According to the most recent statistics released by Web analytics firm StatCounter, the Google Chrome browser has become the third-ranking browser in the US, after having deposed the Apple Safari for the first time last week. The Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) and the Mozilla Firefox browsers retained their respective top two positions as the most popular browsers during the week.

Going by StatCounter data, the week ending June 27 witnessed the Chrome surpassing the Safari; with Chrome's nearly 8.97 percent US browser market share inching slightly ahead Safari's 8.88 percent share - thereby indicating that Safari lost an almost 1.5 percent lead that it had over the Chrome two months back.

Meanwhile, with all their versions combined, IE and Firefox still dominated the US browser market scene with 52 percent and 28.5 percent market share respectively.

Talking about the Chrome overthrowing the Safari to notch up to the third place, StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen said in a release: "This is quite a coup for Google as they have gone from zero to almost 10 percent of the US market in under two years. There is a battle royal going on between Google and Apple in the Internet browser space as well as in the mobile market."

Globally too, Chrome sustained its third position, with 9.44 percent of the browser market; following the second-ranking Firefox's over 31 percent share, and top-ranking IE's 52.78 percent share.