Apple, Mozilla gain ground on Microsoft for Web traffic

When it comes to surfing the Web, a growing number of people used Macs, instead of a Windows computer, as well as browsers other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the month of November.

According to a survey by NetApplications reported on Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog, the number of people accessing the Internet via a Windows PC has dropped below the 90 percent mark, while Mac users have climbed to nearly 9 percent. At the same time, access via Mozilla's Firefox browser - which grew to more than 20 percent - caused the number of users accessing via IE to drop below 70 percent.

NetApplications tracks some 40,000 web sites within its network to determine how users accessed those sites. A company spokesman said the results are slightly skewed because they are weighted more heavily on usage in North America and Europe but said the findings are determined by a strong sampling of sites that range from news to e-commerce.

In addition, the "market share" figures that the company reports are not measured in the traditional sense based on sales or revenue, but does offer a consistent look at measuring trends based on browser or operating system usage.

Google's Chrome browser also saw a big percentage jump - more than 12 percent - but still had only a tiny piece of the pie, given that it's only been offered for a short time. Also gaining ground was Apple's iPhone, which has offered its users an alternative way to access the Web.