If, like me, you keep an eye on the statistics for web browsers - riveting, I know - then this might be of interest.
Last night, in a moment of languid and idle web jiggery-pokery, I was having a look at how the Technology Guardian website was doing (nicely enough, thank you for asking). While I was there, I happened to take a gander at what browsers our readers are using. Turns out that 32% of our readers don't use Internet Explorer.
Now, of course, one would expect that the readership of Technology are a little more likely to have ditched Microsoft's lame-duck IE6 browser, but month-on-month figures show the volume of alternative browsers is up slightly for October.
It's tough to draw conclusions - and personal experience is that most people don't have much control over the programs they use at work (both the machines at Johnson Towers - that's one Mac and one PC - use Firefox, but in the office I'm forced to use Internet Explorer).
Of course, that could all change whenever Microsoft starts shipping out IE7 with Vista - except for the fact that there might be a tipping point when the overall ease of sticking with the browser you've got is greater than the overall ease of using an MS browser. That's the point when people become permanent converts. So how many of those now defecting to, say, Firefox and Opera, are ever going to go back to Internet Explorer? How many will turn back?
