Google Chrome Is Now the Third Most Popular Browser in the US

Google’s lightweight web browser is picking up steam as constant updates and improvements are quickly turning it from an early-adopter favorite to a mainstream competitor. Chrome may have some way to go before it catches up with Firefox, not to mention Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but according to analytics firm StatCounter, it is now the third most popular web browser in the US, slightly overtaking Apple’s Safari.

“Chrome with 8.97% took third place in the US browser market ahead of Safari with 8.88%. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still dominates the US Internet browser market with 52%, followed by Firefox (28.5%),” StatCounter announced.

“Globally Chrome has been well ahead of Safari for some time with 9.4% of the market compared to 4% for Safari. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has 53% of the global market followed by Firefox on 31%,” it added.

According to the data, Google Chrome squeezed past Safari last week being the first time the browser made it to third place in the US. The difference in measured market share between the two is minimal, just 0.09 percent, but the trend shows Chrome slowly gaining on Safari for the past months.

Of course, Chrome versus Safari is not exactly an apples to apples comparison. Safari is by far the most popular browser for Mac OS users, as it comes pre-installed much like Internet Explorer in Windows, but hasn’t made much inroad in the PC market. This makes Safari’s market share more a testament of Mac’s overall sales performance against the PC rather than a true measure of its popularity.

Globally, Chrome has been the third most popular browser for a while now as Macs are much more popular in the US than they are elsewhere in the world. Much more worried, though, should be Mozilla which, while still holding a comfortable lead with Firefox, is seeing its market share slowly weakened by Chrome’s advances.