• December 14, 2004

The U.S. browser usage share of Firefox's share of the U.S. browser market has jumped by more than a third in the past month, according to an independent study conducted by analytics provider WebSideStory. The study was conducted between Nov. 5, 2004 and Dec. 3, 2004, during which time Firefox's online share grew from 3.03 percent to 4.06 percent. This compares to a gain of 13 percent during the previous month, from Oct. 8 to Nov. 5.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer currently has a commanding 91.80 percent share of the market, although it continues to decline in the U.S. WebSideStory said that Internet Explorer's share dropped 1.09 percentage points in November. This compares with a 0.32 percentage-point drop. IE has lost a total of 3.68 percentage points since June 4, 2004.

Firefox, a Mozilla-based browser, is a key part of the recent open source movement. Over the past year, Mozilla has been widely rumored as a possible acquisition target of search giant Google, Inc. --Ross Fadner