Although Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) remains the most popular browser to date, it looks like Google’s Chrome is set to surpass Firefox, taking over the second highest spot, according to statistics released by StatCounter.

Data show that Chrome will pass Firefox to take the number two spot behind IE no later than December, Computerworld reported. StatCounter is an Irish company that tracks browser usage using the free analytics tools it offers websites.

As of Sept. 28, Chrome’s global average user share for September was 23.6 percent, while Firefox’s held at 26.8 percent. IE, meanwhile, was at 41.7 percent, according to StatCounter figures. Safari and Opera browsers hold the fourth and fifth spots, respectively.

Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter said Chrome continues to make “significant gains” in the browser market going from under four percent two years ago to over 20 percent today.

“Despite falling market share Internet Explorer still leads in the browser war but the next few months will be interesting to watch with Chrome and Firefox almost neck and neck,” Cullen said in statement.

StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected on a sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month (830 million from the U.K. and Ireland) from the StatCounter network of more than three million websites.

In other Chrome news, TechZone360 reported Microsoft’s anti-viral software has on occasion “accidentally” deleted Google Chrome from the hard drives of users’ Window-based computers. The software was apparently mistaking Chrome for a trojan horse. Within a few hours, Microsoft released an update that addressed the issue.

As it competes against IE and Chrome, Mozilla released its Firefox 6 Web browser a few days ahead of its scheduled unveiling in August.

A July 19 Mozilla blog post explained Mozilla’s agenda to improve Firefox, conceding that the frequent updates create challenges for IT departments, TechZone360 reported.

“Recently there’s been a lot of discussion about enterprises and rapid releases. Online life is evolving faster than ever and it’s imperative that Mozilla deliver improvements to the Web and to Firefox more quickly to reflect this. This has created challenges for IT departments that have to deliver lots of mission-critical applications through Firefox. Mozilla is fundamentally about people and we care about our users wherever they are,” the post said. “To this end, we are re-establishing a Mozilla Enterprise User Working Group as a place for enterprise developers, IT staff and Firefox developers to discuss the challenges, ideas and best practices for deploying Firefox in the enterprise. It will be a place to ask questions and get information about Mozilla plans.”

Firefox is available in more than 75 languages, covering more than 97 percent of the world’s online population with global market share of about 30 percent, according to Mozilla figures.