Google Chrome now owns over one third of the browser market globally, extending its lead over Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as more users make the switch. However, conflicting data still puts IE in the lead.
The latest statistics from StatCounter gives Chrome a 33.8% share of the global market, representing a gain from 32.8% in June of this year and a much more significant gain from the 22.1% of the global market Chrome had in July of 2011.
Internet Explorer is a close second place with 32% of the global market as Firefox finds itself on a steady decline.
For July 2012, Firefox had 23.7% of the global browser market. The fourth place spot on the list of top browsers goes to Safari from Apple with a mere 7.1% of the market.
Chrome was the top web browser in Europe during July, passing Firefox for the first time.
Chrome is also the most popular browser in South America and Asia. Things look different in the US and the UK with Internet Explorer still being the most popular browser.
Statcounter’s figures also reveal that Apple’s Safari web browser is still holding onto 7.1 per cent of the market, while Opera accounts for just 1.72 per cent of the market.
This isn’t the first time that Google has managed to trump Microsoft. Back in June, Google’s online email service, Gmail, overtook Microsoft’s Hotmail. However, Microsoft is hoping it will regain some users with the launch of Outlook.com, which recently signed up “several million users” in just a few days.
Conflicting data?
However, according to another source, data from Net Applications, IE gained another 0.42 per cent in July while Chrome dropped 0.08 per cent.
As of July, IE ruled with 48.95 per cent, Net Applications reported, followed by Firefox with 18.27 per cent and Google’s browser, which earned 17.14 per cent.
In March – amidst reports of Chrome toppling IE – Microsoft accused StatCounter of using a flawed methodology to count traffic, calling StatCounter out for following overall share numbers that are significantly different than data counter Net Applications.
One issue cited by Microsoft was pre-rendering in Chrome, or pages that load as you type in a search query for faster surfing. StatCounter said it stopped counting pre-rendered pages as of May 2012, but they only accounted for approximately 1.5 per cent of all Chrome hits that month.
