security features and, what some have come to refer to as "true css", which allows for better interpretation of website coding and smoother more accurate renderings of what designers intended their websites to look like on the web. By the end of 2008, Firefox support had reached new record levels, accounting for 44.4% of web-surfers on the net. This milestone is considerably more significant than any before it because it marks the first time since MSIE's inception that has not held the majority of support. MSIE's share of web-surfers came in at 45.7%.

This year, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8, this new version has a slew of new features to better compete with Mozilla, including reported support of "true css" rendering. Only time will tell what effect this will have on the overall market, however, we can report that as of April:

*MSIE (All versions) accounts for 42.1% of web-surfers on the net.
*Firefox (All versions) accounts for 47.1% of web-surfers on the net

While we certainly recommend continuing to include MSIE in your website design plans, however it looks like Firefox may now be bringing the majority of traffic to your website.

Statistical information provided by W3Schools.com, they track all visitors to their family of sites and provide statistical reporting on every unique hit. Visit: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp for more information.