Webgadgets Blog

The site I use for tracking this website's use recently posted its traffic information for the new Google Chrome browser. Many people are torn as to whether these sorts of numbers are surprising or not.

I find that the numbers are interesting but not completely unexpected. Here are some reasons why I think Chrome got a boost over 1% marketshare:

1. It's Google. Let's face it. Google can replace Google Gears with GLX gears and still have people download it like mad. Google has worked itself into a brand recognition that evokes emotions from strong desire all the way to a reasonable level of disgust.
2. Firefox is going downhill. We have to face facts on Firefox. Version 3 is a step backwards. I am rather unhappy with the "progress" made on the second place browser. Since most people using Firefox are more tech-savvy, there is a bit more disappointment, proportionally, with an unimpressive version of Firefox than there is with an unimpressive version of IE.
3. It's new. Never underestimate the shiny object draw for technical people. I have several (very intelligent) friends and coworkers who would be drawn away by something with blinking lights. In my team room at work, one of the six people in there downloaded Chrome within the first 24 hours. You should also be aware that two of the people in that room openly believe that Google is really out to take over the world by eating our privacy, intellectual property, and...oh...what the hell...our souls.

Now, we can discuss why its adoption will probably not reach Firefox levels any time soon.

1. EULA. By now, many have heard of the problems with the EULA. I believe they've fixed it now. If you haven't heard, here's a decent article about it. Now tell me, what self-respecting, multi-billion dollar company let's something like that just slip out? It seems a bit sloppy to me. I think reusing licenses is great. I also think that having a lawyer look over this sort of thing before you broadcast it to the world might be nice.
2. Beta is back. Yes, Google has finally (they may have done it before, but I don't remember) provided an actual beta version number for a beta product. Chrome sports the pre-release version of 0.2. This will make those who aren't really into the latest thing think twice. Everyone else will be confused with why it's not version 1, 2, XP, or 2008 and will probably avoid it for a while.
3. Geek networking takes time. Geeks are usually introverted people by nature. You're probably wondering what this has to do with anything. I attribute Firefox's success to geek networking. Basically, geeks discovered Firefox to be a pretty good browser. They told their friends and coworkers. A good portion of those people installed it and use it. A very small number of them told their friends and so on in a very quickly diminishing trend. There's another piece to this, though. Most computer professionals, college students, and enthusiasts are called on very often to answer tech support questions. At some point in any attempt to explain to your parents about the latest security issue with IE or Windows, we've probably all said, "just install Firefox/Thunderbird and use that instead". This sort of propagation takes time. In fact, it took years. Getting 23-25% of internet users is a pretty big step. According to Alexa, that's approximately the same proportion of internet users as those who use Yahoo! each day.

I haven't personally touched Google Chrome. I have seen it a few times. I have read about it. There are things in there that scare me. I'm not really about to change browsers at the moment. I hear IE 8 is pretty cool. I will probably give it a try. Firefox continues to break my heart every day. I'm starting to feel about browsers how I feel about financial software. However, that is a story for another time.

If you happen to be viewing my site using Chrome, let me know how atrocious it looks. I would appreciate any feedback.