September saw a number of interesting shifts in the browser market with IE plummeting to 65.7 percent, its lowest percentage since Netscape was still a viable option, dropping 1.3 percent in just one month. The decline is also one of the biggest drops in over a year. Meanwhile, Firefox had one of the best months in recent history and Google Chrome saw strong growth considering its very small market share, according to data gathered by Computer World.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer has been on a downward spiral for many months now and lost 8.5 percent market share in the past year alone. Moreover, the trend seems to be accelerating with a 2.6 percent drop in the past three months and now with significant 1.3 percent dip in September. The browser still enjoys a significant lead and its 65.7 percent combined market share is almost three times bigger than its closest follower Mozilla Firefox. Still, if the trend does continue, Firefox may become a viable contender for the first place within a few years.

Firefox has seen a very good month with all versions of the browser adding up to take a 23.8 percent slice of the market very close to its highest ever recorded numbers. The browser hit 23.84 percent in April this year but dropped slightly after that. Firefox grew 0.8 percent in September, the biggest rise in a month in almost a year and if the trend continues, it might set a new record this month. Separate data shows Firefox 3.5, the browser's latest version, gaining 4 percent in the last month a very strong growth spurred by Mozilla's automatic update program.

Google Chrome has also seen a slight rise in adoption, gaining 0.3 percent the previous month. The growth may not seem like much but considering that Chrome's overall market share now reached 3.2 percent, it is a considerable gain. Google's web browser gained 0.8 percent in the past three months. Opera grew by 0.15 percent to reach 2.2 percent market share, while Apple's Safari, 4.2 percent with a very slight bump.