Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser may have halted its recent market share losses to Google’s Chrome browser. According to recent survey data, Internet Explorer’s share of the web browser market has been on the way up in recent months, climbing 0.99% in March. Google Chrome, meanwhile, lost 0.33% of its market share in March, the third straight month that the browser has dipped.

The data was gathered by Net Applications and compares the five leading web browsers: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple’s Safari browser, and Opera. All other browsers combined have accounted for between one quarter and one half of a percent of the browser market in the past twelve months. Check out the data below:

Internet Explorer, which comes installed by default in Windows computers has long held the top spot in the browser market, with competitors usually fighting for a distant second place. Recently, though, Google Chrome has started to grow dramatically, threatening Mozilla Firefox, which has been in second place for quite some time. Chrome has suffered a bit in recent months, though, falling more than half a percent from its peak at 19.11% of the browser market at the end of December 2011. Internet Explorer, meanwhile, bottomed out at 51.87% market share at the same time, and has steadily increased since then. Firefox has remained on a steady decline for the past eleven months.

With Windows 8 set to release later this year on both desktop/laptop computers and tablets, and with Internet Explorer 10 set to release along side it, it’s a safe bet that Explorer’s market share will continue to rise over the next few months.

What do you think? Which browser do you prefer, and why? Let us know in the comments.