Jan 02 2010

Google Chrome is Now the No. 3 Browser

Don’t look now guys, but only 16 months after it was officially released, Google Chrome is now the world’s no. 3 browser, based on Net Applications’ web browser usage data for December.

Screen shot 2010-01-03 at 6.28.45 AM

What makes this more interesting is that Chrome has edged out Apple Safari which has been occupying the third spot next to Internet Explorer and Firefox. Google Chrome registered a 4.63% market share while Safari got 4.46% making it the no.4 browser for the first time.

It is also worthwhile to note that Google just released the beta editions of Chrome for both Mac and Linux so it is most likely that this brought a sudden surge to its market share.

While Safari may have slipped down to the no. 4 spot, it still managed to increase by 0.1%. Not unlike IE and Firefox which both suffered minor setbacks with 0.92% and 0.1% decrease in market share respectively.

Joining Google Chrome and Apple Safari with increases in market share is Opera’s web browser which managed to get 2.4% of the browser market.

Net Applications’ data was based on usage share from the 40,000 sites it monitors for clients. This amounts to 160 million unique visitors monthly.

Written By:

Arnold Zafra

Arnold Zafra writes daily on the announcements by Google, Ask.com, Yahoo & MSN along with how these announcements effect web publishers. He is currently building three niche blogs covering iPad News, Google Android Phones and E-Book Readers.

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John Stewart

Chrome is an awesome product, and while its market share did not skyrocket past Safari, the fact that it finally has a larger share than Safari is huge. That being said, Chrome is a very distant third, and it is going to a long and hard road to beat IE and Firefox. One thing, everyone writes about IE having over 60% market share, but I run 4-5 sites and only about 40% of my visitors still use IE. I guess this noticeable difference is due to the types of people that visit my sites, but I'm shocked that a terrible product like IE still has such a dominant market share.
Kevin Paquet

What can you do about it when it comes with every Windows Install? Nothing. Sooner or later people will (and constantly are) realize how crappy IE is.
Jay

I still believe that IE will remain #1 for a long time. I do like Chrome but it's still not up to the likes of IE and Firefox.
Ikroh

Very interesting to see how far google chrome has jumped in such short space of time and will be most likely be a massive grower for the future. Being so straight forward to operate with the option of so many great add ons, chrome has quickly become a great benefit to people going directly to what they are looking for. The speed that google chrome provides is also a major plus point.
Felipe Budinich

I think that google should stick with it's current strategy and take IE's share (that is focus on simplicity and speed), and keep an eye on innovations brought by opera (Opera Turbo ROCKS on 3g networks)

Firefox users are too fond of it's customization options and it would be hard to implement the almost infinite amount of extensions, plugins, skins, etc that are avaliable to Firefox users.
tehahn1

WOOOO..hold on people. I remeber the lawsuits from Netscape charging Microsoft as 'fowl play'. Why? Because Netscape charged us (for years before IE) an outrageous amount (like $75) for their browser. Microsoft came along and GAVE IE FREE. Be thankful you're not paying $100+ for each browser you have today. Every computer has at least 2 browsers on them now. ALL BROWSERS are good. Quite picking them apart. Pick the one you're most comfortable with. I use 'slim browser'. Sometimes Ace etc.
Thank you...(all browsers are subject to change without notification)
IE is first because businesses all over the world use them.
Chotrul Design and SEO

I'd have to disagree with the last comment, there's absolutely no way that Chrome will grab the no 1 spot this year. It will clearly grow and eat into market share, but the key thing will be which browsers it eats into. Seems like not all of it will be IE, unfortunately! IE6 seem relatively impervious at present. It's good that it's on the scene, as it has some nice aspects, such as its speed. But Firefox and its addons is a massive plus point. Will we see Chrome ditch the lean and mean and also launch addons?
Iris / Entrepremom

Google Chrome should be No. 1!
Kevin Paquet

There's a typo.

What makes this more interesting is that Chrome has edged out Apple Safari which has been occupaying the third spot next to Internet Explorer and Internet Explorer

Shouldn't it be Firefox and Internet Explorer?
imguru

Its no surprise even if Google chrome grabs no.1 spot in the year 2010.
Arafat Hossain Piyada

Very interesting stat. I love Chrome due to its simplicity. I think plugin ads more weight to Chrome now and that's why they are now growing good. By the way, I think you have to look after this line - 'spot next to Internet Explorer and Internet Explorer'
Kian Ann

Well as much as we hate IE...
Arijit

Awesome!!! I really like the Themes, which can be added to the Google Chrome Browser!!