Chrome Strong Against Firefox And Safari, IE Untouched

Even though Google's Chrome has been publically available for less than a week, its Web browser market share has already reached over 1 percent.

According to reports from Market Share and Stat Counter, the new Web browser from Google is making inroads into relatively well established browser turf. As of 2 p.m. EDT, Market Share reports that Chrome usage was at 1.03 percent, down from its high watermark of 1.57 percent set at 4 a.m. EDT on Thursday morning. Stat Counter notes that the global market share for Chrome is at 1.15 percent on September 4.

Interestingly, Stat Counter takes the analysis a step further and reports that Chrome is grabbing worldwide Web browser market shares from Safari and Firefox.

On September 3, the day Chrome was announced and launched to the public, Firefox's market share dipped 0.82 percent, while Safari dropped 0.21 percent, giving Chrome a 1.11 percent share on the day. A day later, Chrome was up 0.04 percent while Firefox fell another 2.28 percent. Safari remained consistent with the day before, losing 0.22 percent.

Interestingly enough, the only browser that grew in the Web browser market was Internet Explorer, according to Stat Counter.

Internet Explorer, which recently launched IE8 beta 2, grew 0.23 percent on September 3 and posted even bigger gains on the fourth, ballooning an additional 3.06 percent.

Open source enthusiasts and Firefox advocates might be worried that Google's Chrome seems to be taking the biggest bite out of Firefox's market share, especially considering how long and hard Mozilla has fought for its browser to be more widely accepted.

But it's important to note that Chrome, less than a week old, has just over 1 percent of the browser market and is still a beta. While the might Google brings to table may eventually begin to shift what people use to browse, it will likely be a slow process.

More to the point, Mozilla's CEO John Lilly isn't worried about Chrome entering the landscape. In fact, he welcomes it.

Writing in a blog post earlier this week, Lilly characterized Google's move as "inevitable." Lilly went on to write that "even in a more competitive environment than ever, I'm very optimistic about the future of Mozilla and the future of the open Web."

Microsoft's Web browsing program remains the overall leader in the market with 72.15 percent of all browsers using a form of Internet Explorer; Firefox comes in second at 19.73 percent; while Safari has 6.34 percent, according to Market Share.