And when all versions of each browser are taken into account, Internet Explorer still leads the with 45 percent, followed by Firefox with 30 percent and Chrome with 17 percent. In the , the sum total of all versions of IE lead the market with 48 percent, followed by Firefox with 26 percent and Chrome with 14 percent.

But Microsoft's Internet Explorer is declining markedly. On a monthly basis, StatCounter figures show from 55 percent in February last year to 45 percent this year. Google's Chrome, meanwhile, has risen steadily from 7 percent worldwide to 17 percent over the same time period. The official Firefox download counter is available on .

Firefox recently overtook Internet Explorer as the as well. The software for the most downloads for a single piece of software with 8,002,530 for Firefox 3.0 between June 17 and 18, 2008. Even that years-old Firefox 3.0 version, interestingly, currently over Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9.

5 Reasons

So, why is Firefox doing so well? And why is Internet Explorer doing so badly, by comparison? There are several reasons.