Google’s Chrome browser is in a position to steal away the number 2 browser spot from Mozilla Firefox sometime very soon. StatCounter, a Web statistics company, tracks browser usage via its free analytics tools. The data from that tracking indicates that Chrome will become more popular than Firefox by the end of 2011.
Data presented by StatCounter Wednesday indicates that Chrome has a global average user share of 23.6% in September. That compares to 26.8% for Firefox and 41.7% for Internet Explorer. The most surprising part of this is not that Chrome is in a position to overtake Firefox but that IE still has that high of a user share.
In turns out that Chrome has had quite a meteoric rise in 2011. The software has seen a user share increase of eight percentage points since January 2011. That equates to a 50% increase in user share.
If you look at Firefox usage over the same period the data shows a four percentage point decrease, equating to a 13% overall decline. IE has also fallen four percentage points which is a 9% dip for that software. This essentially means that most people defecting from IE or Firefox are going over to Chrome.
By StatCounter’s projections, in December, Chrome will surpass Firefox with a user share of 26.6% to Firefox’s 25.3%.
Another statistic tracking company, Net Applications, shows a larger gap between the two browsers. By Net Applications numbers Firefox holds 22.6% of the user share while Chrome only has 15.5%. Net Applications sees Chrome passing Firefox by mid-year 2012 instead of end of year 2011.
Net Applications is often the tracking company that browser makers pull their numbers from because the company weights their data based on the number of users who traverse sites they monitor in a given region. Either way both companies are showing the same overall statistical trend, users are migrating away from Firefox and IE and over to Chrome.
Which is your browser of choice? I’m personally a Firefox user but I also use Safari on my Mac. I haven’t really given Chrome a fair shake yet. With these numbers I’m strongly considering giving Chrome an extended trial to see if it fairs better than other browsers for me.
