Google Chrome edges up as IE slips

 

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By Hani Megerisi

Posted on 1 Mar 2010 at 11:36

Microsoft's Internet Explorer is continuing to bleed market share, with Google's Chrome being the main benefactor.

Microsoft’s browser, which has been beset by poor publicity and news of security flaws, lost nearly 1% of its total market share in February, falling to 61.58%, according to Net Applications.

By comparison, Chrome grew by 0.4% to a 5.6% share of the browser market. Chrome was only released in September 2008 and has quickly risen in the rankings, overtaking rivals such as Safari and Opera.

IE’s share has been steadily falling over the past year, dropping by nearly 10% in the face of stiff competition from Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s browser. The newly-implemented Windows browser ballot could put a further dent in IE’s dominance, as users who were previously unaware of alternatives will be given a choice of which browser to use.

The other main browsers have all increased their market share over the past year, although none as sharply as Chrome, which rose from 1.54% in February 2009 to today’s announcement of 5.61%.