FF3 Gains Ground on IE
Mozilla Firefox 3 overtook Microsoft’s Internet 
Explorer 6 for the first time in February in the Internet Browser Wars according to monthly data from StatCounter Global Stats - our new free analysis tool.
Internet Explorer 7 continues to lead globally with 41% market share. However, Firefox 3 is now in second place with 24% replacing IE 6.
“Since its launch less than a year ago, Firefox 3 has attained nearly one quarter of the global market,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder, StatCounter. “IE 7 is consistently holding about 40% of the global market but IE 6 has fallen from 28% in July last to 22% in February this year.”**
The growth in usage of Firefox 3 can be partly attributed to users upgrading to the new version - Firefox 2 market share has fallen from 16% to 3% in the period.
Microsoft’s combined IE 7 and IE 6 market share has fallen from 68% in July last year to 63% now. IE 8 has gained a toehold in the market of just over 1%. Firefox 3 and 2 has grown from 25% in July last to 27% in February 2009.
** Source: Figures based on monthly StatCounter Global Stats analysis.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I have been using IE 8 for several days and have not yet been able to get “blocking cookies” to work for stat counter…
Blocking for my FF3 works well… IE 6/7, and Chrome 1.0 also take the cookie.
March 5th, 2009 at 9:53 am
I think it would be interesting too to find out ‘globally’ where IE looses most of its ground.
Looking at my own stats in statcounter I know our business website gets loads more IE users, where my blogs has more Firefox users. Which means it is still very important to check/watch/see your websites and blogs in both browsers - they can look very different.
Karin H (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
March 5th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
IE alone is sick, use maxthon browser (based on IE) and you won’t use FF anymore…
March 5th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
[...] Firefox 3 is the first non-Microsoft browser to pass Internet Explorer 6. Congrats, Firefox 3! More of the story here. [...]
March 5th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Firefox 3 is by far the best browser on the market today…….I expect them to gain more share of the market each year……..I’m finished with IE
March 6th, 2009 at 12:28 am
We cannot pass fully on FF (i have SeaMonkey) forgetting IE; Just because there are too many webmasters who uses Microsoft products to create their sites. The result is a website so badly written that only IE can display them. IE is able to do it, because microsoft modify IE to accept faults created by microsoft web-site-creators products.
March 6th, 2009 at 4:28 am
Yeah, it is quite irritating for me as a loyal FF user. Some website MUST be viewed by IE, unless we can’t use the interactive form, feature etc. Why not they create their website so that can be viewed perfectly by any browser.
March 6th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Ray_Net, Far East: AFAIK, any IE-only site died long ago, or is dying. Otherwise they would redesign several years ago, when alternative browsers started to rise. Single exception is South Korea, but they don’t upgrade even to IE7 because of compatibility to IE6 bugs.
March 6th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
i also use ff3 and like it … IE causes so many problems. yes i sometimes use ie7 but only for testing websites.
FF3 is easier to use and its plugins are great.
March 6th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Firefox 3 is so easy to use I can understand why its gaining ground on the browser wars.
March 6th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Any way I support IE
The problem is that the most part of the people as been following IE, and make the difference, is difficult to change people.
March 6th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
[...] un popular servicio de estadísticas (gratuito) ha lanzado una nueva apuesta, para estudiar las tendencias de uso de navegadores, y sistemas operativos (de escritorios y movil) [...]
March 7th, 2009 at 3:33 am
Firefox rules, all of the flexible add-ons make it the best choice for anyone that is working on websites whether it’s design, SEO or just hobby website development. IE can’t be overlooked though due to the amount of people viewing our websites through IE6+7 still.
March 8th, 2009 at 7:12 am
I too have upgraded my firefox browser from 2 to 3 recently. I downloaded FF3 long time back but didn’t give it a chance thinking it may be slow on performance. But its extra features, especially showing up links while typing something in the address bar are really good.
Not mention the add-ons that are very valuable with firefox.
March 8th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
It I on-line game my blog the order:
1. Firefox 3 (34,1%)
2. Internet Explorer 7 (24,8%)
3. Internet Explorer 6 (20,1%)
4. Internet Explorer 5 (10,3%)
5. Firefox 2 (5,2%)
Hungarians the blog is attended.
March 9th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
FF add-on is so nice, IE can’t compete it.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:07 am
Hi Friends nice work you have done keep improving your project and add more and more new features in this nice project. I would like to suggest you a new feature for global stats that is the keywords that are searched a number of times on the search engines that can help lots of website owners.
March 10th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I cant believe so many people are still using IE6, upgrade people, upgrade. Or just switch to firefox
March 10th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Re Dave:
I can. Most web ’surfers’ know nothing else than the standard browser they find on their windows pc. Normal people - millions! - who just want to find information.
It’s down to the web owners and designers to make sure their sites and webshops work in most browsers, that solves the problem for most normal - millions! - people.
