Chrome Picks Up Steam Again as Firefox Stays Flat

The browser market seems to have steered back on course in August. After a rather curious July, which saw Internet Explorer gain market share and Chrome lose users, IE is back on its downwards trend and Chrome is picking up steam again.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer continues to dominate, by pretty much the same safe margin as always. All version of IE added up to 60.40 of the market in August, down from 60.74 the previous month.

Still, IE's market share is bigger than it was four months ago. The arrival of Internet Explorer 9 might help IE gain a little more share for the next few months, but it remains to be seen if it will be enough to buck the trend.

Meanwhile Chrome continues its march. According to net Applications, Google's web browser is now at 7.52 percent of the market, half a percent more than in the previous month.

Chrome lost a bit of market share in July, the first time this has happened. With the exception of last July though, Chrome has been making strides each month since it was launched.

Firefox gained a bit of market share, but the difference is so small that it falls within the error margins of the survey. Firefox commanded about 22.93 percent market share, up from 22.91 in July. Firefox has been slowly losing users for the past few months and has essentially stayed flat for more than a year.

Both Opera and Safari saw little activity. The only big mover is Chrome, which is slowly grinding away from Internet Explorer and especially Firefox. However, with a couple of major releases coming in the next few months, the market should become a little more animated.

The first IE 9 beta is coming in less than two weeks and a final launch is scheduled for this year. Firefox 4 is also slated for a final release in November.