Google may not be winning over the multitudes with its Nexus One “superphone,” but the search giant is gaining ground in the 21st century browser wars. Google’s Chrome browser grabbed market share in January from its key rivals, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox.
According to NetApps, Chrome finished January strong, with a 5.2 percent market share. Although a 0.6 percent gain may not immediately rattle the dominance of well-entrenched players like IE and Firefox, it does show a steady flow of users to the youngest player in the browser market.
Overall, Google has doubled its market share, and in January saw the second-largest gain since rolling out the browser in September 2008. Google has already surpassed Apple’s Safari in the browser wars, making it the third-most-used browser.
Google has exceeded its goals, hitting five percent well before its September 2010 deadline. Google aims to reach 10 percent by September 2011 but could reach that number this year if its growth rate holds steady.
Digging Deeper Into IE Usage
Weeks after the bad publicity around Internet Explorer 6 and its role in the China-based attacks on Google, Internet Explorer lost half a percentage point of market share in January, according to NetApps. That leaves Microsoft with 62.2 percent of the browser market, a record low.
Microsoft has steadily seen its share of the market eroded by the likes of Firefox, Opera and even Apple. Google seems to be putting another dent in the browser market leader. Microsoft has lost 10 percent of its market in the past 12 months while Google reached its 5.2 percent mark.
Looking a little deeper, IE6 saw a 0.9 decline in market share to 20.1 percent. IE7 also suffered in January, dipping a full percentage point to 14.6 percent. The good news for Microsoft is that IE8 is stemming…