Since the numbers for Internet Explorer in the Janco/IT Productivity Center Browser Market Share and Operating System Market Share white paper are so far off the more frequent and more often cited Net Apps browser market numbers, it's not clear whether the truth might lie somewhere in the middle, but that said, they do hold surprises -- and not just for Microsoft.

Net Apps gives IE a 73.02 percent share for this month, as of today, while the Janco white paper says it has slipped to 58.5 percent. Janco's numbers have been lower for some time, though, seeing as it had IE at 65.48 percent a year ago.

The report also suggests that:

• Firefox has a 19 percent share.
• Netscape comes in at over 11.5 percent (and rising).
• Google Desktop leads Safari and Opera.

Interesting, if only because Net Apps doesn't register Google Desktop at all as a browser, and has Netscape at a much less surprising half percent or so. But Janco's data comes from only business-to-business activity, as it calls it, excluding "consumer, adult, children or game sites." Net Apps has an unedited pool of activity, drawn from participating sites, and --I'm guessing -- a much larger number of sites polled in total. Again, the truth must lie somewhere in the middle. According to a short quote in this Redmond Channel Partner piece, Janco disapproves of Time Warner getting rid of Netscape, which was presumably its official in-house browser. No word here on what replaced it. Just another indication that Time Warner will likely soon jettison AOL, part by part or in one fell swoop.