According to internet statistics firm StatCounter, Google's Chrome Web browser has now past 20 percent of global market share, and for the first time Microsoft's Internet Explorer has slipped below 50 percent.

Google's browser, which was officially launched in late 2008, took 20.7 percent of the global market in June, which was up from 2.8 percent year over year from 2009. The uptick in usage of the Chrome Web browser has marked a sevenfold increase over the last two years as Google battles in desktop mobile and search markets with Microsoft and Apple.

According to its market share data report for the month of June 2010, Microsoft's Internet Explorer led with 53.7 percent, Firefox had 21.7 percent and Chrome 13.1 percent. Apple Inc's Safari 7.5 percent and Norway's Opera 1.7 percent.

StatCounter, which is based Ireland, states that it's statistics are based on data collected from a sample base of more than 15 billion page views per month from over than 3 million websites.  Net Applications, a preferred browser statistics source, estimates that Google's share has not increased quite as much.