Karin H
March 11th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
My latest stats for browsers, but you need to remember ive been using statcounter for two years.
It does suggest the same thing tho, FF3 has overtaken IE6
47.00% MSIE 7.0
14.40% MSIE 6.0
14.20% Firefox 3.0.6
11.40% Firefox 2.0.0
4.20% Firefox 3.0.7
March 11th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Ater reading some of these post’s I think I will ask our IT guy to upgrade me to firefox.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
80.00% Internet Explorer
20.00% Fire Fox
AtxElectronics.com
March 11th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Its only a matter of time before IE starts to fail. I’m not talking in a few years, but a long time. The teenagers will be older and the shift of market share will start to float to firefox or even safari.
March 12th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
More than 90% of my Blog Visitors use Firefox. Really Great.. Wishes to Firefox…
March 14th, 2009 at 6:23 am
El articulo es muy interesante.
http://www.megaupload.com
March 15th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Donno, as for my online auction I have aprox data for the last 2 month
IE 7 - 50.0% 51.1%
Ff 3 - 26.0% 27.4%
IE 6 - 9.4% 12.5%
March 15th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
sorry, upper data was for my online auction for-cent.com
March 16th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Firefox will always be a developers browser i think. I still see over 85% of users with IE. Google’s chrome is barely noticeable. I would think IE would come out with extensions before long.
March 18th, 2009 at 6:52 am
I like Firefox better, except for graphics. I feel it lacks the same graphic quality that IE7 has. I don’t use IE6. I also believe that Chrome has less graphical quality than IE7, although I like using Chrome the most, as I become more acquainted with it. I may be unusual. I use three primary browsers (I don’t like using favorites; I like multi-tabbed home pages.)
March 18th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
IE is fine for the normal users as Karin H. said in an earlier comment because those normal users just connect and surf and this is normaly via a PC with Windows + IE.
I don’t mean that other browsers are for abnormal users
however they are essential for those have other activities than just surfing.
For Me, my favorite in the 1990s was Netscape. Nowadays, Mozilla FirFox is no. 1, Opera is no.2 , and Google Chrome is no.3 whereas IE is just for checking compatibilty of my blog/websites because the end user still use it.
March 18th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
[...] pisando fuerte (Firefox sobrepasó a Internet Explorer 6 por primera vez en su historia según StatCounter) y con un Internet Explorer 6 al que nadie [...]
March 20th, 2009 at 12:41 am
yeah… microsoft internet explorer is really on top ‘coz they’re pioneer on this matter..
March 21st, 2009 at 5:14 am
Even in our testing labs we use firefox and with little tweaks we can even change the rendering engine and test the cross browser compatibility.. FF3 have grown a lot from the ff2 and i think days looks prospective for FF than IE.
March 21st, 2009 at 9:29 am
[...] pisando fuerte (Firefox sobrepasó a Internet Explorer 6 por primera vez en su historia según StatCounter) y con un Internet Explorer 6 al que nadie [...]
March 22nd, 2009 at 3:18 pm
What about IPv6?
Statcounter should support and test IPv6-sites.
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 am
thanks. great. super. statcounter is wery big
March 23rd, 2009 at 3:28 am
FF3 is on the rise. But, where is Chrome in all this?
I see chrome coming up gradually to take its place among the browsers of choice.
Or, what do you think?
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:26 am
It is interesting to see Firefox gaining grounds in the wars of the browsers.
Cheers to the FF team and thanks for Aodhan for these stats.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:57 pm
good to see the microsoft monopoly end soon… i think this is the first time microsoft wasn’t able to stop someone overtaking it, using its dirty tricks…
[for some reason, i don't see my posts update]
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:58 pm
good to see the microsoft monopoly end soon… i think this is the first time microsoft wasn’t able to stop someone overtaking it, using its dirty tricks…
sareeuniverse.com
March 24th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
firefox 3 is a fantastic browser i use it all the time
March 25th, 2009 at 3:50 am
I have used Firefox for ages - I find it is a superior browser in many ways. I am glad it is overtaking IE!
March 25th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
FF3 Loads very fast as compared to IE. is this correct?
March 25th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I like firefox 3 and I have been using it instead of IE 7 or IE 8.
Many people think alike.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
At first glance I thought the entry was going to say
FF gaining ground on FG..
must be reading too many newspapers
Never liked Firefox. Very clunky in my view.
Don’t like tabs - I like everything clear and easy to see what’s been opened, in the way I am used to anyway, like at the bottom of the browser…
March 26th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I think this statistic is wholly susceptible to the market it is collected in. You know you can make stats reveal almost anything you want. I have a site for instance that the demographic is 50+ in age, caucasian males predominant. FF3 barely edges out Safari in my stats and every browser is far surpassed by IE6 and IE7 is even further out there.
True users would be a head count and FF3 might very well be leading IE6 but considering that FF3 is pretty much a download and the IE’s come with the windows os pkg. they will never surpass. Most people just want to use what they get and most government does not change out.
