The firm's newest numbers show slightly more than 86 percent of Internet surfers worldwide utilize the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser. The figure represents an all-time high, and was reported at WebSideStory's StatMarket on June 18.

StatMarket is an "Internet intelligence service" that gathers and reports data on Internet user trends. The statistics are collected from the 50 million plus users per day that visit the tens of thousands of sites that use WebSideStory's HitBox analysis technology. StatMarket's info is gathered and reported on a daily basis.

Reports indicate that usage of MSIE has steadily risen over the past 18 months, going from 64.6 percent on Feb. 8, 1999. Netscape users fell to a new low of 13.9 percent during this same time period, and "other" browser users numbered merely .02 percent. Microsoft also dominates the OS market, with 93.63% of Web surfers using a Windows OS product as of June 18. The OS stats represent a slight decline since early 1999.

For information about WebSideStory's subscription services, such as HitBox Enterprise, HitBox Pro, StatMarket and HitBox Wireless, visit the WebSideStory, Inc. Web site.