SAN FRANCISCO: Google Chrome last week unseated Apple Safari for the first time as the third most used Internet browser in the United States, according to figures released by StatCounter.
"This is quite a coup for Google as they have gone from zero to almost 10 per cent of the US market in under two years," StatCounter chief executive Aodhan Cullen said in a release.
"There is a battle royal going on between Google and Apple in the Internet browser space (Chrome vs. Safari) as well as in the mobile market (Android vs. iPhone)."
Chrome had 8.97 per cent of the US browser market in the week that ended Sunday, topping Safari's 8.88 per cent, StatCounter reported.
Safari lost an approximately 1.5 per cent lead it had on Chrome two months earlier.
Firefox remained the second most popular with 28.48 per cent of people using the free, opensource browser. Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) reigned supreme with 52 per cent of US Internet users surfing with the software.
Globally, Chrome remained in a solid third place with 9.44 per cent of the browser market and slowly closing the gaps with second-place Firefox, which had slightly more than 31 per cent, and IE with 52.78 per cent.