Chrome overtakes Firefox market share for the first time

[Jos]

StatCounter and Net Applications have just released their latest report on global web browser usage and, at least according to the former, Google's three-year-old Chrome browser has already surpassed Firefox in terms of usage. Net Applications still has Firefox ahead by 4 percentage points, but either way the trend is crystal clear and it's just a matter of time before Chrome takes in the second spot behind IE.

StatCounter reports that Chrome took 25.7% of the worldwide market last month, up from just 4.66% two years ago, compared to Firefox’s 25.23 percent. It's a marginal win, but a win nonetheless. Meanwhile, Net Applications says Chrome gained 0.7% in November to 18.2%, while Firefox dropped 0.4 percentage points to 22.1% in the same period. By the latter's estimates, Chrome could outpace Firefox by March 2012.

StatCounter Global Browser Usage

That's a massive achievement for Google in just a little over three years, even more so considering Opera has tried for years with a very capable alternative but currently holds less than 2% market share worldwide.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer maintains a strong lead with somewhere between 40.63% and 52.63% globally, depending on which source you trust the most. Safari holds a mere 5-6% when it comes to desktop browsers, but dominates the mobile space with 55% usage, according to Net Applications latest figures. Also in mobiles, the Android browser had bumped Opera Mini aside in October for the second-place spot, but in November, Opera Mini took some share back. They now hold 20.1% and 16% of that market, respectively.

Net Applications Global Mobile Browser Usage

Mobile browsers still represent a relatively small portion of the market, but with smartphones and tablets use growing exponentially mobile browsing is also on the rise. According to Net Applications' data for November, browser usage on personal computers represented 92% of the market while mobile devices took 6.7%.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/46491-chrome-overtakes-firefox-market-share-for-the-first-time.html

 

[artikelteknik]

i think chrome make some inovation to overtake firefox

 

[Tomorrow_Rains]

Welcome to the botnet

 

[Guest]

no **** that they do that. chrome is intergrated on almost every new computer systems, and almost all software. ff is a downloaded version, and free to choose. try and make a test in legally dl versions, and ff wil eat chrome again.

 

[Guest]

Yet chrome does not have a bookmarks sidebar. Any power user with a brain won't even give it a second glance with such important features missing.

 

[Mister_K]

Guest said:
no **** that they do that. chrome is intergrated on almost every new computer systems, and almost all software. ff is a downloaded version, and free to choose. try and make a test in legally dl versions, and ff wil eat chrome again.

True, I get Chrome offered nearly every software I download .... Just look, ads above and on the site advertising Chrome........ book xD

 

[Guest]

For some reason Chrome reminds me of AOL

 

[Guest]

Chrome is bundled with everything and advertised everywhere. I actually used a friends laptop who was using Internet Explorer, I told him he should try Firefox or Chrome. Turns out Chrome was already installed and he didn't even know.

The only thing Chrome had was speed, but since Firefox 8 according to Lifehacker, Firefox is faster than Chrome. I suppose only noticeable through benchmarks. Anyone complaining about Firefox's interface shouldn't be using Firefox anyways since they don't even know you can customize Firefox to look anyway you want.

Chrome will probably stay ahead, it is Google's browser so it has Google backing and sponsoring it. Mozilla is a non-profit organization, it's unlikely they'll win a battle against Google even if their browser is superior.

 

[Rick]

Guest said:
Yet chrome does not have a bookmarks sidebar. Any power user with a brain won't even give it a second glance with such important features missing.

I would argue that power users think bookmarks are dead.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I would argue that power users think bookmarks are dead.

Agreed, I never used bookmarks. I tried for a short time but never really made use of them. For me a quick search always took me where I wanted to go. Bookmarks are so hard to keep up with. Opps I did a system restore and forgot to save my bookmarks.

As for Chrome I despise how it tries forcing itself on my system with the install of a few programs I keep up with. I never used Google and now I know I don't ever want anything to do with Google. I found Chrome on my fathers computer, probably after one of his grandkids installed Skype. He doesn't want Chrome on his computer and never will. He is content with IE, if that tells you anything. So here I am removing crap (aka Chrome) that never was wanted in the first place.

