The August 2007 Web server survey by internet monitoring firm Netcraft, Inc., found that Microsoft increased its web server market share, adding 2.6 million sites and improving its market share by 1.4% to 34.2%.
The study also found that open source mainstay Apache dropped by 1.7% to 48.4%.
According to a Netcraft statement, Apache has been the leading Web server software since back in March of 1996. In November 2005, Apache was found on 71% of Web sites, putting it more than 50 percentage points ahead of Microsoft IIS (20.2 percent). At the time, Apache's market share advantage seemed insurmountable. But less than two years later, Microsoft has narrowed that 50% gap to 16.7 percent.
The survey also notes that Apache has lost market share to another open source server, lighttpd, as well as Google (which, at 4.4%, uses Apache code).
For more information, see Netcraft's AUgust 2007 Web Server Survey.
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