Firefox lost market share in July to Internet Explorer

IDG News Service - Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer halted the steady market-share advance of The Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser in July, a Web site monitoring company announced today.

Last month, Internet Explorer, by far the most used browser, regained lost ground and pushed back the upstart Firefox for the first time since Version 1.0 of the open-source browser debuted late last year, according to NetApplications.com, an Aliso Viejo, Calif., maker of applications for monitoring and measuring Web site usage.

Firefox's share shrunk to 8.07% from 8.71% in June, while Internet Explorer grew its market slice to 87.2% in July from 86.56% last month.

Between January and June, Firefox had posted monthly market share gains of between 0.5% and 1% at the expense of Internet Explorer, according to NetApplications.com, which compiles its browser usage data from more than 40,000 Web sites monitored by its HitsLink.com service.

NetApplications.com has said in the past that reaching a 10% market share would be a milestone for Firefox that could help it win acceptance in the corporate market.

Apple Computer Inc.'s Safari ranked third and grew its share slightly to 2.13% from 1.93%, while America Online Inc.'s Netscape, which once ruled this market, slid a bit to 1.5% from 1.55%. Opera Software ASA's Opera came in fifth with a 0.49% market share.