In fact, not only did Firefox 4 in its first three hours and almost --surpassing by far Internet Explorer 9--but by Wednesday, the day after its official release, it had already claimed of the worldwide Internet browser market, research firm StatCounter.

"Firefox 4 has really hit the ground running and has eclipsed the launch of IE 9," said Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter's CEO.

By Tuesday, IE 9 had taken just 0.87 percent of the worldwide market; as of Wednesday, even the newly released Opera 11 browser also had a steady lead over IE9, StatCounter reported.

StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected on a sample of more than 15 billion page views per month--including 4 billion from the United States--from its network of more than three million websites.

IE on the Decline