Back in February, when Microsoft launched the Windows 7 ballot screen in Europe, it was believed that it might allow other browsers to compete against the dominant browser, Internet Explorer. However, after further research, no browser really benefits from the Windows 7 ballot screen in Europe.
When compared with the worldwide trend of browsers, there is as much or as little as 1% difference between worldwide trends and Europe, based on statistics from statcounter.com.
Google Chrome has increased by 6.4% since January in Europe, and 6.24% worldwide; Internet Explorer has lost 5.25% in Europe, and 5.92% worldwide; Firefox has lost 1.23% in Europe and 0.41% worldwide; Opera has gained 0.05% in Europe and 0.8% worldwide, and Safari has gained 0.86% in Europe and gained nothing in worldwide market share.
Internet Explorer seems to continue its downward trend, where it is getting dangerously close to losing its decade-long run of being the most used browser in history. IE is about to lose its lead to Mozilla Firefox, sometime early next year, unless Google has something to say.
Google Chrome may have only launched two years ago, but is already making a huge splash in the browser market share, gaining just under one percent every month, about as much as IE loses every month. Google Chrome has made a large impact on the European market, but they have also made significant increase in the North American market as well. The increase may not be as large as the European or worldwide trend, but it has done better than any other browser over the past eight months.
It also appears that North Americans aren"t ditching Internet Explorer just yet. IE lost 1.37% since January of this year, while Firefox has dropped a massive 3.47% in the same time period. Both IE and Firefox lost market share in both North American markets and worldwide.
Aside from Google Chrome, Safari was the only other browser that has shown some improvement in market share in all three categories, increasing by 0.97% in North America, and a 0.8% increase in worldwide market share.