Microsoft Celebrates: Internet Explorer 8 Gains

Internet Explorer (IE) has given Microsoft reason to celebrate after almost two years of market share decline. (Source: techflash.com) Internet Explorer 8 is leading all other competitors, with figures that are predicted to be more than three times that of rival Google Chrome.

Internet Explorer, in the various versions that are still in use, now account for three of the four top market share positions.

IE8 Currently 25% Market Share

Internet Explorer 8 leads the way, with a 25.84 per cent market share. Internet Explorer 6 is the second-most used web browser at 17.17 per cent. Mozilla Firefox 3.6 closes in at third spot with 11.9 per cent of the market, followed by Internet Explorer 7. (Source: pcworld.com)

Considering all of the Internet Explorer versions pooled together, Microsoft's overall market share increased from 59.75 per cent to 60.32 per cent in the month of May. Better still for Microsoft, their gains came at the expense of Firefox, which dropped half a percentage point in popularity. While Google Chrome experienced a slight increase of 0.2 per cent, it continues to perform below expectations, sitting in eighth spot.

Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and countless other web browsers are all capable of accessing the vast majority of the Internet. However, as developers continue to create custom apps and add-ons to extend the functionality of a given browser, they are more likely to invest that time and effort developing for the platform that controls two-thirds of the market. (Source: msn.com)

Competition Fierce

Although being in the pole position on the browser market means receiving the undivided attention of developers, the bad news is that hackers and malware peddlers will also set their sights on Internet Explorer.

And, while there is evidence to suggest that Internet Explorer 8 is by far the best Internet Explorer to date, it's still highly unlikely it will ever reclaim a 90-plus market share given the level of competition from Google's Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox.