Firefox 3 Soldiers On As Firefox 2 Prepares Its Exit

In October, Mozilla witnessed a surge in Firefox 3’s market share as it continued its plan to decommission Firefox 2 — and the Gecko engine that powered it — before the end of December.

For two weeks in October, Firefox 3 claimed 20% market share, something that web metrics company Net Applications predicted might happen within a month of the new version’s June release. Stalled growth, and Chrome’s appearance caused some backslide, but Firefox 3’s pulse is getting stronger.