Kai Ryssdal: So with all the, umm, attention being paid to Facebook this week — and yes, we’re guilty along with the rest of ’em — it’s possible you missed another giant story from the tech world.

About two giants, in fact. Google and Microsoft, and their web browsers. Google’s Chrome — the upstart — and Internet Explorer, reigning champion.

Marketplace’s Queena Kim has more.

Queena Kim: The numbers are out and for one week, Google Chrome was the most used web browser in the world, beating out Microsoft.

Chris Silva: Great news for Google number one.

Chris Silva is an analyst at Altimeter. To be precise, Chrome beat out Internet Explorer by less than one percentage point. That’s according to StatCounter, which keeps track of browser traffic. But Silva says, it’s Chrome’s fast-growing share of the market that matters.

Silva: I think it’s also interesting to see Chrome rise to prominence as quickly as they have when you compare it to competing browsers like Firefox and Internet explorer.

Web browers are important because they direct users to search and other products. Internet Explorer sends users to Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. More eyeballs on Bing means more ad dollars for Microsoft. More traffic on Chrome means more users for Gmail and Google Maps.

David Smith: In all these cases, these companies have reasons for why they’re doing it that do impact their bottom line.

David Smith is an analyst with the Gartner.

But not everyone is buying the numbers. Ray Wang, an analyst with Constellation Research, says measuring the web is an inexact science.

Ray Wang: The numbers are hard to believe because there are a number of different places where people are capturing these stats

And he points out, Internet Explorer is still dominant in the U.S. by far.

I’m Queena Kim for Marketplace.