Microsoft's iron grip on the Web browser market has slipped ever so slightly since the release of new products from rivals Mozilla and Netscape Communications, Web researcher OneStat.com reported on Monday.

For the month ended 21 June, 95.3 percent of all Web surfers used various versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to access Web sites included in the survey. That's down 1.3 percent from the previous month, Amsterdam-based OneStat said.

Netscape 7.0 was used by 0.3 percent of the sample. Released by AOL Time Warner division Netscape last month, it helped push the browser's overall showing to 3.4 percent, a gain of 0.6 percent.

Mozilla 1.0, released two weeks ago as the first public version of the Netscape-inspired open-source browser, was used by 0.4 percent of the sample.

Browser maker Opera Software saw its share increase from 0.5 percent to 0.7 percent. Opera 6.0, with 0.6 percent of global usage, was the sixth most popular browser for the period, according to OneStat.

Despite the nearly imperceptible drop in IE's total market share, the pace of adoption for Microsoft's latest version of the browser, Internet Explorer 6.0, rose faster than all of its competitors combined. Since April, IE 6's global usage has increased 1.7 percent, for a total of 46.4 percent. Earlier versions of the browser, including IE 5.5, 5.0 and 4.0, make up the rest of Microsoft's overall share.

OneStat said its research is based on a sample of 2 million visitors divided into 20,000 visitors from 100 countries each day. Global shares of usage were calculated by measuring during the period the number of visitors who, through a specific browser, accessed Web sites that use one of OneStat's services.

The research group provides Web statistics services for sites such as Lycos and Air France. According to the company, its services are used by thousands of sites around the world.

Related Links Mozilla 1.0 unleashed on browser market

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