Chrome, Safari taking browser share

Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari web browsers have continued to steal market share from their much larger rivals Internet Explorer and Firefox over the past six months, according to internal ZDNet.com.au statistics.

ZDNet.com.au browser share — June 21 through July 21, 2009
(Credit: ZDNet.com.au)

For the month until 21 July, 5.2 per cent of ZDNet.com.au readers used Chrome, compared with 3.5 per cent for the same monthly period six months ago. 5.9 per cent used Safari, compared with 4.4 per cent six months ago. ZDNet.com.au generally receives several million page impressions each month.

Internet Explorer lost 1.3 per cent to remain in the lead with 50.7 per cent, while Mozilla Firefox also sank 1.8 per cent to reach 37 per cent.

The changing market share could mean that Google has already seen some early success with Chrome, which was first released to the public in September 2008. Just a week after its launch, 3.8 per cent of ZDNet.com.au readers were already using Chrome. At that stage, it similarly appeared that readers had ditched either Firefox or Internet Explorer for Google's offering.

ZDNet.com.au browser share — Dec 21, 2008 through January 21, 2009
(Credit: ZDNet.com.au)

Going back to the same month in 2007, it appears that Safari is maintaining a small but loyal presence amongst ZDNet.com.au readers, with 5.1 per cent using Apple's browser at that stage compared with 5.9 per cent today.

However, the numbers could show that relatively few Windows users have switched to Safari since Apple first released the browser for the Microsoft platform back in June 2007. Over the last two years, Internet Explorer has lost 7.6 per cent of market share, with Firefox gaining 3.7 per cent.

Various companies measure browser share globally. For example, Net Applications' latest report, for the second quarter of 2009, stated that Internet Explorer had 65.85 per cent of the market, compared with Firefox at 22.39 per cent, Safari at 8.46, and Chrome at 1.74. Other sites generally place Firefox and Internet Explorer's portions of the market slightly higher or lower.

ZDNet.com.au browser share — June 21 through July 21, 2007
(Credit: ZDNet.com.au)

The most popular individual browser overall amongst ZDNet.com.au readers is currently Firefox 3.0 at 28 per cent, with versions 7, 8 and 6 of Internet Explorer close behind at 21.5, 15.5 and 13.0 per cent respectively. Firefox 3.5 and Chrome come after with 6.4 and 4.9 per cent each. At least one ZDNet.com.au reader still prefers to use the Lynx text-based browser.

Which browser do you prefer and why?