In December 2009, Europe had settled an antitrust case against Microsoft by requiring the software giant to offer a browser ballot to provide consumers a choice for their internet experience. The Internet Explorer browser is unmatched in terms of market share. The ballot provided by the EU case, gives consumers a choice from the top 12 browsers.

The ballot seems to be having only a minor influence in the browser market. Although, the ballot has doubled Opera’s downloads, it has not seem to have a significant impact on consumer choice.  Currently, it seems that Google’s Chrome is doing the most damage to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

From August through September, all browsers’ market share seemed to stabilize with the exception of Google’s Chrome web browser.

Chrome has gained ground against the dominant Internet Explorer. Even though Internet Explorer released it’s IE9 BETA, it lost .75% for that period.

From Aug through Sept:

• Chrome gained .45%
• Firefox gained .03%
• Safari gained .11%
• Internet Explorer browsers lost .75%

Firefox 4 Beta 1 was released by Mozilla. The official release will take place at the end of the year, 2010.

Firefox 4 will be a major upgrade from earlier versions, which will include:

• A redesign of the user interface
• Tabs are at the top — except in the Mac version
• enhanced HTML5 support
• hardware-accelerated HD video
• WebSockets – low-complexity, low-latency, bi-directional communication system
• enhanced add-on support via Jetpack: a tool that allows developers to create add-ons without needing to have in-depth programming knowledge. Extensions are built using CSS, Javascript and HTML. When they are installed the user will not need to restart the browser.
• Jetpack Gallery – browse the inventions of others in the community – if you build it, they will browse it. :)