Safari, Chrome | featured news

The March launches of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) and Firefox 4 failed to stop Microsoft's and Mozilla's decline in browser share, new Web usage data shows.

Microsoft has launched the finished version of its Internet Explorer 9 web browser amid tough competition from rivals. The company said IE9's graphics handling, security and privacy features put it on an even footing with Firefox, Chrome, Safari and others. The release comes as Microsoft's browser market share is being whittled down by a growing roster of rivals.

Pwn2Own, the annual three-day browser hackathon, has already claimed its first two victims: IE8 on Windows 7 64-bit, and Safari 5 on Mac OS X.

Apple released a new version of Safari on both Mac OS X and Windows, suggesting it has the "performance edge." Our testing doesn't quite agree with that conclusion.

The new browser wars on on. More than a decade after Microsoft killed off Netscape with Internet Explorer, competition in the browser market has never been stronger. Just last week, Mozilla released Firefox 3.5, which has now been downloaded nearly 14 million times.