The Norwegian browser Opera remained flat at 1.6%.

Chrome's recovery was notable because Google's browser has slipped each of the first three months of the year, the only multi-month decline ever for the 2008 program. Chrome's setback has effectively squashed projections that said it would surpass Firefox as the world's No. 2 browser this summer.

Firefox's decline, on the other hand, was standard fare for the open-source browser, which has jettisoned share eight of the last 12 months. Last month's number was Firefox's lowest since October 2008.

As usual, data from Irish metrics firm StatCounter sketched different results. Unlike its U.S. rival Net Applications, StatCounter does not adjust its global numbers to take into account problems quantifying browser use in countries like China, nor does it discard Chrome's pre-rendered pages, which some claim inflate the latter's numbers.

StatCounter had IE falling by seven-tenths of a point to 34.1%, while Chrome grew by a relatively robust four-tenths of a point to 31.2%. Firefox, said StatCounter, dropped to 24.1%, while Safari scratched out an increase to 7.1%.