Firefox on Thursday gained ground after the launch of its newest its launch on June 30, gaining 2 percent share in the US market against its rival internet browsers.

The browser took a total of 31.8 percent of the US browser market to on July 1, according to Statcounter.com, while Microsoft’s Internet Explorers continue to lead with 55.8 percent. Google’s new entrant Chrome garnered 2.9 percent usage in US market.

“The fastest version yet of Firefox has certainly sprinted out of the blocks with 2.06% usage in the US in a short time,” said Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “This latest addition boosts competition for Microsoft Internet Explorer in the browser market wars.”

Firefox on its 3.5 beta has more than 250 percent faster than its 3.0 version and reportedly gain more speed of 4 percent against Google’s Chrome 2.

It also hit 1.95 percent usage internationally to 30.7 percent in a data based on 180 million page views, which Firefox has 300 million people, up from 175 million in 2008. Microsoft Internet Explorer takes 60 percent globally.

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 features a private browsing mode that hides browser activity, a faster JavaScript engine known as TraceMonkey, location services and support for HTML 5.

The released is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and available in more than 70 languages. It is downloadable from its website. Existing user will be prompted directly for updates within the browser.

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