8 ms·

Google Chrome has 20% global market share

76 points by joejohnson 15y ago

dannylipsitz 15y ago
I'm sold on Google Chrome, but it's frustrating that some sites aren't available on Chrome and I'm forced to used Firefox and Safari from time to time. Does that qualify me as a user of all three, thereby inflating the statistics?
- marknutter 15y ago
  What sites aren't available on Google Chrome?
  - zwentz 15y ago
    Just the ones that you rarely have to deal with, but you do have to deal with. Like your insurer's site, your bank's, if you're in college and you have to take tests online, that too. Bank sites are just terrible in general. Why is my least secure password always on a bank site? Shouldn't they have the highest requirements as far as security goes?
    - rdtsc 15y ago
      Is is possible to spoof the user agent and fool the server into thinking you user Firefox? Some of those places just hard-code the possible choices of compatible browsers, and that list is 5+ years old. Once in a while I still see sites that advertise their support for Netscape.
  - joejohnson 15y ago
    Yeah, occasionally educational software (like taking a test online or something) will render incorrectly in Chrome. I don't know why this is, but some old web apps use hacks that are not standards compliant.
  - zheng 15y ago
    FAFSA, which every college student who wants financial aid must fill out. (FWIW, they support Chrome through something like version 9, but nothing newer...)
  - tomjen3 15y ago
    My bank didn't use to work properly but even they got around to fix that. And my bank sucks.
  - portman 15y ago
    Silicon Valley Bank ADP Payroll
  - joelhaus 15y ago
    Time Warner Cable -> Bill Pay will not allow the site to load in Chrome. Then again, infrastructure operator interests are not generally aligned with Google's (an open web and TV over IP). On a related note, it doesn't look as if there is a good user agent switcher in the Chrome Web Store (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search?hl=en-US&q=user+agent https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search?hl=en-US&q=use...). Does anyone know if the extension API can modify Chrome HTTP headers? Firefox has a pretty good add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/user-agent-switcher/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/user-agent-sw... UPDATE: Upon further inspection, looks like this experimental API does the trick: http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/dev/experimental.webRequest.html http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/dev/experimental.we...
- cletus 15y ago
  I occasionally get this, most recently I think with conEdison. The solution is a plugin to pretend to be different browsers.
wccrawford 15y ago
So the real question is: What did Chrome do differently than Firefox to gain market share that fast?
- dfogge 15y ago
  well for one: advertising on the google home page.
  - brfox 15y ago
    This is why Google+ will surely get a huge audience.
- zwentz 15y ago
  Did what Firefox did to IE? They treated Firefox as a slow, bloated, antiquated browser; a browser too in your face with too many security holes. In other words they built a better browser, and had the powerhouse that is Google behind it for marketing.
- revorad 15y ago
  Massive advertising campaigns online and offline.
- pnathan 15y ago
  It's fast. It's fast. It's fast. Oh, and it pop-up blocks, adblocks, and flashblocks.
  - ianterrell 15y ago
    Periodically I'll get curious about seeing something in Firefox, but before it can load I'll get so bored I kill the process.
  - barredo 15y ago
    There's a new kind of popup that's been eluding all browsers (Chrome, Fx, Safari, IE, etc), i don't know the technical details, but you can watch it visiting ThePirateBay for instance with a couple of clicks at most: it's there. How do they do it? I don't know, but no actual browser can block it. I'd guess they tie the click as a real user action to trigger the popup or something similar...
joejohnson 15y ago
I don't understand Google's game here. I thought Mozilla was being showered with cash from Google? If Google is now betting on Chrome, are they going to continue supporting Mozilla? Mozilla is a pretty small-budgeted non-profit and I think they rely heavily on Google's support.
- ryanklee 15y ago
  My understanding is that the money that Google forks over to Mozilla is simply to keep Google as the browser's default search engine, not to sustain Firefox as a competing browser. If Google ceased that "funding", I'm sure some other search engine would step up to the plate. (Note: I've got no sources for this; just a cursory understanding.)
  - josefresco 15y ago
    MS has tried and will try again to pry this spot from Google for their own engine Bing.
    - ryanklee 15y ago
      I would bet that Google wouldn't let this happen unless Chrome superceded Firefox's market share by a very significant margin -- but then again, the asking bid price for the default search engine is probably directly proportional to Firefox's market share, so at that point, why wouldn't Google hang on to the privilege (it wouldn't cost much). Does Opera have a default search engine?
      - azakai 15y ago
        Yes, Opera has a default search engine. In fact Opera is very good at monetizing that, they basically get all search engines to bid for it. With much smaller market share than Firefox, Opera still makes a lot of money from the default search engine.
  - cpearce 15y ago
    The money Google pays Mozilla is a split of the ad revenue. Google keeps renewing the contract because it's profitable for Google! They also don't want 25% of the web switching to use a different default search provider.
mindstab 15y ago
Isn't the bigger news here that IE has dropped below 50% market share (dramatically) for the first time in over a decade? It's dominance is kind of over.
- profitbaron 15y ago
  The IE team need to implement what Firefox & Chrome (to some effects) does. Firefox & Chrome constantly bug you when theres new update - if you keep ignoring Firefox's it starts asking you to update before it even opens. Why is this important? Well a lot of people still use IE6 & have finally upgraded to IE7 however, we're on IE9 now with IE10 in test drive mode. These users aren't tech savvy individuals etc who think to 'upgrade' to the latest version, so when they hear about Firefox/Chrome etc - they compare it to their current browser IE6/7 etc and decide that IE sucks so they switch over despite the fact that IE hs considerably improved recently. Disclosure: I'm a Firefox User.
  - cletus 15y ago
    That's not quite correct. Firefox constantly bugs you to upgrade and it's annoying because it does it when it starts up. Why is it starting up? Because I want to use it. Not the right time to upgrade. Chrome just automatically updates itself, which is a MUCH better user experience (IMHO). As for IE6/7 users, I would say they're largely using it at work where they have no choice.
    - Gunther 15y ago
      I agree, I really like the automatic updating that Chrome uses. I think that both Firefox and IE will eventually change to that model also. It gets out security patches more quickly, ensures that most everyone is using the latest renderer, has the latest features, and best of all doesn't nag me about updates. There are definitely disadvantages to automatic updates, but for me personally I find the advantages too tempting to go back.
    - owenmarshall 15y ago
      I believe starting with Fx5 the updater will now automatically apply updates as Chrome does.
brudgers 15y ago
Statcounter has tended to estimate Chrome's share higher than other sources. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#Summary_table http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#Sum...]

