Google Chrome beats Internet Explorer to become world's most popular web browser Chrome has beaten a trend that indicated it was going to surge past IE later this summer. The March figures were dismissed as inaccurate by Microsoft, but even so there is a longer-term trend of users choosing Chrome when they can decide for themselves, while business IT departments favour IE. Speaking in March, Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter's chief executive, said "At weekends, when people are free to choose what browser to use, many of them are selecting Chrome in preference to IE." On March 18, Chrome was used for 32.7 percent of all browsing, while Internet Explorer had 32.5 percent share, according to StatCounter. When people returned to their offices on Monday, the Microsoft's share recovered to 35 percent and Chrome's share slipped to 30 percent. In December, according to the same figures, Chrome relegated Firefox from second to third position worldwide for the long term. Some have questioned whether Google can also overturn Internet Explorer because of Microsoft's dominance of corporate desktops. Chrome's market share has surged from 17 percent a year ago, while Explorer has slipped from 45 percent a year earlier. StatCounter data is collected from a sample of more than 15 billion page views on more than three million websites.