Firefox now Europe’s chosen browser

Well it had to happen sooner rather than later – Internet Explorer is no longer the most used browser in mainland Europe, we have Firefox taking the lead for the first time.

According to figures from website stats firm Statcounter they show that the gap between the two browsers started really got closer in March ’10. The real winner in these figures has been the rise of Google’s browser Chrome which ended 2010 with 10% more market share having taken 7.32% off Internet Explorer, according to StatCounter’s figures.

As you may expect Internet Explorer is dominant in the US with 48.92% of the market and it has to be said probably the principle reason for its decline in Europe has a lot to do with the browser options Microsoft is forced to include in the European copies of Windows where a user has a choice of browser rather than default to Internet Explorer. Other stats recorders see a similar rise for Google’s Chrome so maybe other factors are at play here, for instance Google’s heavy offline promotion of Chrome – who remembers the adverts on Train Station billboards?

These figures can only be seen as a snapshot, a user may well have 2 or 3 browsers they use and no particular favourite, it does show the market is healthy and ever changing.

So which browser do you use and why?