Net Applications data for January is out, and there are some interesting trends displayed.

First, the data shows that Google’s Chrome browser has managed to snatch usage share from Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Here’s the data:

• Chrome: 5.20% (up from 4.64% in Dec ‘09)
• IE: 62.18% (down from 62.69% in Dec ‘09)
• Firefox: 24.41% (down from 24.61% in Dec ‘09)

Note: While we may debate as to whether Net Applications is a reliable metric or not, Mozilla both accept and use its data in its PR propaganda.

Note that this is the second month in a row that Net Applications has shown a decline in Firefox usage.

I noticed over the holiday period that Google was aggressively pushing Chrome through ads, even going as far as to offer customized downloads that could be sent as gifts via email.

The top browser spot has also changed hands, now belonging to IE8, with 22.31%, beating IE6 (20.07%). Still far too many people browsing the web with IE6 …

In other news, Windows 7 global usage share hit 10% on January 31st. Overall, Windows 7 ended January with a 7.51% usage share (leaping ahead from 5.71% for Dec ‘09). Also interesting is the data that shows that Redmond WA, home of Microsoft, shows the highest Windows 7 usage share within the US, a robust 42%.

Overall, Windows usage is down to 92.02% (from 92.21% in Dec ‘09 – even strong Windows 7 gains can’t halt the slow erosion of Windows usage share), Mac is up to 5.13% (from 5.11% in Dec ‘09), which I admit probably isn’t significant, and Linux is unchanged at 1.02%. iPhone OS platform is also up marginally to 0.47% (up from 0.44% in Dec ‘09).

Net Applications measures operating system usage by tracking computers that visit the 40,000 sites monitored for clients, which represents a pool of about 160 million unique visitors each month. This data is then weighted based on the estimated size of each country’s Internet population.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes blogs.zdnet.com

Russia Internet search engine “Yandex” named the most popular search topic in 2009. As it turned out, the main event last year was its conclusion: the number of queries on the topic “New Year” close to 21 million. Closest pursuer – the theme “Ready homework” – left behind more than twice (about 9 million requests).

Judging by the rankings “Yandex“, the most popular dishes on New Year’s table was a salad with calamari and Caesar salad, goose or duck with apples and oranges. Legitimate to increased number of requests associated with New Year’s gifts and attributes, although the most popular purchase was the new operating system Windows 7 from Microsoft.

In the last five minutes of 2009’s most popular search query were online broadcast TV channels, as in the first five minutes of 2010 – social networking.

In the New Year, the top ten most popular topics of search queries in 2009 were three more holidays: Women’s Day (more than 4 million requests, 6 th), Defender of the Fatherland (3.5 million, 9-th place) and Valentine’s Day (2,8 million, 10-th place). Educational those two: in addition to those already mentioned finished homework in the top ten hit theme “EGE 2009″ (more than 6 million queries, 4 th place). In the top-10 were two computer games: GTA 4 (about 6 million queries, 5-th place) and The Sims 3 (more than 4 million, 7-th place).

The third took place in the rating “Eurovision 2009″ held in Moscow (7.8 million requests). Also in the top ten hit theme “Swine flu” (nearly 3.8 million queries, 8 th place).

lenta.ru