Firefox 3.5 Is More Popular Than IE 7 or IE 8

Firefox has finally achieved one of its main goals, surpassing Internet Explorer as the most popular web browser. This latest shift is illustrated by a new batch of browser share stats from analytics firm StatCounter, which is making the rounds on tech news blogs Tuesday.

There is, however, one big catch to StatCounter’s numbers — to arrive at the conclusion that Firefox is bigger than IE, you have to break down both Firefox and Internet Explorer’s share into separate version numbers.

Firefox’s popularity among web evangelists sometimes leads to overly-optimistic press, and StatCounter’s latest numbers are no exception. Which isn’t to say that StatCounter’s numbers are wrong, merely that, as Mark Twain said, “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”