76 points by joejohnson 15y ago

I'm sold on Google Chrome, but it's frustrating that some sites aren't available on Chrome and I'm forced to used Firefox and Safari from time to time. Does that qualify me as a user of all three, thereby inflating the statistics?

marknutter 15y ago
What sites aren't available on Google Chrome?
- zwentz 15y ago
  Just the ones that you rarely have to deal with, but you do have to deal with. Like your insurer's site, your bank's, if you're in college and you have to take tests online, that too. Bank sites are just terrible in general. Why is my least secure password always on a bank site? Shouldn't they have the highest requirements as far as security goes?
  - rdtsc 15y ago
    Is is possible to spoof the user agent and fool the server into thinking you user Firefox? Some of those places just hard-code the possible choices of compatible browsers, and that list is 5+ years old. Once in a while I still see sites that advertise their support for Netscape.
- joejohnson 15y ago
  Yeah, occasionally educational software (like taking a test online or something) will render incorrectly in Chrome. I don't know why this is, but some old web apps use hacks that are not standards compliant.
- zheng 15y ago
  FAFSA, which every college student who wants financial aid must fill out. (FWIW, they support Chrome through something like version 9, but nothing newer...)
- tomjen3 15y ago
  My bank didn't use to work properly but even they got around to fix that. And my bank sucks.
- portman 15y ago
  Silicon Valley Bank ADP Payroll
- joelhaus 15y ago
  Time Warner Cable -> Bill Pay will not allow the site to load in Chrome. Then again, infrastructure operator interests are not generally aligned with Google's (an open web and TV over IP). On a related note, it doesn't look as if there is a good user agent switcher in the Chrome Web Store (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search?hl=en-US&q=user+agent https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search?hl=en-US&q=use...). Does anyone know if the extension API can modify Chrome HTTP headers? Firefox has a pretty good add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/user-agent-switcher/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/user-agent-sw... UPDATE: Upon further inspection, looks like this experimental API does the trick: http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/dev/experimental.webRequest.html http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/dev/experimental.we...
cletus 15y ago
I occasionally get this, most recently I think with conEdison. The solution is a plugin to pretend to be different browsers.

