Here is the results from W3 of the browser usage statistics for the later half of 2008.

2008            IE7             IE6         Chrome       Firefox     Mozilla     Safari      Opera
November      26.6%      20.0%      3.1%      44.2%      0.4%      2.7%      2.3%
October         26.9%      20.2%      3.0%      44.0%      0.4%      2.8%      2.2%
September      26.3%      22.3%      3.1%      42.6%      0.5%      2.7%      2.0%
August            26.0%      24.5%      0.1%      43.7%      0.5%      2.6%      2.1%
July                26.4%      25.3%      0.3%      42.6%      0.5%      2.5%      1.9%

As you can see, Google's mass marketing of Chrome on Google and Youtube along with the hype over it's speed have paid off for them.

IE7 seems to be staying stable, although Decembers result will be down a few % hopefully due to the recent security scare.

Firefox is still gaining slow and steady as it always has done, no slowing there. Firefox with the new tracemonkey Javascript engine should shoot their score up even more, stealing back some of the Chrome users who switched only for the speed. Opting for the speed of Chrome over the many other benefits of Firefox.

For some reason Opera is gaining popularity fast... There is no major news from opera other than the 9.63 release a couple days ago, which you can download now at our partner site FileQuake.com