Safari continues its upward climb in Web browser market share, ending November up over four percent for the first time. Safari finished the month in third place with 4.03 percent of the market, up from 3.93 percent in October. Firefox is still in second place with 13.5 percent of the browser market, up from Octoberis 12.96 percent, based on statistics from Market Share.

Continuing its slow downward spiral, Microsoftis Internet Explorer dropped from 81.28 percent to 80.56 percent.

Microsoft Windows Vista was released earlier this week for business users, but that isnit likely to have a significant impact on Web browser usage statistics. When the consumer version is release at the end of January 2007, however, there is a chance Internet Explorer could start grabbing more market share for the first time in several months - assuming consumers buy the operating system.

Appleis Mac OS X 10.5 operating system is due to hit store shelves in the first part of 2007, and that may help boost Safariis number higher as more Windows users switch to the Mac.