Google Chrome overtakes Internet Explorer to be crowned top web browser

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Google's Chrome has dethroned Microsoft's Internet Explorer as the top web browser.

According to NetMarketShare, Google Chrome had 41.7 percent of desktop browser share in April, narrowly ahead of Internet Explorer which had a share of 41.4 percent.

This statement of NetMarketShare interestingly comes almost four years after its rival metrics firm StatCounter said Google Chrome was the most popular and used web browser in the world.

NetMarketShare's statement means that the long reign of Microsoft Internet Explorer has officially come to an end.

And according to the market tracker, Mozilla's Firefox browser was third with 9.7 percent of market share.

A graph posted online at netmarketshare.Com showed a Chrome use trend line rising while a line for IE sloped downward.

When it came to using browser software to access the internet from mobile devices, Chrome commanded slightly more than 49 percent of the market, according to NetMarketShare.

The results came as Google faces regulatory scrutiny, particularly in Europe, over its dominant position in Internet lifestyles and as Microsoft was pursuing a shift to business and cloud computing services.

Microsoft fielded new Edge browser software synched to its latest-generation Windows 10 operating system and incorporating its Cortana virtual assistant capabilities to win users.

Microsoft last month reported a 25 percent plunge in quarterly profits as the company navigated away from its role as a software seller to a services model.