Google Chrome 15 Overtakes IE 8 to Become the World's No. 1 Browser

Google Chrome is continuing its march towards dominance. While it has just overtaken Firefox, slightly, in overall market share, it's not stopping here. The latest numbers from StatCounter indicate that Google Chrome 15 has become the most popular browser version in the world.

Overall, IE still leads in market share, but that's made up of IE9, IE8, IE7 and even the ancient IE6. Meanwhile, Google Chrome's automatic update system ensures that most users run the very latest version, Chrome 15 at the time of the report.

The data covers the last week of November, when Chrome made 23.6 percent of visits while IE8 just 23.5 percent.

It's not a particularly fair comparison. As noted, most of Chrome users run the latest version. At the same time, IE8 user numbers are dropping as more and more people adopt IE9.

In fact, once Microsoft enables its own browser auto-update process, IE9 may become the most popular browser with a safe margin.