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So three days ago Microsoft posted on the Exploring IE Blog a story about understanding browser usage share data and in it provided their justification as to why they prefer to use the data collected by Net Applications vice that presented by StatCounter.

While both provide detailed browser usage data, the two are very different when it comes to methodologies and results. Often they show the same general trends, but the overall share numbers they provide for each browser are significantly different. Members of the technology community have begun to pick up on this as they’ve discussed share over the last year, often raising the question of which data source is more reliable. For example, some industry experts have begun to question how much share Chrome really has in the market based on discrepancies in the data.

If you read the post Microsoft provides a lot of data showing why they believe the stats provided by Net Applications more accurately reflect browser share.

Today StatCounter posted a press release at their site that stated Chrome is world’s number one browser for a day stating that Chrome narrowly became the world’s top internet browser for the first time on 18 March 2012.

That day just happens to correspond with the date the Microsoft post went online at the Exploring IE Blog – just a coincidence most likely.  However, is this brief one day elevation as the number one browser in the world an opportunity for StatCounter to poke back at Microsoft for their post about which browser usage shares stats they prefer and why?

Check out this quote from the StatCounter press release:

"Whether Chrome can take the lead in the browser wars in the long term remains to be seen, however the trend towards Chrome usage at weekends is undeniable. At weekends, when people are free to choose what browser to use, many of them are selecting Chrome in preference to IE," added Aodhan Cullen, commenting on the weekend surges in Chrome usage.

Seems to be a poke at the fact that StatCounter thinks Microsoft is garnering IE share during the week because corporate users are forced to use a certain type of browser instead of one of their choice.

For me it sure looks like they are grinding an axe with Microsoft – what do you think?