IBM (NYSE: IBM) fanned the flames of the latter day browser wars in the spring when it directed its 400,000 employees to start using Firefox as their default browser. Calling Firefox "the gold standard for what an open, secure and standards-compliant browser should be," IBM exec Bob Sutor gushed on about its interoperability, open source, compliance with standards, and a development schedule not tied to a particular vendor. 

Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) legendary TKO against Netscape is but a distant memory these days, but Internet Explorer has some work to do if it doesn't want to continue losing market share. In October, IE held on to less than 60 percent of the browser market, while Firefox enjoyed about 23 percent, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chrome grew to about 8.5 percent and Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) Safari took about 5 percent, according to NetApplications. 

2010 saw a burst of innovation in browser technologies, with Google putting out a new version of Chrome about every six weeks. The year also witnessed the birth of RockMelt, a browser built for social networking.