I would agree that the rise to power is the fact that Chrome forces itself onto peoples machines. I wonder how many people actually continue to use their PC and wonder why their browser looks different.

 

[Guest]

Guys above are right. It probably got a market share boost since it started to get shoved down user's throats, Ask style.

Why would anyone trade the truly open and clean experience that Firefox and it's addons bring to the game for an ad infested piece of junk that pisses all over your privacy and is driven by a power hungry company is beyond me. For 0.5 less seconds spent when opening a page ?

They don't even have a 64 bit version out today... At least Firefox has Palemoon and Waterfox.

No true adblocker, no multithreaded download managers after all this time... If you think they're coming, think again. Google doesn't want them. Go look for a YT downloader addon for Chrome. I couldn't find one in their extension store. Yep, they don't want you leeching off their servers and I can understand that, but this was about freedom, and Google's not giving it to you.

 

[Kibaruk]

Guest said:
Yet chrome does not have a bookmarks sidebar. Any power user with a brain won't even give it a second glance with such important features missing.

It's called plugins, normally people use them and they make the browser do what they want it to do.

cliffordcooley said:

I would argue that power users think bookmarks are dead.

Agreed, I never used bookmarks. I tried for a short time but never really made use of them. For me a quick search always took me where I wanted to go. Bookmarks are so hard to keep up with. Opps I did a system restore and forgot to save my bookmarks.

I use them to open multiples sites I check daily or more than once a day with just a single click and have things more neat over there. That's me at least.

There are a couple of things that I dont like about chrome, and another couple of things I like from chrome (For example the ability to run programs inside of chrome Android-like). The thing I hate most from it is the inability to put a master password to have your stored passwords, its a matter of a day just not locking the computer and someone opens your browser and ta-da all your passwords are there for anyone to see (Unless you dont save them which brings a matter of time consupmtion, or having to download a 3rd party plugin for password managment which won't sync up if you use chrome in other places).

When the day comes that Chrome has master password and encryption, they have a new follower here.

 

[captaincranky]

Chrome is bundled with everything and advertised everywhere. I actually used a friends laptop who was using Internet Explorer, I told him he should try Firefox or Chrome. Turns out Chrome was already installed and he didn't even know.

Chrome, it's the only web browser now available in handy suppository......

I still remember the good old days when people knew to uncheck all the crapplications that came with the download you actually wanted. For all intents and purposes, Chrome is spyware, and of late, adware. All the fanbois are welcome to it. You can have my copy too.

 

[Upio]

LOL at all the FF fanboys raging about chrome.

It's a good browser. Why so mad?

 

[SNGX1275]

Chrome gives google your browsing habits. If you really like Chrome for how it is as a browser, get Chromium instead. Personally I just stay with the quiet browser, Opera. Almost every 'new' feature you got in other browsers came from copying Opera. Now, finally Opera copied FF and allowed extensions.

Captaincranky - I thought it was you that complained about not having noscript in Opera. Maybe I'm mixing you up with someone else. But anyway, Opera has a pretty functional noscript thing now.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I have Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 8.0, and Opera 11.60 pinned to the taskbar. Opera is my main browser.

 

[agissi]

I just switched to Chome three days ago. Firefox was locking up my system and horribly slow. It seems like they're latest releases are worse then 2.0.

 

[captaincranky]

LOL at all the FF fanboys raging about chrome.

It's a good browser. Why so mad?

Did you really join just so you could post that with a screen name. LOL. back at ya!

PC World magazine trashed the new "Chromebooks". I think they said something like, "Google is trying to pass off a web browser as an operating system, it doesn't do very much".

My offer still stands, you're more than welcome to any "free" copy of Chrome I encounter.

Captaincranky - I thought it was you that complained about not having noscript in Opera. Maybe I'm mixing you up with someone else. But anyway, Opera has a pretty functional noscript thing now.

