Chrome crowned browser king for a day

Chrome was last Sunday the most-used browser in the world, according to the website analytics firm StatCounter.

Google's browser briefly overtook Microsoft's Internet Explorer for the first time on that day, although IE is now back in the lead. StatCounter said Chrome's one-day triumph was a "milestone", and pointed out that people tend to use Chrome more on the weekends, when they are away from work, and IE more while in the workplace.

StatCounter analyses a network of more than three million sites to provide statistics relating to the browsers people are using, as well as operating systems and other factors such as screen resolution. On Wednesday, the company said a surge of Chrome use in India, Russia and Brazil on the weekend had briefly made the browser the most widely-used in the world.

"While it is only one day, this is a milestone," StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen said in a statement. "Whether Chrome can take the lead in the browser wars in the long term remains to be seen, however the trend towards Chrome usage at weekends is undeniable. At weekends, when people are free to choose what browser to use, many of them are selecting Chrome in preference to IE."

On the Sunday, Chrome had a 32.71-percent share of global browser usage, just above Internet Explorer's 32.5 percent. However, the shares normalised after that, and Chrome is currently on 30.41 percent to IE's 35.29 percent.

Mozilla's Firefox, which was until last December in second place ahead of Chrome, is now in third place with a 25.05-percent share, StatCounter's latest figures show.