TECH BRIEF
Firefox Continues to Pick Up Steam

Firefox is close to reaching 10 percent share in the competitive Web browser marketplace, according to the latest data from Web site monitoring firm NetApplications.

Firefox market share for browser usage grew to 8.71 percent during the month of June up from 8 percent in May, NetApplications' report said. Meanwhile, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) dipped to 86.56 percent in June down .67 percent from May. Most other browsers experienced little change during the same time period.

"Microsoft continues to lose .5 to 1 percent of market share each month, which has been steady throughout 2005," said Dan Shapero, NetApplications COO. "FireFox has steadily increased its user-base each and every month. FireFox is starting to tempt the masses with it strong word of mouth referrals and is expected to gain significant traction once it gains acceptance by large corporations."

According to the firm, the Safari browser was third in the pack, with 1.93 percent share, followed by Netscape at 1.55 percent, Opera at 0.59 percent and Mozilla at 0.58 percent total market share.