Menlo Park (ip-192.com): Google's Chrome search engine shines and now accounts for a 6.7 percent market share, while Microsoft's Internet Explorer dives for the first time in years under the 60 percent mark, according to April 2010 statistics from web analytics and market research firm Net Applications. Chrome is now in third place, up from a market share of just 1.7 percent a year ago. With 24.5 percent, Firefox is holding a solid second place. Apple's Safari comes in as number four with a market share of 4.7 percent, followed by Opera with 2.3 percent.

Security concerns may be the main reason for Microsoft's slow but steady decline. The company lost 0.7 percent market share in the four week period from March to April 2010, but 7.9 percent compared to April 2009. During 2002 and 2003, Internet Explorer basically controlled the market with a share of over 95 percent.

Microsoft hopes to turn things around with the upcoming Internet Explorer (IE) 9. IE 9 focuses on new standards such as HTML5 and CSS3 and a preview already scored 55 out of 100 possible points in the ACID3 browser test. By comparison, IE8 scored only 20 points.

The planned release of Google's new Chrome OS, which site on top of Chrome, could provide an additional boost to the browser. As Firefox, Chrome is also betting on extensions to help to customize the experience users have with the browser.

Related posts:

1. Chrome gains. IE and Firefox down
2. Web: Google Chrome moves to third place
3. Microsoft shows IE 9 preview
4. Google’s Chrome default browser on Sony Vaio PCs
5. New version 3.5 of Firefox loses some of its "edge"