Google Chrome: 31.88% (+0.63%)
IE: 31.71% (-1.01%)
Firefox: 31.30% (-0.01%)
Safari: 2.40% (+0.22%)
Opera: 1.50% (+0.04%)

In April 2012, Google Chrome’s increase was not as strong as February or March, but it was enough to overtake both IE and Firefox to take the #1 position. IE continued to decline, losing another 1.01% and is now only 0.41% ahead of Firefox. At the current rate, IE will fall to #3 in May. Among the smaller browsers, both Safari and Opera saw healthy increases in April, also at the expense of IE.

IE: 32.72% (-1.09%)
Firefox: 31.31% (-0.25%)
Google Chrome: 31.25% (+1.20%)
Safari: 2.18% (+0.04%)
Opera: 1.46% (+0.04%)

In March 2012, Google Chrome was only 0.06% behind Firefox for second place. More notably, it was only 1.47% behind IE for first place. At the current rate, Google Chrome will catch up with Firefox in April, and will likely overtake IE in May or June. At the same time, the gap between Firefox and IE was only 1.41% in March, the smallest gap since we started keep track here.

It’s interesting to note that the numbers we see are different from those reported by Net Applications, which showed IE gaining and all other major browsers declining in March. Since my website is about technology, it appears that IE gained ground with the non-technical audience in March.

IE: 33.81% (-0.85%)
Firefox: 31.56% (-0.43%)
Google Chrome: 30.05% (+1.00%)
Safari: 2.14% (+0.24%)
Opera: 1.42% (+0.00%)

Google Chrome continues to gain market share in February, gaining another 1% and breaking the 30% threshold. Now it is only about 1.5% behind Firefox and less than 4% behind IE. Safari was also a winner in February, gaining 0.24% to 2.14%. IE and Firefox both suffered losses during the month. At the current rate, Chrome will surpass Firefox as the #2 browser in May, and will surpass IE as the #1 browser some time in the second half of this year.

IE: 34.66% (+0.01%)
Firefox: 31.99% (-0.34%)
Google Chrome: 29.05% (+0.56%)
Safari: 1.90% (-0.01%)
Opera: 1.42% (-0.20%)

Google Chrome continues to gain market share during the first month of 2012, gaining another 0.56% to 29.05%. It is now slightly less than 3% behind Firefox. At the current rate of change, it will catch up to Firefox by May of this year. IE remains stable for the second month in a row. Firefox, on the other hand, lost ground for the second month in a row.

The Patriots reached the Big Game by fully leveraging their home field advantage. They easily beat the Broncos, and then advanced to the Super Bowl when the Ravens’ kicker, Billy Cundiff, missed a 32-yard field goal in the final seconds of the game. The Patriots were excellent on offense during the regular season, as they have the #2-ranked offense in terms of total yards in the NFL. Their defense was next to last, though. They were especially vulnerable to passing, giving up almost 300 yards per game. The only team that was worse was Green Bay.

The Giants reached Super Bowl 46 by first beating Atlanta at home, then won on the road at Green Bay and at San Francisco. In the regular season, the Giants were also a strong offensive team, as they ranked #8 in terms of total yards. Their defense was also suspect, giving up the 6th-most yards in the NFL.

Here’s how I see the matchups:

Patriots Offense vs Giants Defense

Patriots boast a strong offense, and they were able to score enough to get by the Ravens, arguably the best defense in the NFL. On the other hand, the Giants defense had two things in their favor: they were able to slow down the Patriots offense when they met in the regular season, and they were able to slow down the Packers in Green Bay (which I didn’t think was possible) in the playoffs. Based on this, I’d say this is an even matchup.

Giants Offense vs Patriots Defense

One can argue that the Patriots defense has yet been truly tested in the playoffs en route to Super Bowl. The Giants offense, on the other hand, was one of the few good offenses that were balanced between run and pass. Eli Manning is a good passer, but they also have a strong ground game. Given how susceptible the Patriots defense has been against the pass, I’d expect the Giants to find success passing. Edge to the Giants offense.

Intangibles

The argument for the Patriots is that since the Giants have already beaten them once during the regular season, the Patriots would win this time because it’s really difficult to beat a good team twice in the same season. The argument for the Giants is that since they had to win on the road to get to the Super Bowl, it seemed like they were destined to win. Both coaches and both quarterbacks have been to the Super Bowl before, so it’s a wash on that end. Overall, I’d say the intangibles are even.

