Internet Explorer's share of global browser usage, though still dominant, continued to slowly drop in September, while Google Chrome's share gained, to the point where some are predicting it will overtake Mozilla Firefox as the second most-used browser by the end of 2011 or in 2012.

Website analytics tracker StatCounter shows Microsoft's Internet Explorer declining from 49.21 percent of global usage in October 2010 to 41.66 percent in September 2011. It shows Firefox declining from 31.24 percent to 26.79 percent, and Chrome rising from 12.39 percent to 23.61 percent during that same period. Apple's Safari came in a distant fourth, rising from 4.56 percent to 5.6 percent.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Browser Market Share

StatCounter shows similar trendlines in user share just on a monthly comparison of August to September 2011. It shows Internet Explorer going from 41.89 percent in August to 41.66 percent in September; Firefox from 27.49 percent to 26.79 percent; and Chrome from 23.16 percent to 23.61 percent.

Meanwhile Net Applications, in preview data of browser usage on desktop personal computers, shows Internet Explorer going from nearly 61 percent of worldwide usage to about 54 percent from October 2010 to September 2011. Like StatCounter, Net Applications shows a decline in Firefox usage and rise in Chrome during that time, with Firefox going from about 24 percent to 22 percent, and Chrome from about 9 percent to roughly 16 percent.