Browser Battle Update

According to Net Applications, use of Internet Explorer dropped to 67.55% of the market in January of 2009, down a precipitous 12% from nearly 80% of the market in February of 2007. Most of this share was lost to Firefox (about 7%, as FF jumped from 14% to 21% in the same time frame), and a surprisingly surging Safari (about 4%, since Safari went from 4% to 8% in the same time frame). Google's Chrome went from 0 to 1% in 5 short months, so it is certainly one to watch as well.

My (surprising?) prediction: Safari 4 is going to be one of the best browsers to use in 2009. With fast Webkit page rendering speed, knock-your-socks-off JavaScript speed (courtesy of SquirrelFish Extreme), and Acid 3 compliance, what more could you ask for? Firefox 3.1 will have blazing JavaScript speed, too, but with page rendering not quite as fast as Webkit. Nevertheless, Firefox 3.1 will still be the more mature and tested-against browser so you'll want to have it handy even if you opt for Safari (or Chrome) as your main browser.

Stay tuned. It's going to be an interesting year...