Prediction

I predict the final score to be Giants 24, the Patriots 21. The Giants defense will do just enough to slow down Tom Brady & Company. The Patriots defense will play better than their stats indicated, but it won’t be enough against the balanced attack of the Giants.

IE: 34.65% (+0.09%)
Firefox: 32.33% (-0.87%)
Google Chrome: 28.49% (+0.62%)
Safari: 1.91% (-0.02%)
Opera: 1.62% (+0.14%)

During the last month of 2011, Firefox was the big loser, losing almost a full percentage point. IE reversed its decline in previous months and actually gained 0.09%. It’s a small increase, but it’s the first time in 4 months that it did not lose at least 1.25%, so it’s a fairly significant development. Google Chrome again was the overall gainer during the month, but its 0.62% increase was the smallest since July.

Since we are at the end of the year, let’s also take a look at the year-to-year comparison between December 2010 and December 2011:

IE: -6.98%
Firefox: -3.79%
Google Chrome: +10.25%
Safari: +0.11%
Opera: -0.15%

Clearly, among the big 3, Google Chrome gained market share at the expense of both IE and Firefox. On the other hand, the last two months have seen Google Chrome’s increase slowing down. Right now it’s not clear whether that’s only temporary or is that a sign that Google Chrome’s momentum is slowing down. We will find out in 2012.

1. My feature phone has Bluetooth capabilities, so I figured a good path to go is to give my computer Bluetooh capability by purchasing a Bluetooth USB device. There are several you can find if you search for “USB Bluetooth.” The one I got was IOGEAR USB 2.1 Bluetooth Micro Adapter.

2. Once I received the Bluetooth USB adapter, I put it in the USB port. The installation disk that came with the adapter didn’t work. Fortunately, Windows was able to locate and install the proper driver.

3. I used the Bluetooth interface in Windows to find and pair up with the feature phone. One thing to note is to make sure you set up a passkey (you’ll need to enter the same passkey on your feature phone to connect). I initially didn’t set up a passkey and was not able to connect properly. Also, remember to turn Bluetooth on in your feature phone so Windows can detect it.

4. Once connected, i was initially unable to use the “Send/Recive File” feature to download the pictures. I solved this problem by downloading and installing Medieval Software’s Bluetooth OBEX File Transfer software. I was then able to download the pictures from my feature phone using this software.

IE: 34.56% (-1.25%)
Firefox: 33.20% (+0.18%)
Google Chrome: 27.87% (+0.96%)
Safari: 1.93% (no change)
Opera: 1.48% (+0.06%)

Google Chrome’s momentum slowed a bit compared to the previous 3 months, gaining *only* 0.96% to 27.87%. IE again lost market share by more than 1 point, and now the difference between IE and Firefox is a mere 1.36%. Interestingly, Techcrunch reported that in November, Google Chrome has overtaken Firefox as the #2 browser. We do not see that trend here, although it is obvious that the gap between Google Chrome and Firefox has been shrinking rapidly.

IE: 35.81% (-1.72%)
Firefox: 33.02% (-0.08%)
Google Chrome: 26.91% (+1.55%)
Safari: 1.93% (+0.18%)
Opera: 1.42% (+0.07%)

Google Chrome gained more than 1.1% for the 3rd straight month, reaching 26.91%. IE lost market share by over 1.5% for the 2nd month in a row, and now only leads Firefox by less than 3 percentage points. Our numbers are in line with data released by Net Applications, which showed that IE had dropped significantly in October.

IE: 37.53% (-1.62%)
Firefox: 33.10% (+0.42%)
Google Chrome: 25.36% (+1.11%)
Safari: 1.75% (+0.09%)
Opera: 1.35% (-0.01%)

Google Chrome increased by over 1.1% for the second month in a row, reach 25.36%. IE was the big loser during the month, losing 1.62% while Firefox increased slightly to 33.10%.

Interestingly, Lifehacker released its browser speed test result on September 27th, their ranking of the top 4 browsers based on speed is:

1. Opera 11.51
2. Firefox 7
3. IE 9
4. Chrome 14

While on the surface, the above ranking seems to contradict the trend we have been seeing, it is useful to point out that the speed test was performed only on the latest versions of each browser. Lifehacker pointed out that Chrome has been seeing speed degradation with each new release, while Firefox 7 did surprisingly well versus earlier versions of Firefox. Given that speed is an important factor in the user browsing experience, can this be a harbinger of things to come? Let’s wait and find out.