Google's Chrome browser has edged ahead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer to take a third of the global browser market share, according to the latest StatCounter statistics.
StatCounter's data for July 2012 shows that Chrome has 33.81% of the market, while Internet Explorer (IE) and FireFox follow at 32.04% and 23.73% respectively. Apple's Safari browser has 7.12% global market share, while Opera has 1.72%.
StatCounter is a traffic measurement service provider, and bases its findings on 15 billion page views from more than three million Web sites. Notably, however, StatCounter does not base its stats on unique users like other data firms, for example, NetMarketShare.
While StatCounter's data has been openly questioned, it is widely used as a standard for measuring browser usage, and its findings are considered to be indicative of trends in the space.
By StatCounter's figures, Chrome first overtook Internet Explorer back in May, and stayed marginally ahead through June, before growing its lead more convincingly in July. Chrome has been growing steadily over the past year, since its launch four years ago.
Developing lead
In Asia, Chrome has 39.97% market share (IE has 30.12% while FireFox has 23.73%). In South America, Chrome is even more dominant, with 52.43%. IE follows with 24.57% and FireFox has 20.25% of the market.
On the African continent, FireFox has the lion's share of the browser market, with 40.71%. Chrome is the second most widely used browser at 31.83%, and IE trails with 21.2%.
In July, Chrome also overtook FireFox for the first time in Europe, with 30.69% compared to FireFox's 29.84% and IE's 27.7%.
It is not all bad for IE though, as it still reigns supreme in the US, UK and Australia. In North America specifically, IE takes 39.81% of the market, followed by Chrome at 25.96% and FireFox at 19.84%.
Most browser statistics are not considered to be 100% accurate; as a point of comparison, NetMarketShare's current data suggests IE is still in a strong position globally with 54%, followed by FireFox at 20% and Chrome at 19%.
Changing market
Last month, StatCounter released a video that visualises the changing browser landscape globally between 2008 and 2012.
At the time, StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen said: “When we began the StatCounter Global Stats project in 2008, Microsoft's Internet Explorer dominated the global market. There is much greater competition now. Although IE still leads in countries such as the US and UK, on a worldwide basis, Google's Chrome overtook IE in May and maintained a narrow lead in June.”
According to Cullen, IE is not taking the challenge from Google lying down. “From May to June, IE increased its usage share by two-tenths of one percentage point, the first monthly increase since October/November 2011. On a weekly basis, while Chrome overtook IE in week 20 (14-20 May 2012), by week 24 (11-17 June 2012) IE had staged a fight-back and was exactly equal with Chrome in terms of browser usage for that seven-day period.”
Cullen added that Mozilla's FireFox should also not be discounted: “The opening up of competition and greater choice can only be good news for users and help to create better browsers.”
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