CYBERSPACE – In a reversal of recent browser trends, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has recently regained market share from upstart competitor Firefox, the free browser offered by The Mozilla Organization.By all accounts, Firefox’s growth had been a steady one since its November 2004 release, with some reports indicating that Firefox had posted monthly gains of market share ranging between 0.5% and 1% during the first half of 2005.

Internet-analytics firm NetApplications is reporting that Firefox has lost market share since June, with figures showing that Firefox users declined by 0.7% to a total of just over 8% of the market, with IE’s market share expanding by the same amount in the same period of time.

According to a PC World online report, NetApplications once said achieving a 10% market share would be a symbolic victory for Firefox, and a sign of legitimacy when courting potential corporate clientele.

Mozilla appears to be unfazed by the reduction in market share, and is continuing development of their next major release; Firefox 1.5 is scheduled for launch next month.

Other players in the browser market, including the once-dominant Netscape, round out the market with shares of under 3%, with Safari from Apple the #3 browser (2.13% share) and Netscape at approximately 1.5%.