Google Chrome has become the third most popular web browser globally, with one in five users preferring it as it covers 20.65 per cent of market share. Just three years since its launch, the programme is soon expected to overtake Firefox, and then become a serious competitor to Internet Explorer, which despite a 43 per cent share, has been hit by security problems in recent months, web metrics firm Statcounter said in a report.

Internet giant Google says its increase in popularity is due to the speed with which it delivers search results, the way it handles security.

Statcounter also revealed that in UK, Chrome captured 22 per cent users, slightly more than Firefox. Internet Explorer was used by 45 per cent, while Apple's Safari was number four in the table, with a nine per cent share.

Lars Bak, the Google engineer behind Chrome, attributed the browser's success to its speed, saying its snappiness is addictive. The browser was intended to spur rivals to improve their speed and he was "absolutely flabbergasted" by the improvements in rival browsers, the Guardian reported

"You should never be happy with (existing) speed," Bak said. "From the beginning we wanted everybody to be fast, and now all browsers are fast."