IE Loses Europe, Chrome Surpasses 10% Share Worldwide; ‘Do Not Track’ Issues Loom
According to the latest figures from StatCounter, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer lost its crown as the top Web browser in Europe in December. Meanwhile, Net Applications shows that Google’s Chrome browser has claimed more than 10 percent of the worldwide market.
StatCounter found that Mozilla’s Firefox browser claimed 38.11 percent of the European market in December, while IE took a 37.52 percent share.
“This is the first time that IE has been dethroned from the number one spot in a major territory,” said Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter. “This appears to be happening because Google’s Chrome is stealing share from Internet Explorer while Firefox is mainly maintaining its existing share.” Google has been heavily advertising Chrome across Europe in recent months.
Chrome was third in Europe in December, with 14.58 percent of the market, up significantly from just 5.06 percent in December 2009.
In North America, IE still maintains its healthy lead over the others, with a 48.92 percent share of the market in December, according to StatCounter. Firefox trails with 26.7 percent, while Chrome has 12.82 percent and Safari holds 10.16 percent of the market.
According to Net Applications, IE claims 56 percent of the worldwide market at the outset of January. Firefox trails with 22.75 percent, while Chrome has 10.7 percent of the global market, marking the first time Google’s browser has claimed more than 10 percent of the market.
Google recently unveiled an extension for Chrome called “Keep My Opt-Outs,” which enables the browser’s users to avoid ad-tracking cookies. This was in response to the call by the Federal Trade Commission and others for a “Do Not Track” feature that allowed Web users to opt out of personalized advertising.
Firefox also released its initial version of a “Do Not Track” feature for its users, which enables users to “Tell sites I do not want to be tracked.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is getting in on the fray by urging the Department of Commerce to support legislation that would authorize the FTC to act on a browser-header-based “Do Not Track” proposal.
“Do Not Track will help consumers fight against the largely invisible, poorly understood, and continually escalating surveillance of their online activities,” the EFF notes on its blog.
“Not only would Internet users have the opportunity to opt-out of online tracking for advertising and marketing purposes, but the browser-header-based system would also help increase transparency and understanding by standardizing expectations. We all know that privacy policies on websites are hard to understand at best, making them unhelpful tools when it comes to making decisions about using a site or application. With a Do Not Track system, businesses will have a clear way to know what each consumer expects of them, and force them to disclose practices that are contrary to those expectations.”
Sources:</strong
http://gs.statcounter.com/press?PHPSESSID=b1jetq1kcgp98rhq4f86pplgv4
http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2011/01/keep-your-opt-outs.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/218286/firefox_do_not_track_ready_for_download_now.html
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/02/eff-urges-commerce-department-embrace-do-not-track
