Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

IE Web Browser Market Share Increases, Chrome Drops

By - Source: The Next Web | B 25 comments

Microsoft's browser accounts for more than half of market, while Google Chrome hits 17-month low.

Microsoft's web browser market share has increased with Internet Explorer, while Google's Chrome has decreased.

During February, Microsoft's browser accounted for 55.82 percent of global users, a slight increase from 55.14 percent in January. The figures stem from Net Applications, which tracks data from 160 million unique visitors a month across 40,000 websites.

Internet Explorer 8 and 9 are the most popular versions of the browser, which boasts a 23.38 percent and 21.67 percent hold of the market, respectively. Internet Explorer 10, however, settles for fewer users than older versions of the browser with 1.58 percent. Windows 7, currently the most popular version of the software giant's operating system, received IE 10 last month, several months after the updated browser's launch.

Google Chrome saw its market share decrease to 16.27 percent in February, a 1.21 percent decrease from 17.48 percent in January. The drop has led to the first month that Chrome has slipped below 17 percent since September 2011. It also follows three months of decline at the end of 2012.

Mozilla followed Microsoft in second with 20.12 percent via Firefox, representing a slight increase from a 19.94 percent market share in January. Safari increased its share by 0.18 percent to 5.42 percent, while Opera gained 0.10 percent for a 0.55 percent share.

Contact Us for News Tips, Corrections and Feedback

Discuss
Ask a Category Expert

Create a new thread in the Streaming Video & TVs forum about this subject

Example: Notebook, Android, SSD hard drive

This thread is closed for comments
Top Comments
  • 12 Hide
    ellarpc , March 5, 2013 4:54 AM
    Chrome is slipping because people fear they are collecting too much personal data... That said I'm posting this using chrome. The free web browser isn't as free as it once was
  • 10 Hide
    thechief73 , March 5, 2013 5:59 AM
    Removing great features never to be seen again with no explanations, adding mostly useless stuff like apps page, cluttering up what used to be a clean interface, as said collecting to much personal information, and my personal favorite over the last few versions...... Forcing updates. What does that get you? People trying other alternatives.
Other Comments
  • 12 Hide
    ellarpc , March 5, 2013 4:54 AM
    Chrome is slipping because people fear they are collecting too much personal data... That said I'm posting this using chrome. The free web browser isn't as free as it once was
  • Display all 25 comments.
  • 1 Hide
    Chairman Ray , March 5, 2013 5:09 AM
    I think this may be because of the influx of people getting Windows 8 OS or surfaces, and just sticking to the default browser.
  • 1 Hide
    bison88 , March 5, 2013 5:26 AM
    über alles
  • 10 Hide
    thechief73 , March 5, 2013 5:59 AM
    Removing great features never to be seen again with no explanations, adding mostly useless stuff like apps page, cluttering up what used to be a clean interface, as said collecting to much personal information, and my personal favorite over the last few versions...... Forcing updates. What does that get you? People trying other alternatives.
  • 0 Hide
    merikafyeah , March 5, 2013 6:06 AM
    ellarpcChrome is slipping because people fear they are collecting too much personal data... That said I'm posting this using chrome. The free web browser isn't as free as it once was

    That's why people who like Chrome as well as their privacy use SRWare Iron.
    http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron_chrome_vs_iron.php

    Problem solved.
  • -3 Hide
    apache_lives , March 5, 2013 6:56 AM
    ellarpcChrome is slipping because people fear they are collecting too much personal data... That said I'm posting this using chrome. The free web browser isn't as free as it once was


    People use facebook and google.com -- Chrome is the least of there concerns

    Chairman RayI think this may be because of the influx of people getting Windows 8 OS or surfaces, and just sticking to the default browser.


    Remember -- Windows RT you CANNOT use a third party browser aka Windows RT = IE


    I say this is all down to Windows 8 sales -- you gotta use IE to get Chrome right?
  • 2 Hide
    thecolorblue , March 5, 2013 9:31 AM
    chrome is FAR worse
    apache_livesPeople use facebook and google.com -- Chrome is the least of there concerns

    FALSE
    chrome spys on EVERYTHING you do on the internet, including your facebook use and including your google.com use and including everything else you do.
    google also built a keylogger into google chrome (the address bar).

    here's a bit on how google defines 'anonomyzing user data'
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/12/google_ip_anonymization


    "In telling the world Google will anonymize user IPs after only nine months, Google has appeased EU regulators. At least in part. But it looks like Mountain View's new policy is just another example of Google Privacy Theatre.

    On Monday evening, when Google deputy counsel Nicole Wong trumpeted the new nine month policy to Silicon Valley's Churchill Club, she said the company was still mulling "the implementation details." But later in the week, the company outlined its plan with a few terse sentences tossed CNet's way.



    After nine months, the company has confirmed with The Reg, Google will "change some of the bits" in the user IPs stored in its server logs. But as the plan stands now, it will leave cookie data alone.

