Since April this year, the geeky alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer gained an extra four percent of the market across the continent.

According to Xiti's research, the browser is now used by some 23.2 per cent of European PC web surfers - up from 19.4% in April.

There is quite some variation within the continent, however.

Slovenia loves the Fox, where over 40 per cent of surfers use the browser. Brits, along with the Spanish and the Dutch are the least Firefox friendly Europeans as the pretty map below shows.

Use of Firefox generally goes up at the weekend in Europe, suggesting that people have the browser on their home PCs and may get what they're given at work.

Worldwide, Europe - at 23.2 per cent - is just behind Australasia (23.4%) in its use of the foxy browser. According to Xiti, 14.5 per cent of North American surfers use Firefox. Its smallest market share is in South America, where it accounts for just 11.1 per cent of active browsers. µ

L'INQ
www.xitimonitor.com