Bangalore: Its official, Chrome is the no 1 web browser in the world. According to data released by Web analytics firm StatCounter Google chrome overtook Internet Explorer as the number one internet browser for the week ending on May 20, 2012.

Chrome had surpassed Internet Explorer once before on 18 March, 2011, but that reign lasted only for a day. This time it lasted a whole week from 13 May. It does not come as a surprise since Internet Explorer has been losing ground for over a year now. Google Chrome had outdone Firefox in December 2011 and it had been trending up since then.

StatCounter based this report on a sample of 15 billion pages and concluded that Chrome accounted for 32.76 percent while Internet Explorer accounted for 31.94 percent of the total sample group. The difference does not seem too much but it is a historical event of sorts because Internet Explorer has been the undisputed champion of web browsers for 14 years in a running. Internet Explorer has a strong hold in North America but Chrome is widely used in countries like India and in South America.

Why is Chrome no 1?

The reason for the shift is simple. Google Chrome is a better browser of the two. Even though IE comes preloaded with all Microsoft OS's its newer version IE 9 has not seen any updates since its launch in April. The biggest downfall is that IE 9 is compatible only with Windows 7 and does not run on XP. And let’s face it IE is a much slower browser when compared to Chrome or even Firefox.

To maintain their dominance Google has invested heavily in promoting Chrome through mainstream advertising. The only way for IE to bounce back is to make necessary changes fast or else its end is near.