    This means the missing bits are easily retrieved."
  • 5 Hide
    Cryio , March 5, 2013 10:01 AM
    IE10 , like it or not, is the fastest and the smoothest of all browsers on the market at the moment. This coming from an Opera fan.
  • 4 Hide
    beppomarx , March 5, 2013 11:06 AM
    Tom's should do another web browser comparison on win7 now that ie10 is out. I am a chrome user and have been for quite a while but lately it has gone downhill and after playing with ie10 I may switch as well. It has definitely made a comeback as fracas speed and stability that's for sure. I am curious as to its HTML5 performance, I see that becoming much more important in the next year.

    Note I must use ie for work related website access so I do use both browsers daily.
  • 1 Hide
    back_by_demand , March 5, 2013 11:37 AM
    apache_livesthis is all down to Windows 8 sales -- you gotta use IE to get Chrome right?

    Funny, this kind of article poses 2 seperate fanboi arguements against each other

    1) Windows 8 is fail
    2) IE is fail

    If IE share goes up if is either because the usage of Windows 8 has increased, so it's NOT fail - or the usage of IE on other OSs has increased, so that is NOT fail - either way people are slowly leaning back towards Microsoft
  • 5 Hide
    tokencode , March 5, 2013 12:05 PM
    IE10 is a reasonably good browser, completive with anything else on the market. Say what you will about the new Windows interface, the underlying code Microsoft is writing has improved dramatically over the last few years. You might not agree with their choices, but their focus on performance and security has improved dramatically.
  • 4 Hide
    cknobman , March 5, 2013 12:51 PM
    The last 2 versions of chrome have seemed to be a little buggy in my experience.
    Its sad to say I have encountered more than a few times where a button or link flat out wont work in chrome and I when I switch over to IE it works just fine.
  • -1 Hide
    Anonymous , March 5, 2013 1:02 PM
    Net Applications is a Microsoft pundit; Microsoft is losing market share on a continuous-basis.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers
    http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php
  • 0 Hide
    blppt , March 5, 2013 1:14 PM
    CryioIE10 , like it or not, is the fastest and the smoothest of all browsers on the market at the moment. This coming from an Opera fan.


    QFT...although one would expect "smoothness" as MS knows its own OS better than anybody else. Sort of like MSE vs other av software.

    If only there were a free ad-blocking extension for IE10...Simple AdBlock seems to be the only game in town, and it costs like $20 or so.
  • 5 Hide
    p05esto , March 5, 2013 1:35 PM
    I HATE Chrome so much. Where are all the preferences and settings? How do you print background colors and remove print headers? I've got tons of questions and problems just using the stupid browser. And don't even get me started on their constant nagging to try and get me to log in so I can be tracked. I avoid that POS browser like the plague. IE9/10 are excellent to be perfectly honest, I use IE and FF... everything else can piss off.
  • 1 Hide
    IAmVortigaunt , March 5, 2013 1:47 PM
    Chairman RayI think this may be because of the influx of people getting Windows 8 OS or surfaces, and just sticking to the default browser.


    Ok, but look at the small share of IE10 (the version on Windows 8/RT). Unless those were mostly Chrome converts, I don't know if that explains all of it.
  • 3 Hide
    eddieroolz , March 5, 2013 2:50 PM
    IE10 is pretty damn good. Chrome on the other hand is just a sorry excuse for a spyware on computer.
  • -2 Hide
    internetlad , March 5, 2013 3:17 PM
    If anything it should be FireFox that's losing ground. Easily, imo, the biggest pain of the big 3. Constant microupdates, weird glitches and it seems to me like both IE9/10 and Chrome are more efficient.

    Either way, looks like the Scroogled campaign is taking root. I wonder if a "Firefucked" campaign is next on the chopping block. Spending money on smear campaigns ALWAYS nets solid returns :/ 
  • 2 Hide
    pbrigido , March 5, 2013 4:00 PM
    I've been using FF for about 8 years or so, then I decided to give IE10 a shot. I have to admit, it is quick and nice looking. I'll probably use both browsers, but MS definitely did some catching up with IE10.
  • 2 Hide
    velocityg4 , March 5, 2013 6:18 PM
    Serves them right for making it more difficult to find the porn you want (adding specific flags changes results Google). It's made me finally start using Bing and it is a good search engine, for non porn related searches too. Too bad their image search doesn't allow you to specify image size like Google does and you can't upload for comparative image searches.

    I never cared much for Chrome anyways. It is too minimalistic. I get a much greater scope of addons and customization with Firefox. Chrome is also a memory hog. Though I don't know how bad IE is.
Display more comments
Tom’s guide in the world
  • Germany
  • France
  • Italy
  • Ireland
  • UK
Follow Tom’s guide
Subscribe to our newsletter
  • add to twitter
  • add to facebook
  • ajouter un flux RSS