For the first time ever, Google’s Chrome achieved higher worldwide market share than Firefox – during last month. But Microsoft's Internet Explorer is still tops. According to StatCounter, Chrome had 25.69 percent of the global market compared to Firefox's 25.23 percent. Microsoft's Internet Explorer beat the others with a 40.63 percent market share, StatCounter said.

“We can look forward to a fascinating battle between Microsoft and Google as the pace of growth of Chrome suggests that it will become a real rival to Internet Explorer globally,” Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter, said in a press release that explained the data. “Our stats measure actual browser usage, not downloads, so while Chrome has been highly effective in ensuring downloads our stats show that people are actually using it to access the web also.”

In just the United States, Internet Explorer has a 50.66 percent market share, compared to 50.24 percent, year vs. year, StatCounter said.

Again in the United States alone, Firefox was second with 20.09 percent, a decrease from 26.75 percent, StatCounter said. The firm also showed that Chrome jumped to 17.3 percent from 10.89 percent in the United States. Safari increased also to 10.76 percent from 10.71 percent in the United States. In addition, Internet Explorer leads UK market share with 42.82 percent.

On the other hand, InformationWeek reports that NetApplication shows smaller gains for Chrome. “In January, Chrome had 11.15 percent global market share. In November, Chrome reached 18.18 percent. Firefox meanwhile slipped slight to 22.14 percent, having started the year at 23.72 percent,” InformationWeek said.  ”Microsoft meanwhile is feting Internet Explorer 9's increased adoption as the leading browser on Windows 7 worldwide.”

“According to Net Applications, IE9 usage share on Windows 7 worldwide is now higher than all versions of Chrome and all versions of Firefox—second only to IE8,” Microsoft’s Roger Capriotti said in a blog post. “That's great news for consumers and developers alike who can benefit from the richer Web experiences and standards support in IE9.”

In other company news, TechZone360 reported that Google released an update for Chrome 15 browser for a “vulnerability. An out-of-bounds memory write in the browser's JavaScript engine is the cause of this problem, said the PCWorld.com report.”