Report: Users Move from IE6 to Google Chrome, IE9

There was good news and bad news this week for Microsoft.

First, the good news: the Redmond-based firm saw the beta version of its Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) browser reach the 15 million download plateau. Next, the bad: usage of Google's Chrome browser jumped almost a percentage point in one month alone, eating up market share lost as users move away from Internet Explorer 6 (IE6).

When the Internet Explorer 9 beta was first made available back in September, approximately 2 million users jumped on board in less than two days. Since then, an additional 13 million users have downloaded the browser, which is expected to get its full release sometime next year. (Source: networkworld.com)

Overall, Internet Explorer Not Looking Good

To date, IE9's 15 million downloads represents just 0.38 per cent of the worldwide browser market, and the IE name continues to slide, overall. Currently, analysts Net Applications find that 58.3 per cent of all Internet users are running IE browsers, down from 59.2 per cent in October.

Making up that ground is Google. Its Chrome browser saw usage jump from 8.5 per cent to 9.25 per cent in just a single month. It may not sound like a lot, but that's an enormous leap for a relatively new product in a market dominated by Microsoft and Mozilla.

Despite the setback, Microsoft remains optimistic that users will eventually make the move to IE9.

Internet Explorer 6 Decline Good for Everyone

Encouraging for everyone is the decline in IE6 usage; that browser has repeatedly been cited as a dangerous choice for web users who, by refusing to upgrade to newer versions of Internet Explorer, put themselves at risk for malware infection or remote code execution attacks.

IE6 has seen a significant decline in its commercial usage, down to 10.3 per cent. However, IE6 is still estimated to be about 13.66 per cent of the overall browser market.

As usual, the slowest movers away from IE6 are businesses. But progress there is steady, says Microsoft's Marketing Director, Roger Capriotti.

"Small to medium sized organizations lead the pack in moving off of IE6, but even the largest enterprises with over 50,000 seats show similar trends – just 12.1% of web browsing in those organizations comes from IE6. While XP usage contributes to IE6 usage, the vast majority of commercial XP machines have already upgraded to IE7 or IE8. Less than 20% of web browsing on commercial XP machines comes from IE6." (Source: pcworld.com)