Firefox 3.0 - Mozilla’s latest output - is the single most popular web browser with a market share of 35,05 percent, exceeding that of Internet Explorer 7 which holds 34,54 percent. However, this development could be explained in part by the release of Internet Explorer 8, which has garnered 2,37 percent of the web browsing public. Most users of Internet Explorer 8 are thought to have come from the base of Internet Explorer 7 users. Thus, combined users of Internet Explorer still outnumber those of Firefox. This trend furthers when considering Internet Explorer 6, the 2001 browser which still clutches onto 11,92 percent of European users. “The data shows that Firefox is closing the gap and is now just 10% behind all [Internet Explorer] versions in Europe,” Statcounter CEO Aodhan Cullen said in a statement.

Combining the numbers for the web browsers’ separate versions, Internet Explorer holds a market share of 48 percent whilst Firefox holds 38 percent. Opera is the Europeans’ third most popular web browser with a user base of 7 percent, followed by Chrome and Safari at 1,57 and 1,4 percent, respectively. It is interesting seeing the apparent embracing of third-party software in Europe, gaining fair shares of a market so heavily dominated by the big guy. Worldwide it’s not such a warm embrace, with Internet Explorer at 66,82 percent and Firefox at 22,05 percent. However slowly, though, Firefox is still climbing the global web browser ladder; the numbers from Europe might well be a window to peer into the future worldwide market. The current progression does not seem to falter, albeit advancing at varying rates. Watch out, big guy.