14 DAY TRIAL // Google Chrome is making most of the waves in the browser market lately, but it seems like Firefox also has something to celebrate in the new year, according to data from StatCounter, it is now the most popular browser across all of Europe, surpassing Internet Explorer in aggregate market share.
Firefox has long been one of the most popular browsers in many European countries, it has long passed IE in Germany for example, but it is now the biggest on the whole continent.
Firefox was preferred by 38.11 percent of internet users in December 2010, according to the data, while Internet Explorer was used by only 37.52 percent.
But, Firefox's market share is actually smaller than it was a year ago, it had 40.8 percent in December 2009, so it's a bit strange that it managed to overtake IE.
Mozilla has Google Chrome to thank for this, while Google's browser has been taking away some market share from Firefox, it's done a lot more damage to IE's.
In the past year, Chrome has tripled its market share in Europe, going from 5.06 percent to 14.58 percent, mostly by getting people to switch from Internet Explorer.
"This is the first time that IE has been dethroned from the number one spot in a major territory," Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter, said.
"This appears to be happening because Google’s Chrome is stealing share from Internet Explorer while Firefox is mainly maintaining its existing share," he explained.
"We are probably seeing the impact of the agreement between European Commission competition authorities and Microsoft, to offer EU users a choice and menu of browsers from March last," he speculated.
This isn't just an one time thing, the overall trends indicate that IE's market share will continue to dwindle as Google Chrome surges.
The upcoming Internet Explorer 9 might change things in the short term, but it remains to be seen if it will have any significant impact on the downward trend.
Firefox hasn't really moved in either direction in the past year, but it may become the next target of Chrome's assault.