Google Chrome Briefly Steals Browser Lead From Internet Explorer

Google Chrome recently became the most popular browser in use on the web, overtaking Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), before falling back into second place.

StatCounter revealed that on Saturday, March 18, Chrome’s browser market share surpassed that of IE, for the first time in its history, with a 32.71 percent compared to 32.5 percent.

The company’s research showed that the spike was largely due to heavy usage in India, Russia, and Brazil and said that it was indicative of a wider trend as Chrome usage often increases over weekends.

The phenomenon was taken by analysts as a sign that consumers commonly use IE for work purposes and Chrome for home browsing.

“At weekends, when people are free to choose what browser to use, many of them are selecting Chrome in preference to IE,” commented StatCounter chief executive Aodhan Cullen.

Despite marking a major milestone for Chrome, which according to StatCounter only boasted a 28 percent market share in January, Cullen indicated the jump may not have any real long term significance.

“Whether Chrome can take the lead in the browser wars in the long term remains to be seen, however the trend towards Chrome usage at weekends is undeniable,” he said.

StatCounter’s findings are based on analysis of 3 million websites, with the company analyzing 15 billion page views each month.

This article was originally published on V3.