Category: Technology Author : JR Posted: September 10, 2008
Tags : chrome, firefox, internet explorer, opera, safari
In an unexpected effect, Google’s Chrome browser appears to be grabbing users primarily from Internet Explorer — and driving others toward Firefox, Safari, and Opera.
As Chrome started building up a userbase last week, American tracking company Net Applications found Microsoft’s browser share dropped by 1.4 percent, to 71 percent of the total browser market, as of Friday. But where it gets particularly interesting is in the figures for the other browsers:
- Firefox: Up 0.3 percent to 19.5
- Safari: Up 0.4 percent to 6.7
- Opera: Up 0.1 percent to 0.75
Most of the early predictions, understandably, speculated Chrome would pull most of its users from Firefox. As you can see, though, that appears to be anything but the case, at least from these new figures. Chrome’s total percentage hovers somewhere around 1 percent of the browser market, meaning that even if all its regular users did come from IE, still more Microsoft users defected and went to other existing options.
So what’s the deal? My guess is that the introduction of Chrome and the wealth of resulting media coverage comparing the browsers probably heightened awareness that hey, you don’t have to use this program that came with your Windows system. It’d be enlightening to get some research into how many of the users who jumped ship from IE had never used anything but IE before. My suspicion is that it’d be a fairly high amount.
In that respect, regardless of whether you love Chrome or hate it, its presence can be deemed a success. Maybe it takes a ubiquitous name like Google to open the general, non-computer-savvy public’s eyes to the less obvious options that exist. Granted, we’re only talking a couple of percentage points here — but it’s a start.
![[Map] How Europe sees the US](http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/2011/01/how-europe-views-the-us-100x100.png)
Sep 10, 2008
Makes sense, OSS/Mozilla/FF has always been a hard sell to laymen. How do you explain to people that a dominant company's browser (IE) is actually *not* a good role model for the Net economy? You counter with an equally successful Google!
Sep 10, 2008
My father called me up the day after Google Chrome was released to tell me about it. He only uses IE, even though Firefox is installed and used by the rest of the family. He said that he trusted the browser because it was from Google, a company that he trusts, so he decided to try it. He was happy that the browser was very simple, because he mostly uses the internet to browse for news or search craigslist.
These are the people who are switching from IE to Chrome.
Sep 10, 2008
You're right – Google is teaching us to think out of the box called Microsoft.
Sep 11, 2008
I'm surprised. Maybe the link in the Google homepage was noticed by a lot of people. Also my parents and my brother after have visited Google homepage asked me what is Chrome.
Sep 11, 2008
Looks like Google removed the Chrome download link from their home page now.
There have been reports that the % of Chrome visits to websites have slowed.
Maybe the lack of the link is the cause.
Michael Adams
http://www.chromevoice.com
Oct 10, 2008
Absolutely rocks in every way. Google has once again proven that it has what is needed to deliver great products. it’s a decent browser…download time may be a dash slower than other browsers but the app load time, smooth rendering, space utilization etc are great.
Oct 22, 2008
By losing the browser war, Microsoft is only going to head southwards.
Nov 11, 2008
I'm one of those who swapped from IE. I just hate the security settings and the constant prompting of downloading Microsoft Apps.
Jan 19, 2009
Microsoft won't lose against chrome.. not yet.. too many pages support it! You'd have to get all the dating site users to switch over, the search engine users, the social network users, etc!