Chrome overtakes Firefox for first time

Chrome overtakes Firefox for first time, according to StatCounter

Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times
Dec. 3, 2011

For the first time, Google Chrome outranked Mozilla Firefox in November as the world's second most-used browser, according to Web analystics tracker StatCounter.

Chrome took 25.69 percent of the worldwide market, compared with Firefox's 25.23 percent, according to StatCounter Global Stats, the company's research arm.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer still held the lead with 40.63 percent, but that was down from 48.16 percent a year ago.

In the U.S., Internet Explorer had 50.66 percent of the market, up from 50.24 percent last year. Firefox was second with 20.09 percent, and Chrome had 17.3 percent, up from 10.89 percent, according to StatCounter.

"We can look forward to a fascinating battle between Microsoft and Google as the pace of growth of Chrome suggests that it will become a real rival to Internet Explorer globally," StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen said in a news release.

Of course, StatCounter is just one analytics tracking firm, and numbers from other firms may vary. NetMarketShare.com, for instance, doesn't have Chrome overtaking Firefox just yet. It had Firefox with a 22.14 percent share; Chrome with 18.8 percent; and Internet Explorer with 52.64 percent.

But the overall trend -- of Chrome gaining on Firefox and Internet Explorer declining -- has been observed by several companies.