Sometime in the next 12 months, Google Chrome will become the world's most popular browser, knocking Microsoft's Internet Explorer off the mountain it has ruled for more than a decade.
This fact should scare the pants off of Facebook.
In July 2008, IE controlled 68.5 percent of the market, according to Statcounter, while Chromewasn't even on the market. Now Microsoft's browser is down to 34.8 percent market share while Chrome controls 30.9 percent of total browser usage. Chrome has grown by a percentage point the last few months, while IE has dropped by around the same amount.
It's only a matter of time until Google dominates the browser market.
Now you may be asking yourselves: why should Facebook care about the fate of the browser market? Facebook's a social network, not a desktop software company -- why do the browser wars matter?
The answer lies in Google's ambitious plans for Google+, the company's "social spine." It's no secret that Facebook and Google are at war, and that Google would love to take the wind out of Facebook's sails. Nothing less than control of the Web (and billions in ad dollars) is at stake.
Google+ as a standalone product hasn't made a dent in Facebook's growth, though. Google+ may have 170+ million users, but Facebook is still on track for the IPO of the decade.
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