Firefox pips Internet Explorer thanks to Chrome

European browser war hots up

Microsoft's monopolistic Internet Explorer has been knocked off its top spot as Europe's favourite browser by plucky open source upstart Firefox.

The Mozilla Foundation's contender in the browser wars has overtaken Microsoft's pre-installed PC behemoth for the first time in Europe, with a little help from an unexpected source according to on-line analysis outfit StatCounter.

The company's CEO Aodhan Cullen said: "This is the first time that IE has been dethroned from the number one spot in a major territory." He adds: "This appears to be happening because Google's Chrome is stealing share from Internet Explorer while Firefox is mainly maintaining its existing share."

The figures from December 2010 show Firefox sneaking into a slight lead with 38.11 per cent of European traffic compared to IE's 37.52 per cent.

Google's Chrome is languishing a long way back in third place with just 14.58 per cent but has grown impressively from the same period last year when it could only manage fractionally over five per cent.

Microsoft's beleaguered browser has been plagued by insecurity issues which came to a head last year when a number of nation states including Germany advised their populations to steer clear of the lumbering software giant commonly known as Internet Exploder because of its propensity to crash without reason or warning.

Microsoft was forced by the European Commission last March to offer users a sensible choice of browsers, including Firefox and Chrome, as part of its installation and upgrade process.