Chrome 6 was released this week but there’s some more important news for web designers and developers. According to StatCounter’s statistics, Google’s browser recorded a 10.76% market share during August 2010. This was an increase from 9.88% in the previous month.
A 0.9% rise may not sound much, but it accounts for millions of users and is an important milestone for the 2 year-old browser. In last month’s article, Current Browser Market Shares and Trends, I reported that double figures would be achieved soon but uptake appears to have accelerated.
It’s important to note that browser usage figures are never accurate and naturally fluctuate, but Chrome’s growth has never deviated from its upward path.
| Browser | July 2010 | August 2010 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| IE | 52.69% | 51.34% | -1.35% |
| Firefox | 30.69% | 31.09% | +0.40% |
| Chrome | 9.88% | 10.76% | +0.88% |
| Safari | 4.09% | 4.23% | +0.14% |
| Opera | 1.91% | 1.88% | -0.03% |
| Others | 0.74% | 0.70% | -0.04% |
Chrome’s gain has been at IE’s expense. That’s not surprising, but IE usage had remained fairly static — if not increased slightly — during previous months. August shows the biggest monthly drop in IE’s market share for a year.
The figures will please Google but it has a long way to go before Chrome starts to challenge IE and Firefox. However, the company has been aggressively advertising the browser and few people would bet against it.
Could we see a 3-way tie at the top of the browser charts?
Craig BucklerCraig is a freelance UK web consultant who built his first page for IE2.0 in 1995. Since that time he's been advocating standards, accessibility, and best-practice HTML5 techniques. He's created enterprise specifications, websites and online applications for companies and organisations including the UK Parliament, the European Parliament, the Department of Energy & Climate Change, Microsoft, and more. He's written more than 1,000 articles for SitePoint and you can find him @craigbuckler.
