Microsoft Internet Explorer for the first time in the complete decade has failed to be the leading Web browser in Europe. An Irish research company that chases Web use on Tuesday reported that Internet Explorer relinquished the position to Mozilla’s Firefox.
StatCounter, a web research firm in Dublin and two such firms disputed the news. According to them, Firefox vanquished Explorer in December with 38.1 % share compared to 37.5 % shares of Internet Explorer.
Firefox Leads Over Internet Explorer In Europe
Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter’s chief executive and founder stated that Explorer had lost major market shares to Google Chrome. Chrome’s share has risen from 5.1% a year to 14.6%.
The Mozilla spokesperson in Berlin, Barbara Hüppe said that the company will follow other rankings which still place Microsoft above Firefox in Europe. She also added that StatCounter’s rating portrays that the market was tightening. According to her being the leading browser in Germany, the biggest European market, since 2010, helped a lot.
AT Internet in Bordeaux, France, Net Applications in California and Adtech in Dreieich, Germany still rank Firefox below Internet Explorer in Europe.
The measurement of exact Web activity is not possible. Research companies use different sample sizes to determine the ranking, which according to Researchers explains the discrepancies.
Mr. Cullen said that the rankings are figured out by compiling the market shares from three million sites, based on around 15 billion page views per site every month.
Microsoft has been circulating a computer ballot screen in the European Union that requests to choose a browser. This is to avert sanctions in an antitrust case which has affected the overall market share distribution slightly.
But Ms. Hüppe said that in the long run selection process could impregnate the habit of selecting their browser in more consumers.