Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) last month lost the No. 1 spot to Google’s Chrome, marking a major milestone not only in IE’s 21-year lifespan, but a dramatic changing of the desktop browser guard.

According to U.S. analytics vendor Net Applications, IE and Edge — which the firm tossed into a single bucket labeled “IE” — fell 2 percentage points in April, the fifth straight month of a loss greater than a point, and the 16th of any size — to end at 41.4% of the total global browser user share.

Meanwhile, Chrome climbed 2.6 percentage points to take a narrow lead with 41.7%.

Previously, Computerworld had forecast — using long-term trends portrayed by Net Applications’ data — that Chrome would wrestle the No. 1 position from IE by the end of May.

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