Chrome vs. Safari

Google's Chrome browser is not displacing Apple's Safari software as it continues to gain marketshare, says Net Applications. The company has posted tracking results for the second week following Chrome's release, which show an increase in use from an initial 0.67 percent to 0.85, based on data collected from some 40,000 websites. This has come at the expense of several competing browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.

The only browser to have avoided losing share is Safari, which has in fact increased its usage by 0.7 points. Net Applications' executive VP for marketing, Vince Vizzacarro, contends that this is simply because Chrome is Windows-only at at the moment; Safari, by contrast, is a default install on every new Mac. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has promised a Mac port of Chrome within "a matter of months."

Vizzacaro further comments that Chrome may be on the verge of a downward slide, if recent statistics are an indication. "I wouldn't be too surprised to see Opera overtake it again in the short term," the executive says.

by MacNN Staff