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Not a single month went by in 2011 in which Google's Chrome browser didn't grow its market share, and it's only moved in a backwards direction a few times since it was released nearly three and a half years ago in September 2008. At the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011, Chrome accounted for 10.36 percent of all desktop browsers, compared to Firefox's 23.69 percent and Internet Explorer's 58.35 percent. By the time 2011 came to a close, Chrome had grabbed a 19.11 percent share of the market, compared with Firefox's 21.83 percent and IE's 51.87 percent. But so far in 2012, Chrome has only given up browser market share.
According to data by NetMarketShare, Chrome's market share at the end of February 2012 stood at 18.90 percent, down from 18.94 percent in January 2012, which itself was down from December 2011. That's two consecutive months of losing market share, and as minor as those figures are, that's not something we've witnessed from Chrome before.
Other than Chrome's story line, February proved a mostly uneventful month. IE took a small step backwards, going from a 52.96 percent share in January 2012 to 52.84 percent in February 2012, while Firefox grew its share from 20.88 percent to 20.92 percent in the same time period. Apple's Safari browser also managed to attract a few new users, going from a 4.90 percent share to 5.24 percent share, while Opera inched forward from 1.67 percent to 1.71 percent.
Which browser(s) you find yourself using most often these days?
Tags: browserchromefirefoxGoogleIEInternetInternet ExplorermicrosoftMozillaonlineSoftwareNews Also, send me e-mail announcements and special offers from MaximumPC and trusted partners. More like this
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Safari Browser Share Steps in Ring with Big Three, Wrestles Market ShareChrome Gains Market Share, IE Slips a Tick 33 Comments + Add a Comment 
BobbyPhoenix March 02, 2012 at 7:58pm Mainly Chrome. Switch between Chrome, Firefox, and Maxthon often. Usually keep one going for a day or so with Chrome maybe lasting up to three days before I feel like changing.
lhatten March 02, 2012 at 6:31pm I currently use FF 10.0. I use Chrome as a backup in case Ff has a problem with a site, but that doesn't happen too much anymore. I have tried Opera a couple of times, but there were a couple of things that bugged me (can't remember what right now) so I uninstalled it. Have tried Explored 9, but do not find anything to make me change from FF. One of the reasons I do not use Chrome is that, IMO, Google has gotten too large. My search engine as of late has been Bing. I think that Google's slogan of "don't do evil" has long ago gone by the wayside and I would prefer not to have all of my eggs in one basket. As an aside, there is now way I would use Google +!
ashinms March 02, 2012 at 5:59pm Dang. Opera is less than two percent? I didn't know I was in such a minority, and I've been using opera since it came out for wii...
kixofmyg0t March 02, 2012 at 5:29pm I've been a Firefox user for years but had Chrome as a backup.
I recently tried Chrome 17 since Chrome is "hip" and it's all the rage with the kids nowadays.
WHAT IN THE EFF ARE YOU PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT CHROME BEING FASTER....
Chrome takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to load and doesn't seem any faster than Firefox 10. I currently have 10 tabs open(4 are video)and Firefox has been running for about a week and is using 336MB of RAM.
Engelsstaub March 02, 2012 at 6:34pm You recently tried Chrome 17 since (it's) "hip" and it's all the rage with the kids? Seriously...
Works fast for me on multiple computers/platforms to include Fedora, Ubuntu, Windows 7, and OSX. But then again so does Firefox last time I checked. No discernable differences.
ashinms March 02, 2012 at 5:54pm Speaking of memory... Chrome is a ram hog. How much do you have? That could be why it seems so slow.
Wingzero_x March 02, 2012 at 7:42pm Chrome started running slow for me as well with 16Gb of RAM, so I'm back on Opera.
Really seems like lately I've been purging my systems of Google, as much as I can.