No, that was me. Not much of a leap though, I'm usually complaining about something

I've had Opera Installed from time to time. Earlier versions (8 or 9.xx maybe even earlier), crashed the IGP in my computer during prolonged downloads....???? The screen just locked up...

I have the Opera 11.52 installer sitting on the desktop now, maybe I'll give it a shot, if it can be made to block script. You simply can't visit the salacious hell holes on the web I do without script blocking. I suppose another question might be, does Opera support Active X? To my knowledge, FF doesn't and it's a great browser because it doesn't.

 

[Archean]

@SNG
I agree that Opera has been much more 'innovative' when compared with other options, however, for some odd reasons whenever I have 15-20 Tabs opened it nearly 'crawls' to a halt. Otherwise it is a much better browser than that spyware arr I mean chrome. Anyway, lately I have been using IE9 and FF8 + FFNx64 without any issues.

 

[captaincranky]

I'm still stuck on FF3. Maybe if I'm lucky, Google will stop supporting it, and I'll just switch search engines....yay!

@Archean, gosh 20 tabs is an off day for me, I'm usually at 100+......and if you turned every tab upside down, they'd all load the same..... FF seems to have a great download manager, I don't know how it stacks up against the others though

 

[Guest]

It's kind of genius really.

Google funds Mozilla to develop Firefox to promote their search engine through Firefox's default homepage and search bar. Successfully taking away market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer. At the same time doing research through Firefox to learn how to create their own successful browser. After thorough research they develop and release Chrome. Google's contract with Mozilla will expire at end of this year (unless renewed). Just in time for Chrome to take over Firefox's market share to become a direct competitor with Internet Explorer.

Google knows what they are doing. They bundle Chrome with countless applications and they advertise all over the internet. From the beginning they have collected data from Chrome users. Now they have begun advertising through the browser itself. I am looking forward to see how their spyware + adware browser progresses through the coming months / years. All the while I will be using Firefox.

 

[Guest]

Wow, finally feeling at home.

I've tried Chrome and can't stand it... Can't explain why though. Maybe it's the fear of having to sell my soul to Google that bothers me... The way they do business, it reminds me of Apple and the old Microsoft. I can't help wondering if the o' mighty monopole hammer will hit!

As for FF, I hate the pop-up download manager... The person who though of that should be punished. I'd jump back on the FF train if I found out how to disable that pop-up piece of crap.

Can't get off Opera even if the memory usage grosses me out. running 11 tabs and it hogs 317Mb of ram!!! I can't wait for the day when they'll fix the memory usage bug.


Wow--- just realized that the random question to post is : "Who develops the Android operating system?" OMG they're everywhere!!!! Tech Spot, your objectivity is being doubted here!

 

[Guest]

From Statcounter, it's funny to see that Chrome is completely absent from the highest IQ population (Antartica)

http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-201111-201111-bar

 

[captaincranky]

As for FF, I hate the pop-up download manager... The person who though of that should be punished. I'd jump back on the FF train if I found out how to disable that pop-up piece of crap.

???? Not sure what the complaint is. It only shows up on the first download. After that, it shows progress on the task bar, and you only need open the window to see your download history. I couldn't think of a better system, can you?

 

[Guest]

Concerning the popup download manager. Did you even try to search for an extension? I just searched "download" on the Firefox add-on's page and found many options that should satisfy you. Here are the first few that caught my eye.

Download Status Bar
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/download-statusbar/

Download Manager Tweak (open in tab or sidebar)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/download-manager-tweak/?src=search
or another one similar
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/downloads-in-tab/

The status bar one is similar to Chrome, but I think the download manager in a tab is cooler, and you could pin the tab.

Should any of them not be updated for Firefox 8, simply install:

Disable Add-on Compatibility Checks
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/checkcompatibility/

Most add-ons will still function correctly after a Firefox update, and that add-on is an easy way to allow you to install "outdated" add-ons. On occasion one will case a problem or simply won't work. In that event, just remove it and look for an alternative version.