Another score for Google Chrome. The latest version of the search giant's web browser just passed Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) to become the most popular desktop web browser in the world, according to statistics from StatCounter, a digital analytics company.

Chrome 15 now has 24.55% of the worldwide market, edging out IE8's 22.16%. Mozilla Firefox 8.0 (the most recent version) is a distant third, at 15.53%. See the complete stats are in the table below.

The big qualifier: We're talking about specific browser versions. When all of the separate versions of IE are added together, it blows Chrome out of the water, 38.5% to 27.08%, with Firefox trailing closely at 25.55%. Chrome, however, is clearly the fastest growing — almost entirely at the expense of IE.

Internet Explorer is the default browser on Windows machines, of course, which is why its market share is so dominant. IE8, released in 2008, was the last version of the browser to be compatible with PCs running Windows XP, the OS that preceded Windows Vista and Windows 7. Many older Windows machines still run XP, in turn fueling usage of IE8.

Although it's at version 15, Chrome is a relatively new browser, first launched in 2008. In that time, though, it's become very popular among the tech-savvy for its speed, spartan design and frequent, automatic updates. Those features have since been emulated by other browsers, including Internet Explorer.

StatCounter looks at page-view data from more than 3 million websites to assemble its statistics. Other services, such as Net Applications, look at unique visitors, and that data tends to show IE in a more dominant position. Net Applications clocks the current market share of IE (all versions) at 53%.

Among Mashable readers, however, Chrome is king. It's by far the most popular browser among people visiting the site, at 27.9%. Firefox is second at 22.4% and IE is in third place with 19.4%. Mashable's stats include mobile browsers, though.