Earlier today, we wrote an article about Google Chrome overtaking Firefox on a worldwide basis in terms of use. During the article, StatCounter’s graph showed a steady decline of Internet Explorer users, and while that may be the case, the reports of the browser’s decline, especially in regards to IE 9, has been greatly exaggerated.

At least according to some stats offered by the Microsoft blog for Internet Explorer.

According to their findings, Internet Explorer 9 is the most popular browser on the Windows 7 operating system in both a worldwide and a United States basis. Granted, in the worldwide scheme, Google Chrome is neck-and-neck with IE 9, something the following graph demonstrates quite well:

However, as you can see in the image leading this post, in relation to use in the United States, Internet Explorer 9 is the most popular browser by a wide margin. According to the graph, IE 9 use is around 35 percent, while both Firefox and Chrome are between 15 and 20 percent. As for the metrics concerning these findings, Microsoft discusses them as well, and you can tell there’s a lot of joy in such a discovery:

According to Net Applications, IE9 usage share on Windows 7 worldwide is now higher than all versions of Chrome and all versions of Firefox – second only to IE8. That’s great news for consumers and developers alike who can benefit from the richer web experiences and standards support in IE9!

The exclamation point is a great way to relay Microsoft’s excitement.

The question is, what do US web surfers know that the global audience doesn’t? Actually, that question is a two-way street, because you can look at it both ways. Do global users know something their American counterparts don’t? Or do they simply prefer a non-Microsoft browser when perusing the web? For those of you who prefer IE 9, have you tried other browsers or are you satisfied with the default model, making you less apt to try alternatives?

Let us know what you think, because according to Microsoft’s findings, there are a lot of you out there.