According to StatCounter, an online analytics company, Google has a lot to smile about. Their Chrome browser is seeing massive growth in the global market.

For the first time in StatCounter statistics, Chrome has exceeded 20% of the market share, taking 20.7% in June. This is up from only 2.8% in June 2009.

It also looks like Chrome’s success is at Internet Explorer and Firefox’s detriment. In the same period, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer fell from 59% use globally to 44%. Firefox dropped just a little bit from 30% to 28%. These three browsers remain the big players as both Safari and Opera barely even register when it comes to global use.

While Chrome is growing respectably worldwide, it is really performing well in certain areas. In South America, it has officially overtaken Firefox. In the United Kingdom, the two are in a dead heat.

In the United States, Chrome has risen to account for 16% of browser use, with Internet Explorer still holding a commanding lead with 46.5%. Though I.E. has been on a steady decline for the past couple of years, it still is the most used browser by far as this graph shows.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Browser Market Share

As you can see, I.E. continues to slide but still reigns as king of the browsers. Firefox use has stayed quite steady over the past 2 years, dipping ever so slightly recently. Chrome is the only one that appears to be on a solid upswing.

“It is a superb achievement by Google to go from under 3% two years ago to over 20% today,” said Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “While Google has been highly effective in getting Chrome downloaded the real test is actual browser usage which our stats measure.”

While these numbers seem wonderful for Google, browser stats are not the most consistent stats if you ask around. As Google+Reader”>GigoOm points out, other research has put Chrome’s share at only 12.5% in May.