Google's Chrome web browser is now the most popular in the world, according to one analytics firm. StatCounter says that Chrome overtook Internet Explorer last week by securing 32.76 percent of the market share compared to 31.94 percent for Microsoft's product.
Chrome continues to hold first place as this week gets under way, but by a slightly narrower margin (0.41 percent). Of course, this isn't the first time that Google's browser has overtaken Microsoft's in the polls. The same thing happened in March, although it only lasted a single day.
StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen notes that Chrome has become a top choice for weekend web surfers. The reason for this is that most users are free to choose their own browser when away from work while they may be forced to use IE via company policy while on the job.
Note that these stats include users from around the world. In the US, Internet Explorer still has a firm lead on all other browsers with a market share of 37.81 percent. For the same time period, Chrome only managed to capture 23.83 percent. It appears that European users may have helped to swing the overall scale in favor of Google.
CNET points out, however, that StatCounter's method of tallying usage is a bit different than most. They count raw page views but don't correct for geographic differences between their own network usage and global browsing patterns.
Firefox came in third place followed by Safari, Opera and all other browsers combined.