Google Chrome usage dips below 20 percent on desktops, while Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer gain

By Konrad Krawczyk Published September 15, 2014

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Google Chrome may be the clear number two when it comes to its presence on desktop computers, but its usage stats took a bit of a hit last month. Meanwhile, the rest of its main competitors all gained users, according to Net Marketshare.

In August, Google Chrome’s market share fell from 20.37 percent July, to 19.61 percent. Meanwhile, Internet Explorer, which by far is the most popular desktop Web browser, raised its share from 58.01 percent in July, to 58.46 last month.

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Mozilla Firefox also gained some fans on the desktop front, though its uptick in popularity was much smaller than the one IE enjoyed in August. Its share rose from 15.08 percent in July, to 15.23 percent last month. The same can be said for Safari, which saw its share rise from 5.16 percent in July, to 5.32 in August.

Of the desktop browsers that gained users in August, Internet Explorer experienced the biggest spike; 0.45 percent. Firefox enjoyed the smallest bump of the three, rising by 0.15 percent.

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It’s worth noting that both Safari and Internet Explorer have one clear advantage over Firefox when it comes to gaining fans. Both Apple and Microsoft make popular operating systems which include each company’s respective browsers as their defaults. Firefox does not enjoy that perk.

For what it’s worth, Chrome’s usage dip in the desktop computer world could be due to a battery life-killing bug in Chrome that came to light earlier this summer. The bug is specific to Windows-based devices, and Google is already working on a fix for this issue.

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Konrad Krawczyk

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…

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