Microsoft Forces IE Into Your Hands

Computerworld reports that Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the only browser gaining market share, while Firefox and Safari lose.

Personally, I don't buy it. First of all the percentages are so small to be possibly just noise in the sampling method.

But, as someone who controls a large corporate network, I can say that keeping Internet Explorer from popping back up on computers has been a task. Microsoft uses every underhanded method possible to force users to Internet Explorer 8, even though I've already standardized on Firefox. I've had it reappear on Microsoft Update, already downloaded and ready to install, on several workstations I know had previously been told never to offer the update.

How can you not gain market share when you control the OS and can trick average-joe users into installing it?

As for Apple, they did try to push down Safari to my home machine, which I promptly denied. But I can't tell you of a single Mac user I know who has stopped using Safari on his Mac. Perhaps they just decided to be a little more productive and do a bit less web browsing last month? Or maybe all the Mac addicts were out riding their bikes or climbing a mountain, taking advantage of all the nice weather while Microsoft users where sitting on their collective fat rear ends.

Statistics tell very little sometimes, and when the change is only 0.3% you can't call that a change at all.