Google reigns supreme not only in Internet search, but now, in how people access the Internet.
That’s at least according to the latest data from global Web tracking firm StatCounter, which indicates Google’s Chrome web browser recently eclipsed the long-reigning champion, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, to become the world’s most popular Web browser on desktop computers.
Google Chrome surpassed Internet Explorer the week of May 7 to May 13, according to StatCounter.
Chrome now accounts for 32.76 percent of the overall browser market share, compared to 31.94 percent for Internet Explorer, by StatCounter’s metrics. Mozilla Firefox, once the second most popular browser in the world, now lingers in an increasingly distant third, with 25.47 percent of the global browser pie. Google Chrome surpassed Firefox in December 2011, according to StatCounter.
The news is great for Google, which only launched Chrome in September 2008, and has spent the past several years aggressively marketing the browser with a multinational video and display advertising campaign.
A Google spokesperson provided TPM the following statement on StatCounter’s latest data:
“It’s great to see more and more people around the world experiencing the speed, simplicity and security of Chrome. We continue to remain focused on building a better browsing experience so that people can enjoy a better web.”
Google declined to provide its own internal data on browser usage and declined to verify the accuracy of StatCounter’s browser usage data.
But the lack of official data from Google only underlines a major disparity when it comes to browser usage. Another third-party tracking company, Net Applications, found that for the month of April 2012, Google Chrome was in third place, with 19 percent of the desktop browser market, compared to Mozilla Firefox’s 20 percent and Internet Explorer’s dominant 54 percent market share.
The differing results aren’t surprising given that Net Applications and StatCounter each pursue their own distinct methods of determining global browser usage data. NetApplications states that it “counts” unique browser visits to the 40,000 websites in its network, totaling about 160 million such visits each month. StatCounter says it has a much wider sample size, surveying 3 million websites in its network and 15 billion page views a month.
StatCounter, for its part, said that its measurements are more accurate as a result of its larger sample size. As a StatCounter spokesperson told TPM: “We’re confident in our figures…We are not aware of any other publicly available service providing market share stats that has a bigger sample on which they base their information.”
Both firms also state that they account for Chrome’s feature of “prerendering” certain popular webpages based on previous traffic data, loading the pages in the background in anticipation that a user will click through and eventually view them.
With Internet Explorer usage slipping and the browser increasingly derided by Web users (The Atlantic‘s tech editor Alexis Madrigal, for one, advocated that Black Friday be rebranded “Update Your Parent’s Browser Day” in an effort to get parents to switch from IE), Microsoft in late March launched a new advertising campaign for Internet Explorer 9 that openly acknowledges Internet Explorer as the “browser you loved to hate.”
That said, the news of Chrome’s ascent also highlights the fact that when it comes to the future of web browsing — mobile devices — the market is still wide open, with Apple’s Safari mobile browser, Norwegian software company Opera’s eponymous mobile browser, and Google’s Android browser all competing to own the future of mobile. Google in February launched a mobile version of Chrome exclusively for its Android smartphones, before that the company relied on an Android-specific browser.
Google sources told TPM that the company “would like to bring the same speedy, simple and seamless Chrome web browsing experience to other mobile platforms, but have nothing new to announce at this time.”
Mozilla, a non-profit foundation, also has a well-reviewed Firefox mobile browser app exclusively for Android, and has openly stated that it has been stymied in its efforts to bring Firefox to the iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry “due to platform restrictions.” Despite reportedly investing heavily in mobile browsing development, Mozilla has also signaled that it may not pursue a mobile version of Firefox specifically for forthcoming Windows 8 tablets, due out in the fall, because of Microsoft’s restrictions.
