WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- For the 10th consecutive month, the popularity of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser has declined. Netscape's browser showed the strongest growth in market share in August, rising 33% to a 2.02% share, according to NetApplications, a Web-site analysis company.

Mozilla's Firefox browser maintained its second place position. Last month, when Firefox had an 8.07% share of usage, Dan Shapero, chief operating officer of NetApplications, said the browser was "flirting with mass appeal." In August, Firefox's share rose to 8.27%.

The market share of Microsoft's (MSFT) Internet Explorer slipped to 86.3%. In October of last year, IE peaked at 92.3%.

Meanwhile, Mozilla has released its first update to Firefox since November. Code-named Deer Park 1.5, the new software offers minor tweaks to its look and feel, but has no dramatic changes, according to Computerworld.