Google Chrome Takes 1% of Browser Market In 48 Hours

Author Gordon Kelly
Published 4th Sep 2008
Google Chrome Takes 1% of Browser Market In 48 Hours

Comments for Google Chrome Takes 1% of Browser Market In 48 Hours

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Comment Matt G Baish said on 4th September 2008

How has is managed that when the download link just links back to the Google chrome home page?! Methinks something is amiss (hey maybe something wrong with the Network here).

I am unable to download with either Firefox 3.01 or IE6 (yes, yes, I know but MS don't support IE7 on Windows 2000; yes, yes boring technical worky type story about that which I will not bore you with here :))

Anyone else having problems?

Comment Qortuba said on 4th September 2008

I think this calculation was based on the number of downloads. If this is the case, it would not be accurate because not everybody who downloaded the browser will actually use it as his/her default browser (including myself).

Also, let's not forget that the download link is posted on google's homepage. This is enough to make anything popular!

Comment Gordon said on 4th September 2008

@Matt - not a jot for me.

Comment Ben said on 4th September 2008

Google fixed the EULA. Shame on them for letting it go out like that!

Comment mr dog said on 4th September 2008

don't forget that Google is supposed to be aggressively testing this browser on millions of websites, if the data is coming from the browser ids given to websites when someone visits, a lot of that 1% could be coming straight out of cupertino.

Comment Matt G Baish said on 4th September 2008

Hmmm - maybe Chrome isn`t Windows2000 friendly then?!

Oh well - I'll just have to try at home the neet (with my decent Sony laptop running a decent(ish) OS - XP)

Comment Matt G Baish said on 4th September 2008

Ah - now looking at the screenshot more closely in the TR news article I see where the download button is supposed to be! :) for me it just says 'For Windows Vista/XP'.

I was previously clicking on the 'Learn more' & then the 'Download' links which meant I kept going in circles - doh! They could do with a bold 'Currently only available for Windows Vista/XP' message underneath a greyed out download button - poos design, tch! ;^)

So Firefox (currently) still has platform advantage at least :)

Comment Gordon said on 4th September 2008

@ mr dog - Cupertino? That's Apple's HQ ;)Google is in Mountain View.

Comment mr dog said on 4th September 2008

ah, i stand corrected, but straight out of mountain view doesn't quite scan as welll when you try and read it in an NWA style.

i guess i've just got my head filled with apples with the all this 11/9 anticipation...

Comment Azro said on 4th September 2008

Anyone notice the 'incognito' mode? Have Google beaten IE in providing novice users with a perv surf mode? There's even an icon that looks like a dirty old man in mac, trilby and sunglasses! ;)

Comment haim said on 4th September 2008

I notice the drop down list of pages for each review in TR doesn't get formatted correctly. Goes out the side.

Comment Hugo said on 4th September 2008

Fixes itself if you click on it =)

Comment Bytes said on 4th September 2008

This is a lie.
Many people, including myself, downloading Google Chrome to see what is is (like in details), and see how it runs and everything...
However, I still prefer MUCH MUCH more Firefox then this. So I won't be using it anymore.

This percentage will drop.

Comment Gordon said on 4th September 2008

@Bytes - you stick it to 'em ;)

Comment Gavin Hamer said on 4th September 2008

I do like the browser to be honest, it obviously runs JavaScript significantly faster and the new tab page is pretty sweet, as are the things you can do in the address bar. Very few problems with existing sites. Although it doesn't scroll properly with the edge of mouse pads, which is extremely annoying.

Any investment Google makes in the development and distribution of this browser will be paid back 10 times over, because a large proportion of Firefox users will be using Ad-Block Plus. Reducing the number of blocked ads is obviously going to increase Google's revenue.

I'd never seen those intensely annoying flashing ads down the sides of the TR site before! I think I'll keep that shortcut to Firefox handy...

Comment Matthew Martin said on 4th September 2008

I'm hating the adds too but really like the ability to hight light a word and then right click and search google option :D

Comment beardybuck said on 4th September 2008

Give it a few months.... adblock, proper zoom (took firefox until v3) and tab customisation are essential for me. Until then same as the last few years - FF.

Comment Juxtah said on 4th September 2008

@ Gavin - How would less ads blocked increase googles revenue? Chrome is distributed for free and open source. Google have no incentive to block as fewer ads as possible, and with Chrome being open source I have no doubt when the dev kits come about that variations of noscript and ad block will quickly make their way in.

Remember Mozilla makes a lot of money from advertising, including the yahoo toolbar in the installer nets them many millions of dollars per annum. And even though ad block does block Yahoo adverts this doesn't negatively impact on Mozilla, in the exact same way that it wouldn't have any affect on Google.

Comment m_memmory said on 4th September 2008

@Matthew Martin

Have you ever tried Firefox? Highlighting a word and right clicking and selecting "Search Google for ..." was one of the lovely little things that I found the first time I used it and then realised I couldn't really live without.

As for Chrome ... seems nice - not sure if it'll replace Firefox for me (at least not until I can use it in both windows AND linux)

Comment Gavin Hamer said on 4th September 2008

It will certainly be interesting to see whether an Ad-Block variant appears for Chrome. I'm not sure what share of the online advertising business Google owns, and I can't be bothered to find out, but I think it's fair to say "a lot". For example, they own DoubleClick. They also provide all kinds of adverts (not just text ads like below) through their AdSense programme. I'm no expert, but I'd guess that they could be the leading online advertising agency, so they have plenty to lose from online ads being blocked. If ad blocking became very common, say if it shipped included by default in a browser like IE8 or the next Firefox, then I'd say they'd be very upset! Although Google pays the wages at Mozilla, so Firefox won't be trying that. The bottom line is that Google needs to control the browser market in order to have full control over their business, which is entirely (?) accessed through browsers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoubleClick

Comment Gavin Hamer said on 4th September 2008

Chrome's market share:
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?sample=21&qprid=43&qpcustom=Chrome+0.2

Interesting odds / Quick way to lighten your wallet:
http://www.paddypower.com/bet?action=go_type&category=SPECIALS&ev_class_id=45&ev_type_id=10330&promo=nov_GoogleChromeMarketShare&crea=lnk&novelty=1#

I reckon about 6% by the end of Dec. Interesting to see how hard they push it.

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