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(CNN) -- A month ago, Google's three-year effort to push its Web browser, Chrome, took a major step when analysts said it had passed Mozilla's Firefox to become the second-most popular tool of its kind on the Internet.

Today, that climb continues and has some tech observers wondering whether Chrome could do the unthinkable and topple perennial leader Internet Explorer from atop the browser rankings.

According to Web analytics firm , the most popular version of Google's browser, Chrome 15, edged out Internet Explorer 8 in early December to become the world's most used edition of a browser. (For those keeping score, the totals were 23.6% of worldwide browser usage compared to IE8's 23.5%.)

When all versions are considered, Chrome accounted for more than 27% of all worldwide browser use at the beginning of December, an increase of about 1.5% over the previous month. That's compared to about 37% for Internet Explorer, which dropped 2% from November, according to StatCounter.

Now in third place, Firefox remained mostly steady with about 25% of the browser market. Trailing far behind is Apple's Safari, with about 6%.

First ever look inside Google New York The numbers can vary in the browser race depending on who is counting. Web surveying firm still has Explorer at 52%, Firefox at 22% and Chrome at 19%. But that represents a 10-point drop by Explorer since 2010, while Chrome use more than doubled and Firefox remained flat.

Read more at CNN.com:

This picture is taken today, reflecting the browsers used on one of my sites...



The article on CNN is pretty much confirmed in this case.