Firefox’s place as second most used browser under threat from Chrome

Google Chrome is getting closer to being the world’s second most used web browser, a place currently occupied by Firefox.

According to Net Applications latest statistics, the Google Chrome browser has continued to take market share in September, now controlling 16.2% of the global market. They continue to take market share from others, with the Google Chrome only just celebrating its third birthday with a number of points going for them.

For Net Applications, Google Chrome for the moment remains the third most widely used browser in the world, behind Firefox, which saw their market share drop over the summer to 22.48%. At this rate, Google Chrome could overtake Firefox towards the middle of 2012.

The figures and tendencies observed by StatCounter indicate that Google Chrome could move ahead of Firefox before the end of the year. For the Irish based company, Google Chrome currently controls 23.6% of the market compared to Firefox’s 26.8%.

The world’s leader - Internet Explorer (54.4% according to Net Applications) nevertheless continues to see their market share dissolve. On Windows 7, the market share of Internet Explorer 9 is 21%. IE9 is compatible with Windows 7 and Vista but not Windows XP, with the older operating system not being able to handle hardware acceleration.

Microsoft is instead looking at the fact that IE9 continues to grow, while at the same time smiling that another of their products is losing market share. IE6 now only controls less than 9% (see The Internet Explorer 6 Countdown). It shouldn’t be forgotten that with close to de 30%, Internet Explorer 8 remains the most widely used browser in the world.