This week has seen Mozilla release Firefox 7, but statistics show Google's Chrome browser may be poised to overtake Mozilla by the end of the year.
The release of Firefox 7 has come only six weeks after the release of Firefox 6, as Mozilla has adopted a rapid release cycle since the launch of Firefox 4, in March.
The latest update is said to use less memory and perform faster than its predecessors.
The number-based update model used by Mozilla and Microsoft contrasts the more fluid approach used by Google Chrome.
While Chrome has also undergone a number of updates since its launch, the updates occur behind the scenes.
Chrome has grown rapidly this year, with the most recent statistics showing the browser currently has 23.6% of the global average user share. Firefox is currently on 26.8%, while Internet Explorer (IE) is on 41.7%.
According to Irish company StatCounter, Chrome is expected to become the second most widely used browser by December.
Statistics show Firefox usage has dropped by 13% since the beginning of the year, while Chrome has seen up to 50% growth. IE has also been losing favour with users, and recorded a 9% drop.
In July, StatCounter reported that Chrome had overtaken Firefox in the UK to take the number two spot after IE.
Chrome took 22.1% of the UK market, up from 3.9% in July 2009. In the same period Microsoft's Internet Explorer fell significantly from 61% to 46% globally and Firefox dropped slightly from 27% to 22%.
"Chrome continues to make significant gains in the browser market going from under 4% two years ago to over 20% today," said StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen.
"Despite falling market share, Internet Explorer still leads in the browser war, but the next few months will be interesting to watch, with Chrome and Firefox almost neck and neck."
Not so fast
US-based analytics company Net Applications estimates a larger gap between Firefox and Chrome, and predicts Google's browser will only overtake its competitor by mid-2012.
According to Net Applications, Chrome could have 17.8% share by year-end, while Firefox will have a projected 22.3%.
While Microsoft has been punting the success of IE 9, according to Net Applications, uptake of the new browser slowed in August compared to previous months since its launch in March.
Net Applications says the majority of IE and Firefox defectors have moved to Google's Chrome browser.
Opera Software's Opera browser and Apple's Safari have remained relatively unchanged at the bottom end of the browser market share.
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