Surface 2 helps Microsoft stay afloat in tablet web traffic (as long as you don’t count the iPad)

While the Surface 2 doesn’t appear to be a huge hit for Microsoft, new data from Chitika Insights shows that it’s at least allowing the company to stay relevant in the tablet arena.

Chitika found that the Surface 2 accounted for 6.5 percent of web traffic coming from Surface RTs and Surface 2s over the past month. That combined Surface traffic helped Microsoft to gain 0.7 percentage points in overall non-iPad tablet traffic, reaching 6.4 percent in North America.

Yes, these numbers are tiny — especially when compared to Apple’s more than 80 percent share of the tablet market, or Samsung’s 30 percent share of non-iPad traffic — but every morsel of growth is important to Microsoft. Microsoft is entering the tablet market years after its competitors, and while the first Surface tablet was a misfire, the Surface 2 is a solid product that could actually be a decent seller this holiday season.

Chitika gathers its data from its advertising network, based on a sample of 300 million U.S. and Canadian ad impressions, covering more than 300,000 websites. Since it’s data is based on traffic, it’s not an accurate indicator of sales.

Among other stats, Chitika found that Amazon tablets dropped 1.8 percentage points among non-iPad tablet traffic, while Samsung tablets jumped 2.1 points. Surprisingly, Barnes and Noble’s tablet share also jumped 1.1 points, following poor financial performance this year and a turnaround decision to keep its tablet lineup alive this summer.