Microsoft Internet Explorer continues to make a comeback, gaining market share for the third month in a row, mostly to the detriment of Mozilla Firefox.

According to new statistics from Net Applications, Internet Explorer increased its share of the browser market in July by 0.42%, for a total share of 60.74%. Firefox, on the other hand, took the biggest hit: a loss of 0.9%. Google's Chrome browser lost 0.08%, while Safari gained 0.24%.

IE's gain continues a trend of reversal for the struggling web browser. While Microsoft's browser is still the world's most popular browser by large margins, it has steadily lost market share over the last few years.

However, Net Applications has spotted a trend of recovery for the browser since May. In addition to IE regaining some momentum, Chrome usage has also been soaring. At the short end of the stick though is Firefox, whose market share peaked in April at 24.59% and has steadily dropped since.

These stats fly in the face of the conventional wisdom that Internet Explorer is doomed to decline against the superior speed, extension capabilities and HTML5 support of Firefox and Chrome. And there's an even bigger wrench that will soon be thrown into the mix: Internet Explorer 9, which boasts superior hardware-accelerated speed and strong support for open standards.

Do you think these trends will continue? Which browser is destined to dominate?





