Windows 7 users have warmed up to Internet Explorer 9 more than they have with any direct rival of this IE version, namely Firefox 4.0 and Chrome 12. According to statistics from Internet metrics firm Net Applications, this is valid both in the United States and worldwide, with IE9 grabbing the second spot in terms of usage share behind its precursor, Internet Explorer 8. At the end of June 2011, some 47.94% of Windows 7 users in the US were still running IE8, a consistent drop compared to the previous month’s usage statistics, when it accounted for as much as 53.54%. In the same period of time, IE9’s usage share surged from just 13.98% to as much as 19.56%, taking into consideration only Windows 7 customers in the US. At the end of the past month, Firefox 4.0 was used only by 11.30% of those also leveraging Windows 7, up from 11.22% the month before, while Chrome 12 had a usage share of just 8.45%. “June was another good month for Internet Explorer 9 and Windows 7. IE9 has now become the most popular modern browser on Windows 7 in the US. IE9 is now just second overall in the US behind IE8 with 21.8% usage share as of the last day of June. Worldwide, IE9 usage share on Windows 7 is exiting the month with 17.0% usage share for June,” said Roger Capriotti, director, Internet Explorer Product Marketing. “We designed IE9 to make your favorite sites better. A key piece of that is getting sites out of the browser box and letting them integrate right into your Windows 7 taskbar just like any of your favorite apps.” An overview of the market reveals that IE continues to lose market share, dipping from 54.27% to 53.68% in the past couple of months. Firefox too went down to 21.67% from 21.71%, while Chrome continues to attract users, climbing consistently from 12.52% to 13.11% between May and June 2011. Overall, IE8 still retains the browser king crown with a usage share of 30.07% while Firefox 4.0 has jumped into the second position with 10.46%. Net Applications puts IE9 at just 5.63% when all operating systems are taken into consideration, which is unfair to the browser, since it only supports Windows Vista and Windows 7.