The latest statistics from Internet analytics firm Net Applications have revealed that the Google Chrome browser surpassed the Apple Safari in terms of global usage during December, thereby becoming the third most widely used Web browser in the world.

The Net Applications' data depicted that the worldwide usage share of Google's Chrome - which was launched for the public 15 months back, and has apparently gained from the recent release of the first beta version of its browser for Mac OS X and Linux computers - leaped from 3.9 percent in November to 4.6 percent in December.

Meanwhile, despite a marginal month-on-month increase from 4.36 percent in November to 4.46 in December, the Apple Safari's share still fell behind the Chrome, and was, therefore, pushed to the fourth slot in December.

Net Applications statistics further showed the steady decline of the browser market leader Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) continued even during December - with the worldwide usage share of the IE falling from 63.6 percent to 62.7 percent.

While a large part of the usage share loss of the IE was gained by the second-ranking Mozilla Firefox, the open-source browser's share itself tumbled from 24.7 percent in November to 24.6 percent in December.

The fifth browser on the Net Applications' list for worldwide usage share during December was Opera, which managed a 2.40 market share.