Google takes second browser spot on the back of mobile

Mobile browsing continued to post gains at the expense of personal computers, a trend that has put Google into the second spot behind Microsoft as the browser maker with the longest reach.

According to Net Applications, an estimated 13.4 percent of all users accessed the Internet in August from a smartphone or tablet, breaking a six-month-old record. Most of the rest of the world's online users -- 85.8 percent -- went online with a desktop browser on a personal computer. The increase in mobile browsing has pushed Google past Mozilla as the browser maker with the second-largest combined desktop-plus-mobile user share Google's combined user share of 17.5 percent was earned on the basis of its No. 2 spot in mobile generated by the Android and Chrome browsers. That's in contrast to Net Applications' estimate of Chrome's desktop share of 16 percent, down more than 1.7 percentage points in August. When desktop and mobile browser user shares are combined, Google takes the second spot from Mozilla, and Apple's Safari is a stronger fourth-place rival than its minor desktop presence indicates.