Chrome Now Third Most Popular Browser in the World
It’s pretty strange thinking that Google Chrome was only released in September 2008. Google’s web browser might not have been feature packed at release, but it did provide a more lightweight alternative to the now feature rich Firefox as well as providing what it claimed was a more stable web operating environment.
One of the biggest pulls of Google Chrome is the programs ability to run each tab as a separate process, so if a single tab crashes the others continue to work. Chrome has also been enjoyed on many users with lower end systems like netbooks due to its much lower memory requirements compared to most of the other big browsers.
The December 2009 browser market share results saw Google Chrome overtaking Apple’s Safari browser for the first time. Safari has been used on Mac systems for many years, but recently Firefox has been eating into to Safari’s share on Apple’s own operating system, while the Windows version of Safari has never really caught on.
In December 2009, chrome took a 4.63% market share during the month according to the latest figures released by Net applications, compared to Safari’s ever so slightly lower 4.46%, pushing it just far enough to claim a bronze in the ongoing browser wars.
Chrome will have a long way to go if it wants to start rivalling the big boys, though. Over ten times as many people use Internet Explorer than they do Chrome, while 2nd place Firefox has maintained a healthy 24.61%.
Other interesting figures in the Net Applications report of the year include the news that use of Microsoft Windows has fallen slightly from 93.66% last January to 92.21% in December, while usage of MAC OS has risen nearly half a percent.
What browser are you currently using, and have you swapped over your browser in 2009?
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