NEW YORK, USA: There has been limited take up to date of Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 8 according to research by StatCounter which provides free website traffic statistics.

According to StatCounter Global Stats global usage in the first day of launch (March 19) was 1.39 percent. This is just above its previous day's market penetration of 1.33 percent.

Microsofts IE slips further as Firefox gains

The new browser has been in public beta testing for about a year. By 20th March 17:00 GMT IE 8 market share had risen to 1.56 percent.

"I suppose the kindest description of user reaction to IE 8's first public outing would be 'underwhelming'," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder of StatCounter.

He contrasted the performance to the launch of Firefox 3 last June. "Firefox 3 managed to convert users from its previous browser. Usage of Firefox 3 more than doubled from 7.8 percent at beta testing to 18.9 percent over a three day period following the launch (June 16-18)."

StatCounter is one of the largest website traffic monitoring companies in the world with over two million members globally. Over 40 percent are located in the US with 25 percent in Europe. Its analysis is based on four billion pageloads per month.

Click here to follow how IE 8 is performing...!