March 27th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Yeh more than 70% of my blog visitors use
FF3 , and hard 20 % Uses Internet.
So for sure FF3 will be crossing Explorer Soon.
Thanks
March 31st, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Wow, I am surprised by IE, too many security hole in in IE.
But my visitor stats still use FF than IE..
March 31st, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Psychologists should ask their patients if they use IE. Chances are they do, and chances are that is the source of all of their problems. Of course, there are also problems with using Firefox, like getting babes all the time while walking down the street.
March 31st, 2009 at 7:14 pm
[...] hat jetzt der Firefox 3 laut StatsCounter in Europa endlich den IE-6 überholt und folgt dem Marktführer IE-7 (41% Anteil) mit vielversprechenden 24%. Aber das Blog hier soll [...]
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:01 am
I tried out IE8 when the final version was released, and I was disappointed (although not surprised) to see that it is still slow and buggy. The UI reminds me of Google Chrome a little, but that’s as far as the similarity ends. I actually use Apple Safari as my main web browser, as I find Firefox too slow (but not as slow as IE).
It would be nice if future versions of Windows gave users the option to have IE installed or not (which I think will be the case with Windows 7) as we all know this is one of the main reasons why they have dominated the browser market.
/ rant over!
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Interesting to see the huge disparity in results between StatCounter and the more widely-touted Net Applications, especially for Opera; showing 7% market share in Europe for Opera.
Having said that, is your methodology better, given NetAppl’s process has been discredited as inaccurate…?
http://my.opera.com/haavard/blog/2009/03/04/statcounter
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:16 am
[...] uno studio pubblicato da StatCounter, Firefox 3 è attualmente il browser più utilizzato in Europa con il 35,05% di quota mercato, [...]
April 4th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I think this is a first victory for FireFox
even if it could be temporaly…
Folks, so many people don’t change anything after purchasing their computer so that was quite normal to see all IE on the top but now, that means that people start to realize that Microsoft is not alone and not offer necessary the best product.
Anyway, as always great stats!
Chris
April 4th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Use Firefox for ages, but lately been trying IE7 and kinda like it.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
I’ve been happy with Firefox for quite a few years, but after hearing good things about IE7 I may give it a try, though I can’t see me sticking with it. I’ll miss the FF plug-ins too much I think!
April 14th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I think many more people, especially those who were not to web-minded and coming to realise that you dont have to stick with what Microsoft provide or what comes installed as standard on their new pre-built dell.
I personally do prefere IE to FF.
April 15th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
It would be nice if future versions of Windows gave users the option to have IE installed or not (which I think will be the case with Windows 7) as we all know this is one of the main reasons why they have dominated the browser market.
Yes, I too.
April 18th, 2009 at 12:18 am
Wow great tool, I like to see how many users are using, search engines, browsers, and operating systems, i think the most useful is the search engine global stats!
April 20th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I don’t know why people don’t use Opera? Opera is a browser that has everything that Firefox can think of in coming 2 years. It is one of the most advanced browsers. I consider Firefox to be over hyped and IE as overused. Still I can not change people so I have to think what people think as I am a webmaster.
April 21st, 2009 at 7:42 am
thanks super stats
April 21st, 2009 at 11:42 am
Ok, gracias por la información.
espondilitis.eu
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Super. I’m using in my blog.
April 27th, 2009 at 7:14 am
How we can check our blog traffic, if i choose invisable counter option.
Please tell me.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Well honestly, the only people still using IE6 are non-techies who don’t know what they’re doing so they keep the default browser. I’m saying this because IE6 is a terrible browser with no support for tabs even.
IE7 is much improved though, kudos to Microsoft for taking notice of Firefox and copying the good ideas
April 29th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I agree Andrew,
Microsoft has to count with outsiders nows and especially those coming from the Linux world.
why do you want to pay another company when they offer a free awesome tool?
Personaly, when I can use an open source product instead a Microsoft product I do it and guess what? It’s often better than the commercial one.
That’s like StatCounter.com
Keep up the good work,
Chris
April 30th, 2009 at 4:46 am
[...] to StatCounter Firefox 3.0 is now the most popular Internet browser in Europe after overtaking Microsoft Internet [...]
May 1st, 2009 at 2:25 am
I didn’t even know about opera, that is great thanks alot.
May 2nd, 2009 at 8:38 am
Well, I think IE6 is losing ground mainly because it is getting really old. Some newer CSS styles and javascript functions don’t really work well if not at all, when viewed with IE6. IE7 is OK and IE8 is coming up, rendering IE6 obsolete. But if FF beats IE7, then that’s something.
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:56 am
Wow great tool, I like to see how many users are using, search engines, browsers, and operating systems, i think the most useful is the search engine global stats!
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:01 am
Well, IE is on the top still.
EI 6 is old now and I think it will die soon.