September 9th, 2008
Is Google's Chrome sliding into obscurity?
Is the shine wearing off Google’s Chrome?
Exhibit A is the hourly usage share as tracked by Net Applications:
Net Applications has been tracking Google Chrome usage hourly since its release and while initially the browser was showing day-on-day increases in market share, over the past few days this has started to slide.
Loading ...Average Daily Market Share
- 9/2/2008 3:00:00 PM (EDT) - 9/3/2008 2:00:00 PM (EDT): 0.96%
- 9/3/2008 3:00:00 PM (EDT) - 9/4/2008 2:00:00 PM (EDT): 1.19%
- 9/4/2008 3:00:00 PM (EDT) - 9/5/2008 2:00:00 PM (EDT): 1.21%
- 9/5/2008 3:00:00 PM (EDT) - 9/6/2008 2:00:00 PM (EDT): 1.10%
- 9/6/2008 3:00:00 PM (EDT) - 9/7/2008 2:00:00 PM (EDT): 1.04%
- 9/7/2008 3:00:00 PM (EDT) - 9/8/2008 2:00:00 PM (EDT): 0.98%
These numbers still mean that Chrome has a bigger share of the browser market than Opera (market share for Aug was 0.74%), but at this rate Chrome will fall behind Opera soon.
Chrome was unleashed on the world on September 5 and enjoyed lavish amounts of media hype, but soon the news stories turned from talking about a great new browser to discussing security issues and how Google made a mess of the EULA. This took a lot of the steam out of the release and I’m sure that negative press put many prospective users off from downloading and trying out the browser.
So, is there a chance that Chrome could sink into obscurity? Well, I think that it’s safe to say that Google Chrome has had its one free pass ride on the press train. The goofy comic book and the handful of innovative features guaranteed it publicity the first time around, but from now on it’ll just be another browser competing for market share, and that’ll mean that it will need to work to get coverage. Trying to pull that off with a sub-1% market share that’s shrinking daily is going to be tricky because the browser will have little relevance in the face of Internet Explorer and Firefox (even Safari, which had a brief grasp at relevance when Apple released a Windows version, is functionally irrelevant at 6.4%).
I’m still using Chrome at times when I’m handling a lot of tabs or shuffling stuff around. I like it because the browser is fast always fast and responsive (under even a light load it’s far more responsive for me that even Firefox) has yet to lock up on me yet (I get the odd misbehaving tab, but this doesn’t bring the whole browser crashing down). However, it hasn’t become my default browser on any system. Will it? Only time will tell …
Thoughts?
Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations
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