Baer March 02, 2012 at 5:29pm Tried it and saw no reason to continue using it. Also many people did not really know they were downloading it, kinda like the Google toolbar that most people do not realize they are downloading. Nothing makes a geek more angry than to have some peice of software foisted on his, or a family members of friends computer. In the case of Chrome there is also a general suspicion that it is not super secure and that Google is watching you.
Anyway, it is now off all of our computers. Nuff said!
Wingzero_x March 02, 2012 at 7:34pm Make sure you check your hidden roaming folders for it as well.
jailoliv March 02, 2012 at 5:05pm Is it coincidence that since Yahoo eMail added some weird code to slow down under Chrome, Chrome has lost market share? Has anybody else noticed that? Apparently, there are other sites doing the same. Isn't Microsoft behind Yahoo? Just wondering. Maybe Google should look at that. Of course these sites will say that it's a bug in Chrome but it doesn't seem to be that at all. Am I going nuts?
lhatten March 02, 2012 at 6:13pm Yes indeed!!
ashinms March 02, 2012 at 5:55pm Yes
misterz100 March 02, 2012 at 1:07pm Been using Chrome since somebody told me about neat bookmarks. I love how it keeps my data synced between my desktop and laptop that's the selling point for me. Also its much easier to run and maintain when I put it on others PC's than always getting the latest flash player whenever I fix their PC.
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poee March 02, 2012 at 12:30pm Firefox FTW! I've been using FF since the initial beta, and though I have also used Chrome for awhile, I don't like it nearly as much. I still have it installed in the rare case that FF (and/or the extensions I use) doesn't work well with a particular site. I find it far more customizable and "power-user" friendly than Chrome, which throws out a lot of user choices in favor of their minimalist design. I can see why some people prefer Chrome, though, especially if they have little interest in tweaking their browser beyond the defaults.
Like a poster below (DoctorX), I have also found that trying to get bugs fixed or features tweaked or added to Chrome is painful, as the forum mods are serious jerks who couldn't care less about their user's concerns or needs. They really seem to run Google now as a business whose main product is YOU, which they sell to their actual customers: advertisers. A lot of free services do this, but the better ones at least try to fake their interest in their users more effectively (as Google used to do -- I guess after they became the most powerful Internet corporation they stopped bothering. Their basic attitude at this point is: "We own your internets, who else are you going to use? So shut it.")
firefox91 March 02, 2012 at 11:49am I have been using Firefox for many years. Not that long ago I gave Chrome a fair shake and ran it as my primary browser for a few months. I liked it, but the add-ons of choice for me still needed work. Chrome's bookmark synch didn't consistently work. It would add bookmarks okay but never synched the deleted ones. Also AdBlock Plus is not nearly as good on Chrome. It failed to stop some intrusive popup windows on certain sites that Firefox's Adblock nailed every time. Sticking with Firefox for the time being.
whiskeymcclinton March 02, 2012 at 11:49am Opera all the way at home, on the the Blackberry, and on my Nokia N800. Terra on the iPad. Forced to use IE at work.
Sovereign March 02, 2012 at 11:31am Chrome is my personal-use browser. It maintains its speed even when left open all day, through multiple resumes from standby and with many tabs open. Sure it may use more memory than Firefox (this has been argued a lot, so I won't take a side--I'm just saying even if it does I don't care), but it keeps its speed up over time. Firefox fails to do that while also consuming massive amounts of memory.
I have to use Firefox for work since our web-based applications are designed for Firefox.
Our time-off software requires Internet Explorer.
gmvolk March 02, 2012 at 11:11am Firefox. Never had memory leaks as other people say, of course I don't keep tons of tabs open either. Only run a half dozen or so plugins as well. I will give Waterfox a try and see how much faster the 64bit version is.
allc0re March 02, 2012 at 10:30am Firefox since day 1. Chrome is ok, but lacks the key addons I use.
TommM March 02, 2012 at 10:27am Chrome user here going on a couple of years now. I have no real complaints about it - does everything I need it to do and is very flexible. I'm forced to use IE at work which blows and have tried FireFox a couple of times. But for whatever reason, can never get the colors to look right on FF which drives me crazy.
