The most popular browsers are IE, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari and while each has their advantages and disadvantages, it largely comes down to personal choice. 

While Internet Explorer has always been the dominant force, Firefox is gaining, and with the lightweight and speedy Google Chrome increasing its presence, developers need to ensure that they are building sites which work for the user, regardless of the browser. 

Back in April 2002, the web browser market was void of competitiveness with Explorer holding a rather overbearing 96.6% of worldwide browser usage.  Today, in terms of popularity, Internet Explorer is still way out in front with a solid share of 60.74%. Firefox has a reasonable chunk with 22.91%, but is trending downwards, losing its market to Chrome and Safari. 

In an interesting development that has the potential to change the landscape, European courts recently ruled that Microsoft was abusing their power by bundling Explorer as the default browser with Microsoft Windows. Microsoft therefore agreed to offer European Windows users a choice of available browsers.

The long term effects of this ruling and the ongoing changes to the web browser market mean that it’s a space on the web worth keeping an eye on. 

Information sourced from http://mashable.com/2010/08/01/ie-firefox-july-browser-market/