Chrome Gains, IE Slumps in Browser Wars [STATS] from http://www. mashable.com

Chrome Gains, IE Slumps in Browser Wars [STATS]

Posted: 04 May 2010 06:05 PM PDT

Google Chrome was the fastest growing web browser for the fifth month in a row in analytics company Net Applications's April market report, while Microsoft Internet Explorer again lost market share.

Chrome's market share increased from 6.13% to 6.73% — almost a 10% improvement over last month. Internet Explorer saw the most significant loss in this month's numbers, slipping from 60.65% to 59.95%. Firefox (24.52% – 24.59%) and Apple Safari (4.65 – 4.72%) grew by just 0.07% each. Opera lost 0.07%, ending up with 2.3% of the browser market.

In general, Firefox and and Safari have remained mostly stagnant over the past year, with Safari growing very, very slowly and Firefox fluctuating within just a percentage point, but Internet Explorer and Chrome's market share changes show strong trends downward and upward, respectively.

When we reported Net Applications's February numbers, we mentioned that Chrome use grew among Mashable readers from 12.68% to 14.8% — 2.12% in that month, demonstrating that the tech and social media-savvy crowd are adopting Chrome much more quickly than the general Internet-browsing population. That continues to be the case, though the trend has slowed; the percentage of Mashable-reading Chrome users now stands at 16.11%.

For the general population, Internet Explorer is still in the lead, but Mashable readers prefer Firefox — 35.27% use Firefox while only 25.48% use Internet Explorer.

Have you switched to Chrome or abandoned Internet Explorer recently? Tell us about your reasons for — or for not — doing so in the comments.

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