Chrome’s Market Share Dips After 2 Years

After witnessing unprecedented growth for every single month for two straight years, Google’s Chrome share in January 2012 has taken a beating. According to web metrics firm Net Applications. Chrome’s market share fell from 19.11% to 18.94%. Though the fall is not that high, yet it is notable because Chrome has risen consistently and rapidly over the last couple of years. Chrome’s new features as well as extensions have helped the browser to climb rapidly in the popularity ladder.

Reasons For The Drop

Chrome’s drop is the largest since the browser was launched in September 2008. It is believed that the main reason for the drop is a minor advertising scandal which was revealed in early January. It is to be noted that in January a couple of search marketing news sites identified few Google sponsored blog posts which were against Google’s webmaster guidelines.

However, January 2012 brought some good news for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the browser usage share increased by 1.1 percentage points with 53% share. It was a reversal to the long-running trend where Internet Explorer (IE) has been consistently losing grounds. Chrome’s decline in January means that at current pace it is not until March, that Chrome replaces Firefox as the most-used browser.