Chrome To Take Second Place From Firefox Soon

By | September 29, 2011 | 34 Comments

Data provided by StatCounter, a company that tracks browser usage using the free analytics tools it offers websites, shows that Chrome will pass Firefox to take second place right behind Internet Explorer (IE) no later than December.

As of Wednesday, Chrome’s global average user share for September was 23.6%, while Firefox’s stood at 26.8%. IE, meanwhile, was at 41.7%.

The climb of Chrome during 2011 has been remarkable: It gained 8% since January 2011, representing a 50% increase.

During that same period, Firefox dropped almost 4%, a decline of about 13%, while IE also fell 4%, a 9% dip.

That means Chrome is essentially reaping all the defections from Firefox and IE.

If the trends established thus far this year continue, Chrome will come close to matching Firefox’s usage share in November, then pass its rival in December, when Chrome will account for approximately 26.6% of all browsers and Firefox will have a 25.3% share.


About (Author Profile)


Being passionate about software, Armin joined FavBrowser.com in early 2011 and has been actively writing ever since. Having accepted the challenge, he also enjoys watching anime, indulging in good books, staying fit and healthy, and trying new things.

  • max1c

    Heh, well this day has come…
    Chrome is the new Firefox.
    Firefox is the new Netscape.
    IE stays at top.
    And Opera… Well, stays Opera…

    • Anonymous

      At least IE is no longer monopolizing the browser market. Hopefully Chrome won’t do what IE did back in the day. 

      I hope this increasing competition will pull more creativity into all of the web browsers. 

  • Dante

    StatCounter use stupid methodology standing on popularity this statistic tools with hits without real internet users weight instead NetApplications use methodology of hits with weight. Compare both statistic. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FRJ32FNCWQPONS46BFZW5TTBJU Jordan

    Sad part is Chrome is a shitty excuse for a browser, and is only gaining market share because of Google’s multi-million dollar advertisement campaign for it.

    • Greg

      Chrome is a shitty excuse for a browser but Firefox, IE9 and Opera all duplicating its style right?. I swear this site is full with fanboys they probably wont even admit the truth. 

      • Guest

        chrome has proven faster, and simpler, and overall better than firefox

        • Armin
          • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FRJ32FNCWQPONS46BFZW5TTBJU Jordan

            Funny how some solid results made the chrome fanboys shutup.

            Chrome is last place. Worse than IE9.

          • Apriorimeister

            Not to demean any of the browsers (besides Safari), but that lifehacker article is a bunch of non-thorough, inconclusive bullshit. Here’s a far better comparison: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/firefox-7-web-browser,3037.html

          • Anonymous

            Although I wouldn’t strictly go with Toms Hardware, I have to agree that the Lifehacker Tests are flawed.

            “Our tests aren’t the most scientific on the planet, but we tried to get readings as accurate as possible”

            Whitson Gordon 

            “Ahhhh, maybe this is where the discrepancy lies. I measured my cold starts from button-press to when the home page actually showed up in the window (same home page for each browser). IE didn’t take *that* long to start up, but the loading did take a long time. ”

            So you are saying that you did NOT take network latency into account?

            Unscientific that’s for sure.

          • Mikah

             Way to go Firefox that was a surprise.

          • Greg

            You cant call someone a fanboy if your a fanboy yourself.Thats why I wont respond to you it pointless

      • Anonymous

        Chrome has been stealing liberally from Firefox, IE, Safari and Opera… No menu bar – IE. Tabs on top – Opera. Extensions – Firefox. Separate processes for different tabs – IE. JavaScript JIT compilation – Safari. And the list goes on and on.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FRJ32FNCWQPONS46BFZW5TTBJU Jordan

        Are you delusional?

        Chrome copied the omnibar from Firefox, the unified button menu from Opera, tabs on top from Opera, Speed Dial from Opera, extensions from Firefox.

        On the other hand Chrome has introduced no unique features on it’s own, it’s extensions API is still weak, and it’s a memory hog.

        http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/17/2011/09/memorynoex.png

        • Anonymous

          Instant Pages?

          Cloud Printing?

