Google Inc. didn't enter the Web browser market until 2008, but its free Chrome software has already become the second-most-used in the world behind Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer.

Chrome moved past Firefox, an offering by the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation that Google has helped support, according to the website analytics company StatCounter.

Google's success with Chrome, aided by the product's speed, underscores the shake-up in the browser market -- once considered all but locked up by Microsoft, which includes Internet Explorer with its Windows operating system.

'People have discovered there is a difference in browsers,' said Brad Mitchell Smith, an analyst at research firm Gartner Inc.

Browsers have become more important as more software development shifts to the Web and away from applications anchored to personal computers and their operating systems, like Windows. Google has used Chrome to push new Web technologies such as HTML5 that help websites have richer graphics, in hopes of spurring greater usage of the Web -- as well as Google's own websites and online software.

Google CEO Larry Page said earlier this year that while it might not be clear how Google can make money from Chrome, 'emerging high-usage products can generate huge new businesses for Google in the long run, just like search.'

Google's effort to build a new browser, which started in 2006, was partly born out of concerns existing browsers would fail to support its Web services or steer users away from its search engine.

Chrome has gotten a boost from a rare advertising push by Google -- on everything from its search-engine home page to billboards to TV commercials in recent years.

Firefox, first launched in 2004, was the first to loosen the hold over the market that Internet Explorer attained in the late 1990s after eclipsing Netscape Communications Corp.'s browser. Google helped fund Mozilla and signed a deal to have the Google search engine built into Firefox, a deal that is still in place today, the Google spokeswoman said.

'Firefox is holding its own in the face of increased competition, with hundreds of millions of users worldwide choosing a web browser that answers only to them,' a Mozilla spokeswoman said in a statement.

Microsoft recently introduced a revamp of Internet Explorer but has continued to lose some share. The company's browser had just over 40% of the global market in November, down from 56.6% two years earlier, according to StatCounter. A Microsoft spokeswoman said it had no comment on StatCounter's findings, but the company in a blog post said it is excited about other data showing rapid growth in usage for its newest browser, Internet Explorer 9.

In November, Chrome had a nearly 25.7% share of the global market, up from 4.7% two years earlier, according to StatCounter. Firefox had a 25.2% share in November, down from 32.2% two years earlier.

Other research firms show that Firefox still has a slight edge over the surging Chrome, and StatCounter data show Firefox is still No. 2 in the U.S.

Amir Efrati

• foundation [faun´deiʃən] n.建立；基金；地基 (初中英语单词)
• research [ri´sə:tʃ] n.&vi.调查；探究；研究 (初中英语单词)
• partly [´pɑ:tli] ad.部分地；不完全地 (初中英语单词)
• advertising [´ædvətaiziŋ] n.广告a.广告的 (初中英语单词)
• competition [,kɔmpi´tiʃən] n.比赛；竞争 (初中英语单词)
• comment [´kɔment] n.&v.评论；评注；注意 (初中英语单词)
• offering [´ɔfəriŋ] n.提供；礼物；捐献 (高中英语单词)
• explorer [ik´splɔ:rə] n.勘探者；探险家 (高中英语单词)
• loosen [´lu:sən] v.放松；松弛 (高中英语单词)
• generate [´dʒenəreit] vt.创造；发生；引起 (英语四级单词)
• gotten [´gɔtn] get的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
• holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)