Microsoft"s Internet Explorer Web browser has dropped 1% according to Web analytics firm WebSideStory. Internet Explorer has always experienced small spikes with its popularity, but never a number drop like this. After all Microsoft hasn"t done anything innovative with Internet Explorer for a while now, and users are finally looking at alternatives.
Internet Explorer use is dropping for the first time in years, according to San Diego, Calif.-based Web analytics firm WebSideStory. WebSideStory Inc."s real focus is its on-demand Web analytics services for business customers, said Erik Bratt, the company"s corporate communications director. But the data collected from thousands of Web sites and 20 million to 40 million users a day has shown WebSideStory that there is a small decline in Internet Explorer use from 95.73 percent on June 4 to 94.73 percent on July 6.
Now, a 1 percent drop may not sound like much, but Geoff Johnston, WebSideStory user trend analyst, said the company has never seen IE use decrease. "We"ve never seen a dip in IE [Internet Explorer] use before," Johnston said. "Before this, it was always upwards, or since July 2002, hovering around 95.5 percent." It"s not just WebSideStory observing this phenomenon. OneStat.com, a Web analytics firm based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, also reported a downturn in IE usage. The company "confirms this decrease of the global usage share of IE. On January 19, the global usage share of IE was 94.8 percent, and on May 28, the global usage share was 93.9 percent," according to a representative for OneStat.com.