The latest NetMarketShare Web browser numbers are out for May 2011, and they show Chrome growing faster than any of the other browsers with Internet Explorer (IE) continuing its slow decline.
I’ve always thought that Microsoft restricting Internet Explorer (IE) 9 to Vista and Windows 7 was a mistake. What I hadn’t realized that even on Windows 7, IE 9 was going to face such an uphill battle for mind share. On Windows 7, where Microsoft unexpectedly started pushing IE9 to users via Windows Update in April instead of June, IE 9 still has only 12.04% of the market.
Indeed, while IE 8 is Windows 7’s number one Web browser with a healthy, but declining 42.51%, Chrome 11, with 14.82%, and Firefox 4 with 14.05% are both ahead of IE 9. If you lump in Firefox 3.6’s numbers, 8.52%, with Firefox 4’s share, Firefox has almost twice as much market share on Windows 7 as does IE 9.