I'll check out WaterFox - sounds interesting.
JFAZ March 02, 2012 at 10:22am Firefox in windows, chrome in Linux. I went all chrome for about a year, but I missed a couple firefox plugins, logmein doesn't have a chrome plugin yet. Firefox now has sync built in so I just decided to go with firefox while on windows (my main OS).
In Linux, chrome just seems so much faster and stable.
rmiller1959 March 02, 2012 at 9:32am Chrome voluntarily took the hit - thought you would know that:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-punishing-chrome-for-60-days/2012/01/04/gIQADMPGaP_story.html
phoenixjc March 02, 2012 at 10:45am They should, they ran the same story:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/google_sends_chrome_browser_search_penalty_box_sponsored_shenanigans
MrSelatcia March 02, 2012 at 9:15am Using Chrome currently, but I am less than thrilled with the print options. I just found out how to access flags and turn off the mandatory print preview, that helped quite a bit.
DoctorX March 02, 2012 at 8:43am Waterfox 10.0.2. It is based on the current firefox source and it is pure 64bit. Chrome is nice and i used it for a couple of years, but it can be a little slow. Now there is 64bit flash,java, and silverlight, there is no reason to run 32bit. (Actually a couple of exceptions... proprietary plugins like for NASCAR need 32bit).
Waterfox is fast... very fast. It is now my default browser. Attempting to get a bug fixed or like a bunch of us tried to do (64bit chrome on windows which exists for linux) is painful. The mods/techs that answer the forums are assholes.
I keep Chrome installed in the rare case something does not work in Waterfox.
http://waterfoxproj.sourceforge.net/downloads/
Dartht33bagger March 02, 2012 at 10:12am I was using the 32-bit version of Firefox for years. When Maximum PC posted a story about Waterfox a month or so on here I instantly switched to it. Waterfox is awesome and everything has worked exactly the same as it does in Firefox. Definitely a must if you are running a 64-bit OS.
Chise March 02, 2012 at 8:04am I've been using Chrome since it launched (from Opera and Firefox) I have yet to see a good reason to switch since moving to Chrome. The plug ins have matured, its fast, light and with the bookmarks syncing to my Google account (and now my Galaxy Nexus seamlessly with Chrome for Android)I think I'm gonna stick with it for a while.
Google seems to have been getting a lot of hate recently in the Tech media (most of it FUD as far as I can see) so I wonder if that has had some effect on the usage numbers?
Also like others I'm still surprised that IE is holding up with so many superior options. I hate that I'm stuck using IE at work.
NeilOMalley March 02, 2012 at 7:52am I am mostly a Firefox user but have an array of browsers installed for testing.
Probably one of the reasons chrome grew so fast is because its attached to so many installers. I have seen some computers ive worked on with multiple browsers because they forgot to uncheck the install box when installing some other Google software.
Corfy March 02, 2012 at 7:43am For the desktop, I'm still mainly a Firefox user (been using Firefox since 0.6, and then before that Netscape since 2.0), although I use Chrome (on Windows at work) or Chromium (on Linux at home) as my secondary browser (I find it handy sometimes to use a second browser for some tasks). But I spend at least 85% of my time in Firefox.
On my smartphone, I use Opera Mobile.
stradric March 02, 2012 at 7:32am Seems like Chrome maybe hit its limit and now the numbers are fluctuating from internet usage.
The more puzzling question in my head is how IE still manages to hold onto 50+% of the market. IE is still a pile of junk no matter how many performance metrics you throw at me.
fezzic181 March 02, 2012 at 8:42am IE usage is pretty obvious. It's included with windows. The average user has no knowledge of alternate browsers or even why they would want another browser. If Windows didn't ship with a browser and people had to ask their techy friends how to connect to the net I doubt IE would have any market share at all.
Raswan March 02, 2012 at 7:30am Using chrome, but have been thinking about switching to Opera.
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