More than a decade has elapsed when Microsoft slayed Netscape with its Internet Explorer and ever since the browser battle has never ceased from intensifying ahead.

Only last week we saw Firefox 3.5 being released and it has received 14 million downloads till now! For Apple enthusiasts, the month of June witnessed Safari 4 launch and this March, the Internet Explorer 8 made it to the covers! Amidst all these developments, who could restrain Google from throwing a googly in the form of faster beta of Chrome browser?

Despite best efforts to awe the surfer markets, Microsoft did not fare well even on its advertising campaigns these past days. Who can forget the loathsome video ad of Explorer 8 where a housewife couldn’t stop puking after accidentally viewing mind-ripping porno stuff on her hubby’s PC? The ad itself was innocuous yet the depiction of the idea of using private browsing feature didn’t register well with users. Result? The “Oh my God! I'm gonna puke” ad had to be pulled off from all video sites including Microsoft’s own website! Whether the ad was queasier or amusing for one or many, the fact is that it attracted a lot of negative publicity. Some people even went to the extent saying that as the ad made them poop more than they should, they’re gonna contemplate filing a lawsuit. Oh my God! That’s sounds a bit unfair.

Amidst all this whirling of ad campaigns, Microsoft announced that it would make Explorer 8 available on 25th August, 2009 as an update rollup on Windows Server Update Services and carry on promoting its latest version to consumers. Another fold in Microsoft’s already desperate countenance can be noticed in its Ten Grand is Buried Here contest. Now Microsoft Australia is hooting out loud to users that they toggle to Internet Explorer 8 and claim the buried loot of ten grands. I hope you’d agree that such a move from Microsoft is indicative of a waning confidence in its line extension and sounds bizarre to all discerning users.

As Microsoft grapples with its marketing tools to foist a browser on gullible folks around the world, the facts offer a contrasting picture. Going by the data gleaned from the Stat Counter, it becomes prominent that Microsoft’s IE 8 had lost close to 11.4 per cent market share to Safari, Chrome and significantly its arch rival Firefox.

Firefox 3 is predominant with an impressive market share of 27.6 per cent which does not factors in on last week’s upgrades. In the chart above, IE 8 is shown by a light blue line and the dotted line right below is what shows the cumulative set of Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome browsers. For sure, a final shakeup is very close in the market of browsers and who wins is the big question that time would answer effortlessly.