Internet Explorer, our least favorite browser over at Redfish Bluefish Media (it still fails to incorporate many of the CSS standards that all of the other modern browsers use), is down to only 20% usage total.

Here’s the breakdown as of January 2012:

• Mozilla Firefox: 37.1% (version breakdown)
• Google Chrome: 35.3% (version breakdown)
• IE: 20.1% (version breakdown)
• Apple Safari: 4.3% (version breakdown)
• Opera: 2.4% (version breakdown)

A careful look through the version breakdowns above shows that IE users are the slowest to update (virtually all Chrome users and Firefox users run the latest stable version of a browser in any given month), and old versions of IE are quite pesky to code correctly with a modern “look.”

We’ve recently discussed whether we’re going to continue supporting IE7, given that the time investment to code for IE7 could mean placing additional, unnecessary restrictions on our code. The answer for the moment is “yes,” although only 3.1% of all Internet users are still on IE7. The real change is Chrome usage, up to 35% from only 3% in 2009, taking share from both IE and from Firefox (although Firefox is holding steady, whereas IE is not).

But that could change within the next year, since as of 2009, nearly half of all users were on Internet Explorer, and they’ve lost market share steadily over that time period. We’re glad to see that change happen.