Firefox 3.5 has rapidly gained over 2% of the US browser market since its launch Tuesday according to web analytics firm, StatCounter. This brings Firefox’s usage of the US browser market to 31.8% according to StatCounter Global Stats.

Browser version breakdown: http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-US-daily-20090701-20090701-bar

Combined browser breakdown: http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-US-daily-20090701-20090701-bar

“The fastest version yet of Firefox has certainly sprinted out of the blocks with 2.06% usage in the US in a short time,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “This latest addition boosts competition for Microsoft Internet Explorer in the browser market wars.”

StatCounter says that globally Firefox 3.5 has also hit the ground running with 1.95% usage. All Firefox usage globally is 30.7%.

Microsoft IE combined (IE 6, 7 and 8) continues to lead with 60% of the global browser market and 55.8% in the US. Google’s Chrome has a 2.9% usage in the US and similar globally (2.87%).

Global browser breakdown: http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-daily-20090701-20090701-bar

Data is based on an analysis of 180 million page views (42 million from the US) for the 1st July 2009 collected from the StatCounter network of over three million websites.

StatCounter, which provides free website traffic analysis, is one of the largest web analytics companies in the world monitoring in excess of ten billion pageloads per month. Other regional and country breakdowns can be viewed at: http://gs.statcounter.com

About StatCounter

StatCounter, a free online visitor stats tool, was founded in 1999. It offers its members the chance to grow and improve their online businesses by allowing them to monitor the number of hits to their website; the geographical location of visitors; the various pages a visitor views; keywords used to find the site plus other features.

StatCounter currently has over two million members and tracks in excess of ten billion pageloads per month over its network of three million websites.

For information on this real-time, user-friendly, and free visitor stats tool, please visit www.statcounter.com