Basically the title of this post should have been>>> Vista destroyed the
Windows brand name and its taking IE with it down the drain with it!

[url]http://news.softpedia.com/news/Firefox-vs-Internet-Explorer-Ahead-of-IE8-and-Firefox-3-1-99046.shtml[/url]

For the past couple of years Internet Explorer has been on a downward
spiral, albeit slow, but inching down with every passing month, with only
Firefox to blame. In the race to produce Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox
3.1, Microsoft and Mozilla are also going head to head in an
audience-measuring contest, a constant comparison of market share that is
continually giving the edge to the open source browser over its proprietary
rival. At the start of December, for the first time in its history,
Firefox's market share climbed over 20%. At the same time, Internet
Explorer's trajectory dipped below the 70% mark.

"Reaching 20 percent worldwide market share is a significant milestone for
Firefox and Mozilla," revealed Mozilla's CEO, John Lilly. "It's a huge
achievement by the global Mozilla community, one that just a few years ago
most would have considered impossible. The open web is more vibrant than
ever, and the thousands of Mozilla contributors around the world have played
a major role in making it that way."

Browser Market Share November, 2008


According to statistics provided by Net Applications, at the end of October
2008, Firefox accounted for a market share of 19.97%, and managed to jump
almost one percent to 20.78% in November. During the same period, Internet
Explorer dropped from 71.27% to just 69.77%. At the end of November 2008,
Net Applications credited IE7 with 40.61%, IE6 with 35.18%, Firefox 3.0 with
15.57%, Firefox 2.0 with 4.80%.

"NetApplications has just released their monthly report Browser Market
Share, which shows Firefox hitting 20.72% of the global market in November,"
stated Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's director of community development. "IE is
falling at a slightly faster rate than Firefox is growing. Pretty much all
of the difference can be accounted for in the slow decline of the Windows
desktop, which has this month fallen under the 70% mark for the first time."

Top Browser Share Trend January, 2008 to November, 2008


In the first half of 2009, Microsoft and Mozilla plan to release the gold
versions of Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.1. IE8 is available for
download as a Beta 2 milestone with the Release Candidate Build aimed for
early 2009, and Firefox 3.1 is on the brink of Beta 2, with yet another Beta
scheduled ahead of RC stage. Considering the amount of damage that Internet
Explorer has been taking in terms of its depreciating market share, Firefox
3.1 is bound only to accentuate the pain of Microsoft's browser. It remains
to be seen whether IE8 will gain sufficient traction, and have the necessary
pull to convert IE stray-aways back from Firefox.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is available for download here.