According to StatCounter, a Web statistics firm, Google’s Chrome is all set to replace Firefox as the second-most-popular browser. Data provided by the Irish company is based on its tracking of browser usage all over the world. Its working is even hassle-free as they make use of the free analytics tools it offers websites. If StatCounter is to be believed, then Chrome would go past Firefox to take the No. 2 spot behind Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) no later than December.
The latest stats noted on Wednesday, show that for the month of September, Chrome’s global average user share was 23.6%, while Firefox’s stood at 26.8%. IE, meanwhile, was at 41.7%. It is astonishing that Chrome has been climbing up the ladders all throughout this year at a constantly improving speed. Since its percentile in January 2011, it has gained eight percentage point, which represents a 50% increase.
For the same period, there was a drop for Firefox, which was almost four percentage points. The decline of about 13%. Again, the leader here IE, even had a fall, which was four points, a 9% dip. Chrome might be enjoying this scenario as it is essentially reaping all the defections from Firefox and IE. If this continues the way it has been, Chrome will close in the gap between itself and Firefox by November and move over it by December. The forecast notes that the December share holding would see Chrome accounting for 26.6% approximately, while Firefox will have a 25.3% share.
StatCounter, however, is not the only Web metrics company that publicly posts browser share statistics. U.S.-based Net Applications has even provided its stats which notes that there is a considerable amount of gap between Firefox and Chrome. For August, Net Application’s stats show that Firefox has a 22.6% share of desktop browser usage, and Chrome has 15.5%. It noted further that by the end of this year, Firefox would still hold its second position with a share holding of 22.3%, while Chrome would still be far away at 17.8%. Net Application noted that if Chrome continues at its current pace, it can pass Firefox by mid-2012.
Stats provided by Net Applications can be assumed to be a better estimate, in terms of usage share in countries from which relatively few users navigate to sites it monitors. Majorly, this points hold good in case of Net Applications as it factors in the huge Chinese market.
Many browser makers, including the leader Microsoft cites that there are a number of reasons because of which they defer to Net Applications’ number on a regular basis. Net Applications pegs that IE is in a much better position with it stating IE to have a share of 55.3%. This might just be one of the reasons that Microsoft prefers following Net Applications stats. However, there can be a number of other reasons too.
The difference in the stats of these two web statistics firms, might create a lot of confusion as the position of the top three browsers vary considerably. The only similarity between these two is that they both claim that Chrome is gaining power and the usage decline has been noticed in case of IE and Firefox.