Bangalore: Browser wars have never been more interesting to watch than in 2011, especially since Google’s Chrome essentially changed the way people perceived them.

Chrome surpassed IE for the first time in the history of web browsers, as the browser with the most market share even as Firefox’s strategy didn’t prove to be too successful.  The Chrome strategy, however, combined quick browser development, silent updates (with no notifications for upgrades), backwards compatibility, and swift security fixes—factors that shot it to the top of the list.

According to StatCounter’s statistics, Firefox lost out on more than 21 percent of its user base, but a report from Tom’s Hardware Guide stated that certain trends could have the Mozilla Foundation’s browser becoming the top browser in the market again. Here are the factors the report stated:

1. Browser trends: Market share trends evolve over time, as with other things. And although there could be occasional hiccups, the market share curves based on StatCounter’s statistics have been quite predictable, considering that its market trends usually change in a delay period of 6 months. In any case, major changes in browsers take time to trickle down to users and then change their behavior. According to the prediction the report made based on StatCounter’s numbers, Firefox will enter a phase of growth (by mid-2012) -- one that might take it toward a 28 percent stake in the market share. In the meanwhile, IE looks like it will continue on its decline, and might even drop by 25 percent by the end of this year, and the report predicts that Chrome will surpass IE by 33 percent by May or June this year. The report, however, cautions to take this forecast with a grain of salt (as one would any others).