Want to know what the most used Windows applications are, based on a real-time survey of 75,000 software tracked volunteers? 

Ding! How wrong could I be? If the results of the Wakoopa 'State of Apps' survey are to be believed then Internet Explorer is a loser not a winner in the Windows software trends stakes.

The inaugural edition of what Wakoopa promises will be a quarterly dip into Windows software trending has Mozilla Firefox sitting comfortably at the top of the most used applications tree, followed not by Internet Explorer which can only manage third place, but rather by Google Chrome in second.

Just for the record, Wakoopa ran a similar survey for Mac users and Firefox also came out top there as well, beating off Apple Safari by quite a margin.

I could not help but wonder how representative these results really are of the broad computer using public. A feeling inflamed somewhat by the fact that Google Chrome also proved 'more popular' in usage rather than usability terms than Internet Explorer.

Wakoopa reckons that 48 percent of the people it tracks are "extremely proficient with computers and software" while 88 percent of them are male, with a median age of 26.9 years. Although I cannot be sure, I suspect that if asked a whole bunch of them would agree that they are either nerds or geeks as well.

That might explain why Firefox rated at 29.83 percent overall usage on the Windows platform, with Google Chrome on 6.7 percent and Internet Explorer just 6.2 percent. So while this is a fascinating insight into the software that a small subset of Internet users prefer, it is hardly representative of the broader Internet population I fear.

Internet Explorer has much to fear from Mozilla, no doubt about that, but this survey should be taken with a very large pinch of salt when thought of in terms of being any kind of real indicator of general Windows user opinion. The fight between Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer is far from over.