On Tuesday, NetApplications released its May 2010 browser usage share report, and some interesting statistics emerge: Though usage of all versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) web browser remained flat, month over month, the very latest version—IE 8—grew at a higher rate than any of its competitors, including industry darling Google Chrome. IE 8 is now used by 29 percent of all web surfers, and over 31 percent of all Windows users.
"In a world of choice, IE 8 is the browser more individuals are choosing every single day, at rates that exceed any competing browser," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "IE 8 is leading the pack: It's the fastest growing browser in history and is currently number one across Windows and all OSs. Most important, this past month more users chose IE 8 than Chrome or Firefox. And with the IE 9 platform preview receiving over a million downloads thus far, IE is positioned for a strong future."
IE 8's strong showing flies in the face of continued bad news for Microsoft's browsers, which overall have been on a downward slide for quite some time. But IE held steady between April and May, overall, and as noted previously, it is still the market leader. In fact, it's not even close. According to NPD, IE controls 60 percent of the market for browsers worldwide, compared with 24 percent for Firefox, 7 percent for Chrome, and 5 percent for Apple Safari.
IE 8 usage grew .81 percent in the month, two and a half times the rate of the next fastest growing browser, Chrome, which grew .32 percent. Firefox usage fell slightly over the month, as the browser continues to miss the vaunted 25 percent mark.