Google's Chrome browser recently became the most popular system in use on the web, overtaking Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), before falling back into second place.

StatCounter revealed on Wednesday that on Saturday, 18 March, Chrome's browser market share surpassed that of IE, for the first time in its history, with a 32.71 per cent compared to 32.5.

The company's research showed that the spike was largely due to heavy usage in India, Russia and Brazil and said that it was indicative of a wider trend as Chrome usage often increases over weekends.

The phenomenon was taken by analysts as a sign that consumers commonly use IE for work purposes and Chrome for home browsing.

"At weekends, when people are free to choose what browser to use, many of them are selecting Chrome in preference to IE," commented StatCounter chief executive Aodhan Cullen.

Full story: V3.co.uk