Microsoft rivals leave minor marks online

The latest Mozilla and Netscape Web browsers are cropping up on more computers worldwide, but they still only represent a few trees in a forest of Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers.

According to new research from Amsterdam-based OneStat.com, Mozilla 1.0 global usage has grown from 0.4 percent in June to 0.8 percent this month, nearly four months after its release. Netscape 7.0 global usage has risen from 0.3 percent to 0.5 percent in the same period.

In comparison, global usage for Microsoft's latest browser, IE 6, has grown from 46.4 percent to 52.3 percent from June to September, the study found.

In total, Microsoft's collection of IE browsers constitutes 94.9 percent of the market; the browsers of AOL Time Warner-owned Netscape and Mozilla represent 3 percent of the market; and Opera constitutes 0.9 percent.

OneStat.com provides real-time Web analysis software that helps track visitor behavior and Web site performance. The company tracks global usage of Web browsers by monitoring the number of people using a specific browser to each site with OneStat software installed. The research is based on a sample of 2 million visitors divided into 20,000 visitors of 100 countries each day.

Microsoft's IE 6.0 is rising in popularity at the expense of its other versions. IE 5.5 is down from 23.9 percent to 20.9 percent market share from June to September, for example. Netscape Navigator 4.0 dropped from 1.4 percent to 1.2 percent in global usage in the same period.