Latest browser stats reveal Chrome creeping up, IE slipping

The latest web browser statistics for the month of August have been revealed by NetMarketShare.

And the news is that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has lost ground, dropping from a 60.74% share in July, to 60.4%. The company will be hoping that IE9 is going to see a reversal of its fortunes of late (in the last year it has dropped from around the 65% mark).

Microsoft also pointed out on its IE blog page (spotted by Cnet) that the uptake of IE8 actually increased, with folks moving away from IE6 causing the drop. Indeed, MS claims that in developed countries, IE6 has now dropped to a share of 5% or just under, which puts a more positive spin on these figures.

Firefox stayed pretty much level, with a very slight uptick of 0.02% bringing its total market share to 22.93%.

Chrome was in third place, and its numbers were up after a slight fall in July. Google’s browser went up 0.36%, to give it a browser market share of 7.52%.

Safari was fourth, with a slight 0.07% growth to 5.16%, and it was followed by Opera, which was down 0.08% to 2.37%. Opera has put in a flat performance across 2010, as it was at 2.38% in January.