New data from StatCounter, an Irish metrics company, shows that for the first time, Google Chrome has overtaken Mozilla Firefox as the world"s second-most used web browser on a monthly basis in November. Chrome now stands at 25.69 percent worldwide market share, compared to Firefox at 25.23 percent and Microsoft Internet Explorer at 40.63 percent.
While Chrome is not even a mere half percentage point ahead of Firefox according to this data, this milestone is still quite significant, especially considering Chrome"s global market share gained 10.8 percent just this year. This huge leap in usage comes almost entirely at the expense of Firefox and Internet Explorer, which lost 5.5 percent and 6.3 percent share respectively.
Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter, had this to say about his company"s data: "We can look forward to a fascinating battle between Microsoft and Google as the pace of growth of Chrome suggests that it will become a real rival to Internet Explorer globally. Our stats measure actual browser usage, not downloads, so while Chrome has been highly effective in ensuring downloads our stats show that people are actually using it to access the web also."
However, data from NetApplications, another research firm, shows Firefox still ahead of Chrome at 22.14 percent and 18.18 percent share respectively. Either way, though, the trends from this past year show that Chrome is gaining in popularity while Firefox seems to have plateaued. They both also have quite a way to go to topple the long-standing market leader, Internet Explorer.