Internet Explorer 8 Displaces IE6 As Most Popular Browser

Data released by Market intelligence firm NetApplications confirms that Internet Explorer 8 has finally overtaken Internet Explorer 6 as the most popular browser in the world.

IE8 accounted for 22.31 percent of the global browser market in January 2010, an impressive increase of 1.45 percent in 30 days. Significantly, Microsoft's latest browser took only 10 months to become the most popular ever.

Microsoft's other popular browser, IE6, saw its market share fall to 20.07 percent last month and could be attributed to the widely publicised security flaws in the browser.

France and Germany had issues security advices, suggesting that computer users shift from IE6 to other browsers while the DoH has urged the NHS to move to another browser, even if that is IE7.

Google has also announced that it will be phasing out support for IE6 as from today for a pair of its services although it is likely to stick to IE6 for some time to come in order not to alienate a fifth of the browser market.

It is likely that the popularity of Windows 7 as well has played a major role in making IE8 more ubiquitous. After all, IE8 is the default Windows 7 browser and the OS has been Microsoft's most successful OS for the last few months.

Firefox also saw its market share rise with Firefox 3.5, its latest iteration, jumping to 17.1 percent while Google Chrome inched forward with 3.92 percent. Opera, Safari and other browsers account for only a few percentage point.