Internet Explorer 7 Likely to Gain Rapid Adoption, According to WebSideStory

WebKnowHow
Thursday, October 26, 2006; 03:34 AM

WebSideStory , provider of digital marketing and analytics solutions, released a study claiming that Microsoft's new browser will likely gain rapid adoption on the web if past history is any indication. Based on the growth of its predecessor, IE 7 should become the dominant browser version within a year, perhaps even faster as Microsoft bundles the new browser and its enhanced security measures into an automatic security update.

Launched in Aug. 2001, IE 6 grew to more than 45 percent usage share within one year on Windows operating systems, and then surpassed IE 5 for good one month later, according to the WebSideStory Index, a compilation of global Internet user trends and e-commerce statistics. Index data is collected from the millions of daily Internet users who visit web sites using WebSideStory's on-demand web analytics technology, HBX Analytics. IE 6 achieved 80 percent market share in early 2004, before hitting a high of 89 percent on March 8, 2006. Launched last week, IE 7 is already gaining steam, picking up more than 1.5 percentage points to rise to 4.07 percent usage share as of yesterday -- a 65 percent jump. Despite containing features first popularized in Firefox, such as tabbed browsing, IE 7 is not expected to have much of an impact on the growth of Firefox, which released its latest version (v2) earlier this week. Firefox had a U.S. usage share of 9.88 percent on Windows as of last Friday, compared with 86.18 percent for all versions of Internet Explorer, according to WebSideStory.

"We expect IE 7 to have little short-term impact on Firefox because once a favorite browser gets installed, it's difficult to replace. For now, Firefox appears to have become the browser of choice for about 10 percent of Americans," said Rand Schulman, Chief Marketing Officer at WebSideStory. "IE 7 will grow quickly, but directly at the expense of IE 6."

In addition to enhanced security measures, such as a phishing filter and new parental controls, IE 7 also contains new user interface improvements and Web 2.0 capabilities, including an RSS feed aggregator and improved Ajax support. Other browsers such as Firefox and Flock are also beginning to offer new Web 2.0 capabilities, such as support for rich web applications and the ability to share photos and other content with people online.