One of the most advantageous things for Google in having its own internet browser is that it gets to choose your default search engine. This isn’t exactly seen as sketchy — after all, Microsoft has been doing the same thing with Internet Explorer for years. However, while Google’s browser is seeing an astounding rate of growth, Internet Explorer seems to be struggling.
According to a report from News Factor, Google Chrome has reached a solid ten percent of market share. This gains real significance when you realize that it was only released two years ago, and that it had only 4.6% of the market this time last year.
Looking back at those two years also shows us a lot about how Microsoft’s browser is performing. It was the dominant player for many years, and while it remains so, its figures are certainly hurting. Two years ago, Microsoft had over two-thirds of the market. By the end of 2009, that diminished to 62%, and is now down to 57%.
The reason is a large combination of factors. While some point to Chrome as the main group pulling at IE’s population, that’s not likely the case. Rather, many users are transitioning from IE to Firefox — and from Firefox to Chrome. As a result, both Firefox and IE are on the decline; Firefox saw about a 2% drop since the beginning of 2010. Additionally, a large chunk of Microsoft’s withering comes from Apple’s Safari. This is because Safari is used as a prominent mobile browser, including on the iPhone and iPad (with new renditions of the browser expected in upcoming months).
There’s no doubt that Google has been pushing Chrome, using its many web properties to get the word out. With the rate of growth continuing to accelerate, there’s no doubt that they’ve succeeded; the question that remains is when their growth will peak.
