Microsoft reports that sites that take advantage of pinning in IE9 have more engaged visitors who spend more time on the site:

• Business Insider – read 57% more pages, spend 95% more time on site
• Flixster – read 34% more pages, spend 57% more time on site
• Gilt – visit 39% more often, add 160% more items to shopping cart, complete 45% more sales transactions
• The Killers – read 65% more pages, spend 103% more time on site
• hi5 – respond to 200% more social requests (like friends, games, notifications)
• Huffington Post – spend 49% more time on site

But, there are some things that organizations must do in order for their sites to take advantage of pinning. I have written previously about how to prepare your site to take advantage of the features of Internet Explorer 9, but now Microsoft is making it even easier.

Microsoft has created a new site for developers (www.buildmypinnedsite.com) to add pinning capabilities in 15 minutes or less. Check out this post from the Exploring IE blog for more details, then go to buildmypinnedsite.com and hook your site up.

Being American, it is easy to take English for granted. When I get new software–whether it’s the latest release of Windows, an update for iOS on my iPhone, or a new Web browser, I assume it will be in English. And it is.

However, for billions of users around the world, English is not the native language. In many countries, English is still used to some extent, and users may be familiar with it, but that doesn’t mean they are fluent in it, or comfortable using it.

I think the number of native languages is sort of a silly thing for browsers to compete on, so I won’t focus on that aspect. I do, however, think it is important for users to be able to use software in their native tongue, or at least a language they are fluent in, to ensure they fully understand the features and controls and can use the software more effectively.

Unfortunately, racing out of the gate is not the same thing as winning the race–and it is highly unlikely that Firefox will win the race. Firefox 3 set launch day download records as well, but that hasn’t stopped the Mozilla browser from steadily declining in market share.

Microsoft’s latest browser–Internet Explorer 9–is only available for Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Windows XP, which is still the number one operating system with more market share than Windows 7 and Windows Vista combined, is left with Internet Explorer 8, and rival browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. It should be a prime opportunity for Mozilla to capture significant market share.

However, Firefox has already been available for Windows XP for years. It didn’t stop IE8 from becoming the leading browser version with more than a third of the overall market, and double the second place Firefox 3.6. If every Firefox 3.6 user makes the switch to Firefox 4, the new Mozilla browser will quickly grab market share, but primarily at the expense of previous Firefox releases, resulting in little change to the overall market share for Firefox as a whole.

As Windows XP users transition to become Windows 7 users, though, most of them will stick with the Microsoft browser they are already familiar with and invested in–and embrace the additional functionality and integration that the Internet Explorer 9 provides with the Windows 7 OS. Those Windows XP / IE8 numbers will transition to Windows 7 / IE9 market share.

There is certainly more parity in the browser market today. The days of Microsoft’s 90 percent market share and virtual monopoly are gone. Firefox has a comfortable market share, and Chrome is on the rise. But, downloads don’t equal usage, and launch day spikes don’t equal market share–so we’ll have to take a look at the usage stats a few months from now and see how things are trending.