          How about the UI that everybody seems to ripoff

          • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

            I don’t think anyone on the top 5 is copying Chrome UI.

          • Anonymous

            Except UI

          • Mikah

            You’re mixing up Google  with Chrome , personally I’m a big fan of Google ,Mail ,+ , search ,translate etc…  but Chrome its OK but not what I use.
            As for the UI   getting rid of the title bar so tabs went right to the top of the screen to take advantage of Fitt’s law was great Opera copied that, search for Chrome in opera:config  acknowledges that.
            apart from that I can’t think of anything Opera copied.

          • Mikah

            Forgot the omnibar  , it didn’t seem a big deal to me as I’d been searching for years in the address bar by entering g followed by a space then the search term.

        • SUperhackA

          No,History about omnibar…:

          In 2005 Konqueror introduced a omnibar like adressbar..

          Mozilla announced in early 2008 that they was going to implement this feature..
          But chrome was released before they did that….
          Also the Omnibar is far much better than the Firefox and Konqueror bars…

          Firefox copied Combined adress-search bar from Konqueror, Speed dial from chrome,Opera and safari
          Both IE,Opera and Firefox all had extensions before chrome was released…Chrome didnt have extensions from the beggining, only because users requested it…
          Chrome extensions dont stop working when it updates.
          Chrome has an auto-update feature…

          Firefox took the Fast-release-cycle from chrome.

          Chrome has a slick design, firefox and IE stole it…..

          Also chrome has Google Instant and Cloud print…..
          A nice little,slim download manager…..and much,much more…….

  • Olfigbdmof

    dont care,  for me Chrome is inferior to Firefox, so i will still be using Firefox, until Mozilla goes bankrupt and stops the development, THEN, i will use Chrome

    • Armin

      Why not Opera? xP

      • Olfigbdmof

        because its functionality is different from what i expect and so on, i dont feel like reasoning, its just that ive tried Opera numerous times, and i cant get myself to use it for more than a day, and the adblocking is 1/100 of what AdBlock+ for Firefox can do (im talking about blocking ads inside 3rd party videos, not YouTube, something Opera is far far away from)

        • Wicket

          Opera is blocking the ads inside 3rd party videos in Youtube! I haven’t seen any advertisement on Youtube for years and I always use Opera. Opera blocks everything if you have a good block list and good block lists are available on several websites.

  • Mikah

    Say its 2017 & Mozilla is bankrupt & Firefox is no longer competitive you would use Chrome because you made that decision in 2011 , you would not reevaluate  your options  in 2017.
    I begin to see where your dislike of Opera comes from : it has too many options

    • Mikah

       Last post directed at Olfigbdmof

    • Olfigbdmof

      thing is.. its not 2017, its 2011 and if Mozilla goes bankrupt NOW, THEN i will use Chrome, because its the second on my list

      by 2017 we will be living inside the internet, so things will be very different, and as rates go faster and faster with each passing day, Firefox, IE, Chrome and the others might be dead already and a new handful of browsers will be serving us

      • Mikah

         Now is a moment in time your statement is already redundant as it is now later.

      • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

        Mozilla won’t bankrupt. There are browsers with less than Opera market share and they don’t bankrupt :P

  • Leo

    I tried Chrome several times and everytime it made me mad because
    “in order to provide maximum security” Chrome restricts mouse gestures on the settings pages and on the pages of Chrome webstore.
    I liked Chrome’s speed, but I’m just so used to use mouse gestures on EVERY page (like it is in Opera and Firefox) that I couldn’t stick to this browser.

    • Leo

      Also I couldn’t find any good Speed Dial extension (Opera-like) and it’s just very inconvenient that when you close the last window you close browser as well. The lack of customization is a bad part either.

      • Mikah

         Once your browser has a speed dial even if it is only an extension closing the last tab should leave the speed dial open, closing the browser is dumb.

      • SUperhackA

        Try speeddial 2 in chrome webstore….

        For the Gestures, use a browser called ChromePlus….(it can all chrome can included gestures,Ie tab ++++++)

  • cyb3rllama

    You should really credit the artist for that illustration. The original includes the artist’s signature, Shoze, which seems to have been removed. http://shoze.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3k0ori

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