firefox 3 in second place

If you're just someone using a Web browser to go online, you may not experience a huge difference between different versions of Firefox or different versions Internet Explorer. But if you're someone building the Web, they're quite distinct products. So, to a Web developer, IE 6 and IE 7 are not the same browser, and Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 are not the same browser. There are enough differences "under the hood" that Web developers have to treat them differently.

If we ignore the versions and treat all of the different versions of a browser as a single product, then Internet Explorer commands a whopping 67% of global Web browser usage while Firefox is under 22%.

But this isn't how Web developers see the world because when they're building the sites you visit, they have to treat each of the major versions somewhat differently. So, there are really three major browsers, not two. Internet Explorer's share is actually split between IE 7 and IE 6. (But because Firefox users can migrate much faster, its share is already well consolidated in Firefox 3.)

Through that lens, IE 7 is the leading browser, but pretty stalled out around 47%.

Firefox 3 is the browser in second place with a steadily increasing share that broke 19% in February and will probably hit 20% by the end of this month.

Behind Firefox 3, and falling into third place for the first time since its release way back in August of 2001, Internet Explorer 6 continues on its downward trend.

This is great news for Web developers who can start to examine their own traffic stats and hopefully soon, abandon IE 6. Mozilla's Chris Blizzard has called on the global community of Web developers to declare December 31 of this year "end of life" for IE 6 support.

Unfortunately :-) IE 8 will also soon be out and will split the IE share again. Actually, IE 8 will be a much easier browser for Web developers to deal with than IE 6 was so it'll be a fine trade and it can't come too soon.

But that does offer an interesting possibility. With IE 7 share topped out around 47% and IE 8 right around the corner, there will be some month in the not too distant future when the IE 7 falling line crosses the IE 8 rising line somewhere around 23%. Depending on the timing of that, we may have a month where Firefox 3 or Firefox 3.1 is the most used browser on the planet. Even if that doesn't happen, we will no doubt see some months where the top three browsers all have around 23% share and there is no run-away leader in usage.

The data above comes from NetApplications' Market Share report, but it's supported by data from StatCounter and XitiMonitor which each put IE 6 in third place.