14 DAY TRIAL // Just as Firefox is now the most popular browser in Europe, Chrome is continuing its swift ascent to the top of the browser market charts. Google's browser has been gaining new users at a steady yet fast pace and over 10 percent of internet users worldwide now choose Google Chrome. What's more, depending on who's data you trust, Chrome's share may be as high as 15 percent.
The latest data for December 2010 from Net Applications show that Google Chrome managed to get a 9.98 percent market share in the last month of the year. That's up from 4.63 percent in December 2009 and 5.22 percent at the start of the year.
Google Chrome is almost two and a half years old and it that time it managed to convince 10 percent of internet users to switch, mainly from Internet Explorer and Firefox.
That's certainly impressive, especially since, in that time, Firefox only managed to get about 4 percent more market share, growing from 19 percent to below 23 percent, though it has had over 24 percent at times.
It's easy to forget though that Firefox had a similar run in its first years, in fact, it grew somewhat faster in its first couple of years, compared to Google Chrome.
In almost the same time it took Chrome to get to 10 percent, Firefox reached almost 14 percent. It slowed down considerably after that, but it does indicate that a new browser can hope to make a significant dent in a short amount of time.
Of course, the market has changed significantly since Firefox came about, and almost entirely because of Firefox. The open source browser only had to compete with Internet Explorer, which dominated the market, and it was an easy choice for anyone looking to an alternative to the Microsoft browser.
Since then, not only has Internet Explorer made great strides, the upcoming Internet Explorer 9 being the best example of that, but the competition has gotten tougher as well.
2010 has been a relatively stable year in the sense that Google Chrome climbed, Internet Explorer lost market share and Firefox held steady. 2011 could prove much of the same, but it could also mark a significant shift. With Firefox 4 and Internet Explorer 9 coming out in the next few months, the competition is more heated than ever.