Last month, Google acknowledged Apple's importance by releasing a beta version of Chrome for Mac.  New statistics show that Google sort of put Apple to shame, too, however, as Chrome passed Safari in terms of market share.

The stats come courtesy of Net Applications, and according to the organization, Internet Explorer remained very much on top of the Web browser pile in December with a market share of 62.69 percent.  Unsurprisingly, Firefox placed second, with a share of 24.61 percent.

Then came the changeup.  Chrome was fourth in November, but with a market share of 4.63 percent, secured third place during December.  And Safari's market share of 4.46 percent was only enough for fourth place during the same month.

Assuming the two browsers don't reverse course in January, this is a significant development.  Chrome's only been around for about 16 months, after all, and Safari's had something like six years to make friends.

Count on Google maintaining or increasing its promotion of Chrome since the current approach has worked so well.  It's possible that Apple will try to fight back and upgrade Safari in response to Chrome for Mac, too.

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