Which Web browser do you use to surf the Web? According to the most recent statistics, more and more of you are choosing Mozilla’s Firefox Web browser. If you have been paying attention to the Web browser battle between Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox, then you know that IE is losing about 6 percent of its market share a year for the past three years.

Mozilla first introduced its Web browser, Version 1, on June 5, 2002. In its first full calendar year of public release (2003), only 4 percent of Web surfers were using it compared to 84.6 percent for IE. Mozilla improved to 5.5 percent in 2004, while IE gained a modest 1/10th of a percent (84.7). In 2005, Mozilla released Firefox and that’s when the ball started rolling for the open source browser. Between existing versions of Mozilla and the newer Firefox, Mozilla went from 5.5 percent to 20 percent of the browser market share, taking a huge chunk out of IE’s popularity.

Since that watershed year, Mozilla has continued to chip away at IE’s lead in the browser war and as of January 2008, Mozilla browsers accounted for 38.5 percent to IE’s 54.7 percent. After a quick look at the Google Analytics stats for some of my clients, those numbers are very accurate across the board.

What is causing IE’s decline in popularity? Is it the underdog status and grassroots ad campaigning for Firefox? Maybe Web surfers are just trying to “stick it to the man” (i.e. Microsoft) for shoving IE and Vista down our throats. Another possible explanation is the increasing popularity of Apple’s computer line and the fact that Microsoft no longer supports a Mac-compatible version of the once-mighty browser. Instead, Apple comes standard with Safari, though I immediately downloaded Firefox.

Personally, I believe Firefox is a superior and more user-friendly browser. It supported the use of tabs long before IE, which was the major selling point for me. I am a habitual multi-tasker and I routinely have 8-10 Web sites open in Firefox. When Microsoft introduced IE 7 in 2006, it came with a tabbed browsing feature, but it was too little too late for this Web surfer. IE has been collecting dust in my Programs File folder ever since. If I need to test a Web site in IE, I use this browser checker Web site.

The other reason Mozilla has been so successful, in my opinion, is the fact that it is an open source browser, which means it allows developers to create cool add-ons that let users integrate into the browser so they can do cool stuff like add a weather bug at the bottom of the browser, add various tool bars, and much more. IE lets you do that too, but is much more selective about which developers it will allow to create add-ons or plug-ins.

From a Web designer’s perspective, Firefox is fully compliant with current CSS Web design standards, while IE continues to defy the World Wide Consortium’s recommended guidelines regarding CSS and other Web design coding standards. Often times, this forces Web designers to design Web sites with specific coding, or “hacks”, specifically for the IE browsers. This is a major headache. However, it is no surprise that we are hearing rumors that IE 8, expected to be release later this year, will be fully CSS compliant. I say “no surprise” because IE continues to lose market share in the browser war and they are finally realizing that they are no longer the dominant browser of choice. In fact, if they continue to lose 6 percent a year, Mozilla will be the most popular browser by January 2010.

Lastly, Firefox is widely considered a more secure Web browser. Because Mozilla is an open source platform, some of the best minds in the world are constantly testing it and improving it, making it one of the most secure Web browsers available today and it is all completely free. Microsoft, on the other hand, is not an open source company and maintains strict security measures to protect their IE browser, which is kinda funny because they have more security breaches than any other browser.

If you would like to try Mozilla Firefox, you download it for free here. I highly recommend it.