When Google launched Chrome back in December 2008, they had big ideas about the new browser’s popularity, expecting it to topple both Internet Explorer and Firefox. It took some time, but according to StatCounter, Chrome has officially snagged 20% of the browser marketshare. Conversely, they also report that Internet Explorer dipped to nearly 50% for the first time.
According to its market share data report for the month of June 2010, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer led with 53.7 percent, Firefox had 21.7 percent and Chrome 13.1 percent. Apple Inc’s Safari 7.5 percent and Norway’s Opera 1.7 percent.
StatCounter, which is based Ireland, states that it’s statistics are based on data collected from a sample base of more than 15 billion page views per month from over than 3 million websites. Net Applications, a preferred browser statistics source, estimates that Google’s share has not increased quite as much.
Though the reports conflict about Chrome’s actual in-use percentage, the fact that the browser is rapidly gaining popularity is evident in either case.
The usage rankings from Geeks Are Sexy tell a different story, though: Chrome is in a solid second place with 31%, just behind Firefox, which checks in at 42%. Internet Explorer trails sadly along at 11%–a far cry from the reported StatCounter shares. This is skewed, of course, by both time (our stats cover one month, whereas StatCounter is covering an entire year) and the niche of our reader base– who are generally tech savvy and more likely to switch browsers–as compared to the general Internet audience as a whole.
If nothing else, the numbers serve as an interesting cross-section of the various types of Internet users (or citizens, as the case may be). Honestly I don’t understand how IE has anywhere near half the browser marketshare; I switched to Chrome over a year ago from Firefox, which I’d been using for… forever? I expect Chrome usage will continue to skyrocket, and perhaps next year the global average will be more similar to the sort of stats we’e seeing here at [GAS].