Which browser is the most popular in terms of users? Well, that title remains in the Internet Explorer camp, but, continuing a trend that began when Firefox introduced tabbed browsing to the world, IE is continuing to fall, while Google Chrome continues to rise, even at the expense of Mozilla’s quite capable browser.

Thanks to a NetMarketshare, we have an idea of the ride each browser took during 2011 in relation to usage. Immediately, you will notice Microsoft’s browser hovering around the 60 percent mark, but its total is steadily decreasing. In fact, the only browser to experience a noticeable gain, again, according to NetMarketShare’s research, was Google Chrome. Most surprisingly, at least to this writer, is the lack of a jump for Safari, Apple’s native browser.

As consumers continue to embrace all things shiny devices starting with a lowercase “i,” they apparently don’t use Safari when they access the web with their iDevice. Even more surprising than Safari’s lack of an increase is the fact that it remains firmly under the 10 percent mark in relation to marketshare. Are iOwners simply avoiding Safari in favor of another browser? Whatever the case, Safari’s incredibly low usage numbers are somewhat eyebrow-raising.

Here’s NetMarketshare’s browser breakdown for 2011, presented in graph form:

As you can see, Internet Explorer’s decline has continued unabated, with Google Chrome as the apparent beneficiary of these IE defections. Some are speculating that Microsoft’s browser could drop below the 50 percent mark in 2012, which would be a watershed moment in regards to the ongoing browser wars.