While perusing Ed Bott’s Windows Expertise Blog (as I often due) I came across one of his most recent posts “Chrome takes a bite out of IE and Firefox” detailing a dramatic increase in Chrome usage:
I haven’t taken a close look at this site’s browser stats in nearly two years. The last time I looked was in mid-2008, shortly after the release of Firefox 3. At that time, Internet Explorer had a 57% share among visitors to this site and Firefox was just over 38%, with Safari and Opera fighting for scraps.
Things have changed a lot since then. Firefox is now up to version 3.6. Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 roughly a year ago. And most important of all, Google Chrome entered the lineup. Google has a hit on its hands, and according to my stats Chrome’s success is coming at the direct expense of not just Internet Explorer but also Firefox.
When I first started reading this I thought that the findings were very interesting, almost shocking. Then I started to actually think about it for a moment. Of late, I’ve probably been using Google Chrome more than any other browser. (If you check my Wakoopa account you’ll notice that I’ve been using IE8 quite a bit lately, this is primarily due to me preparing myself to compare IE8 and IE9. Otherwise, I primarily use Google Chrome.) There are several reasons for this, but for the most part, I believe that Google Chrome is a faster and simpler browser to use. I believe many other people have found this to be the same for them. I’ll first take a look at some Chrome statistics, and then backtrack and try to explain why Chrome might be gaining popularity.
Since its inception in September of 2008, Google Chrome has grown significantly in market share. In just a mere one and a half years, Google Chrome has grown from 0% to a modest 6.08%. Below is a chart depicting browser market share from six different leading market sources:
| Source | Internet | Firefox | Chrome | Safari | Opera |
| Clicky | 49.92% | 32.80% | 8.09% | 7.54% | 1.41% |
| Net Applications | 61.58% | 24.23% | 5.61% | 4.45% | 2.35% |
| Stat Counter | 54.50% | 31.83% | 6.71% | 4.08% | 1.97% |
| StatOwl | 66.99% | 19.48% | 3.98% | 9.00% | 0.24% |
| W3Counter | 48.70% | 32.10% | 6.80% | 5.60% | 2.10% |
| Wikimedia | 50.29% | 30.96% | 5.28% | 5.27% | 3.29% |
| Mean | 55.33% | 28.57% | 6.08% | 5.99% | 1.89% |
| Median | 52.40% | 31.40% | 6.16% | 5.44% | 2.04% |
Ok, so Chrome fairs well against its competitors, in fact it’s the number three used browser of the top five browsers. Here’s a bit more information about Google Chrome taken from one of my more favorite stat companies, Net Applications:
| Quarter | Internet Explorer | Firefox | Chrome | Safari | Opera |
| 2010 Q1 | 61.89% | 24.34% | 5.40% | 4.49% | 2.37% |
| 2009 Q4 | 63.67% | 24.46% | 4.04% | 4.41% | 2.29% |
| 2009 Q3 | 66.80% | 23.06% | 2.86% | 4.13% | 2.07% |
| 2009 Q2 | 68.06% | 23.00% | 2.13% | 3.67% | 2.05% |
| 2009 Q1 | 69.13% | 22.67% | 1.56% | 3.58% | 2.18% |
| 2008 Q4 | 71.99% | 20.78% | 1.16% | 3.11% | 2.15% |
| 2008 Q3 | 74.93% | 19.07% | 0.37% | 2.73% | 2.06% |
Since its debut in 2008, Google Chrome has significantly gained in popularity, going from 0.37% to 5.40% market share in just under two years. Now, 5.40% may not seem like much right now, but considering that it did this in a mere one and a half years is quite mind-boggling to say the least. It looks, however, that it takes most of its market share from Internet Explorer, for whatever its worth, as Safari and Opera (why?) continue to grow in market share. The stats show another more frequently occurring trend with Firefox, which recently has been losing market share.
Why is Google Chrome becoming so popular? From what I’ve heard from other dedicated Chrome users, it’s the simple fact that it’s easier, more reliable, and faster. In fact, one dedicated reader when asked why they continued to use Google Chrome after I initially recommended it, told me that it was “much easier to use than other browsers” and that “it didn’t cause as much of a headache.” Didn’t cause a headache? Well, I would probably stick with Chrome too.
I think the majority of the population that has tried Google Chrome has probably continued to use it for these simple reasons. Why wouldn’t someone want to use a browser that is both faster and easier to use? It just makes sense.
Why is it easier to use? This poses a good question, and from personal experience I can say that it amounts to several different reasons. The best reason, I think, is its basic user interface. By having one box for both searching and entering a specific address serves as a great way of making browsing the web so much easier. With Chrome, the same text box is used either for search or for a direct address to a website. Simple, yet effective. With other browsers you have a dedicated search box and a dedicated address bar. In Google’s case, the less is more approach really works better, and I think the majority of the population somewhat agrees. Overall though, I think that the browser has a much more intuitive design, even if it does still look like a typical browser.
Why is it faster? This question is a little bit more difficult to answer. I have no proof that it’s actually faster, and even using benchmarks to test a browsers speed only does so much. Ultimately, I can only say that it seems faster when I load different pages, especially anything that deals with flash video, such as YouTube.
Getting back to Ed’s post here, the discrepancies between Net Applications statistics of 5.40% and Ed Bott’s 10.86% is also easily explained. The majority of Chrome’s market share probably comes from tech enthusiasts, which are predominantly the ones that would be stopping over at Ed Bott’s Windows Expertise Blog. Thus, a more concentration of computer geeks equals a higher market usage of Google Chrome.
Putting everything aside, Google Chrome has still made some very significant strides in the browser market. I’ll continue to use it as one of my primary browsers and highly recommend this browser to most anyone that uses the Internet on a daily basis (isn’t that everyone now days?).
On a side note, according to Ed Bott, IE6 usage share has dropped to less than 8%...that’s still pretty high, but at least more people are staying away from IE6 and moving to something else.
As always, you can contact me via Twitter (@jctierney) or leave a comment below. I’ve also started a new e-mail address for this site, tinkeringwithwindows @ live dot com. Feel free to drop me a line every now and then. I welcome anyone who has a question, comment, suggestion, etc. to feel free to e-mail me at that address.
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