Browser Share: IE 9 Improving, But Google Chrome Is the Consistent Gainer

Kicking 2012 off, Net Applications is out with its latest data on browser market share, and while open source browsers Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have been ascending the market share list for months at the expense of Internet Explorer's share, Internet Explorer 9 seems to be gaining. Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser--in its various versions--lost market share for much of last year. And, in Net Applications' latest report, all versions combined have only about half of browser share at this point. However, Internet Explorer 9 is gaining significant share.

According to Net Applications, Internet Explorer 9 had 11.48 percent share in December, an increase of 1.2 percentage points over November. Internet Explorer 8 has the leading share overall at just over 27 percent of the market.  Here's a snapshot of the share data:

As 2011 ended, many people predicted that Google's Chrome browser would overtake Firefox's share. The chart above doesn't break out all versions of Google Chrome, but Net Applications' full report does, and it shows that all versions of Chrome now have 19.1 percent market share, compared to Firefox's share of just over 21 percent. Chrome's share is rising, and it does appear that it will become the most widely used open source browser. 

Internet Explorer 9 remains popular on the Windows 7 platform, and is gaining share overall, but Google Chrome is showing extremely steady share increases as measured over several consecutive months. Look for it to gain lots of share in 2012.

Graphic credit: Net Applications.