The browser wars are back on with a vengeance as StatCounter confirms Google’s Chrome browser took 32.4pc of the global market compared to 32.1pc for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and 25.5pc for Mozilla’s Firefox.
StatCounter’s Aodhan Cullen says a battle royale has broken out between Chrome, Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox.
“While attention has recently been focused on the battle between Chrome and IE, not-for-profit Mozilla’s Firefox with its loyal membership base should not be underestimated,” Cullen explained.
He points out that an upswing of more than 0.6pc in Firefox usage from April to May 2012 (apparently at the expense of Internet Explorer) helped to push Chrome into pole position.
“The browser wars are back with a vengeance,” he added. “This time there are three major players competing for the top spot but, ultimately, the real winner will be the end user who can look forward to more choice and innovation as a result of this increased competition.”
In a stunning display of growth, Chrome has gone from zero to market leader on a worldwide basis in less than four years.
That said, while IE has ceded the top spot to Chrome for May 2012, Microsoft’s newest browser version (IE9) is performing well and Firefox is holding its own.
In the US, IE remains the dominant browser. IE is similarly dominant in the UK.
Last week, Lars Bak from the Google Chrome team told Siliconrepublic.com that Google hadn’t set out to dominate the browser space, but rather to stir up innovation and speed up the web by imbuing a sense of competition among the browser players.
“If you look at the top browsers today, there’s a handful of them, they are all in the game of becoming better and supporting the standards of the web and HTML 5 and I think you will have a very healthy competitive space.
“If one browser is slacking off people will move because they will know,” Bak said.
