Google’s share of the browser market rose dramatically in December, growing 1.4 percent from November to just under 10 percent, according to the latest data from Net Applications. By contrast, Chrome’s share of the market at the beginning of last year was 4.6 percent.
Google has to be pleased with the success Chrome has enjoyed, noted Net Applications Executive Vice President Vince Vizzaccaro. “They have made a genuine marketing effort the past 18 months, and the results show the effort is paying off,” he said.
A Key Advantage
Microsoft’s share of the browser market amounted to 57 percent at the end of 2010 — down from 62 percent at the beginning of last year and 67 percent two years ago. However, the software giant has high hopes for Internet Explorer 9, which is slated for commercial release later this year.
“IE9 beta has been downloaded 20 million times since launch in September, and IE9 now accounts for 0.46 percent of Internet users worldwide at year-end,” Director of Internet Explorer Product Marketing Roger Capriotti wrote in a blog.
The positives for Microsoft are that the company still has 57 percent of the browsing market share, and its market losses are slowing, Vizzaccaro observed. “IE8 has done well, and IE9 looks extremely promising,” he added. “I believe this will be the version of IE that finally starts winning users back. So desktop browsing may stabilize for Microsoft, but we could still see the alternative browser users going more with Chrome.”
Though Firefox was long IE’s principal challenger, that browser’s popularity fell last year. Firefox held a 22.8 percent market share at the end of 2010, down from 24.6 percent in December 2009. “Mozilla may be concerned because most of the people converting from IE are now converting to Chrome,” Vizzaccaro said.
Google also continues to…