A speedy rise of Chrome disturbing for Microsoft and Firefox

Now it is celebration time in Google conference rooms. According to StatCounter, an online analytics company, Google’s Chrome browser is seeing massive growth in the global market.

In a significant development, Chrome has exceeded 20% of the market share, taking 20.7% in June for the first time in StatCounter statistics. This is up from only 2.8% in June 2009.

It is quite visible from the graph that Chrome’s success is at Internet Explorer and Firefox’s detriment. In the same period, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer fell from 59% use globally to 44%. Firefox dropped just a little bit from 30% to 28%. These three browsers remain the big players as the share of both Safari and Opera is negligible when it comes to global use.

While Chrome is growing respectably worldwide, it is really performing well in certain areas. In South America, it has officially overtaken Firefox. In the United Kingdom, the two are running neck to neck.

If you look at the picture in the country of origin, the United States, Chrome has risen to account for 16% of browser use, with Internet Explorer still holding a commanding lead with 46.5%. Though I.E. has been on a steady decline for the past couple of years, it still is the most used browser by far as this graph shows.

As you can see that despite being No. 1 still today, Internet Explorer continues to slide in terms of market share. Firefox use has stayed quite steady over the past 2 years, dipping ever so slightly recently. Therefore, Chrome is the only one that appears to be on a solid upswing.

“It is a superb achievement by Google to go from under 3% two years ago to over 20% today,” said Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “While Google has been highly effective in getting Chrome downloaded the real test is actual browser usage which our stats measure.”

While these numbers seem wonderful for Google, browser stats are not the most consistent stats if you ask around. As GigoOm points out, another research has put Chrome’s share at only 12.5% in May 2011.