wccrawford 15y ago

So the real question is: What did Chrome do differently than Firefox to gain market share that fast?

dfogge 15y ago
well for one: advertising on the google home page.
- brfox 15y ago
  This is why Google+ will surely get a huge audience.
zwentz 15y ago
Did what Firefox did to IE? They treated Firefox as a slow, bloated, antiquated browser; a browser too in your face with too many security holes. In other words they built a better browser, and had the powerhouse that is Google behind it for marketing.
revorad 15y ago
Massive advertising campaigns online and offline.
pnathan 15y ago
It's fast. It's fast. It's fast. Oh, and it pop-up blocks, adblocks, and flashblocks.
- ianterrell 15y ago
  Periodically I'll get curious about seeing something in Firefox, but before it can load I'll get so bored I kill the process.
- barredo 15y ago
  There's a new kind of popup that's been eluding all browsers (Chrome, Fx, Safari, IE, etc), i don't know the technical details, but you can watch it visiting ThePirateBay for instance with a couple of clicks at most: it's there. How do they do it? I don't know, but no actual browser can block it. I'd guess they tie the click as a real user action to trigger the popup or something similar...

joejohnson 15y ago

I don't understand Google's game here. I thought Mozilla was being showered with cash from Google? If Google is now betting on Chrome, are they going to continue supporting Mozilla? Mozilla is a pretty small-budgeted non-profit and I think they rely heavily on Google's support.

ryanklee 15y ago
My understanding is that the money that Google forks over to Mozilla is simply to keep Google as the browser's default search engine, not to sustain Firefox as a competing browser. If Google ceased that "funding", I'm sure some other search engine would step up to the plate. (Note: I've got no sources for this; just a cursory understanding.)
- josefresco 15y ago
  MS has tried and will try again to pry this spot from Google for their own engine Bing.
  - ryanklee 15y ago
    I would bet that Google wouldn't let this happen unless Chrome superceded Firefox's market share by a very significant margin -- but then again, the asking bid price for the default search engine is probably directly proportional to Firefox's market share, so at that point, why wouldn't Google hang on to the privilege (it wouldn't cost much). Does Opera have a default search engine?
    - azakai 15y ago
      Yes, Opera has a default search engine. In fact Opera is very good at monetizing that, they basically get all search engines to bid for it. With much smaller market share than Firefox, Opera still makes a lot of money from the default search engine.
- cpearce 15y ago
  The money Google pays Mozilla is a split of the ad revenue. Google keeps renewing the contract because it's profitable for Google! They also don't want 25% of the web switching to use a different default search provider.

mindstab 15y ago

Isn't the bigger news here that IE has dropped below 50% market share (dramatically) for the first time in over a decade? It's dominance is kind of over.

profitbaron 15y ago
The IE team need to implement what Firefox & Chrome (to some effects) does. Firefox & Chrome constantly bug you when theres new update - if you keep ignoring Firefox's it starts asking you to update before it even opens. Why is this important? Well a lot of people still use IE6 & have finally upgraded to IE7 however, we're on IE9 now with IE10 in test drive mode. These users aren't tech savvy individuals etc who think to 'upgrade' to the latest version, so when they hear about Firefox/Chrome etc - they compare it to their current browser IE6/7 etc and decide that IE sucks so they switch over despite the fact that IE hs considerably improved recently. Disclosure: I'm a Firefox User.
- cletus 15y ago
  That's not quite correct. Firefox constantly bugs you to upgrade and it's annoying because it does it when it starts up. Why is it starting up? Because I want to use it. Not the right time to upgrade. Chrome just automatically updates itself, which is a MUCH better user experience (IMHO). As for IE6/7 users, I would say they're largely using it at work where they have no choice.
  - Gunther 15y ago
    I agree, I really like the automatic updating that Chrome uses. I think that both Firefox and IE will eventually change to that model also. It gets out security patches more quickly, ensures that most everyone is using the latest renderer, has the latest features, and best of all doesn't nag me about updates. There are definitely disadvantages to automatic updates, but for me personally I find the advantages too tempting to go back.
  - owenmarshall 15y ago
    I believe starting with Fx5 the updater will now automatically apply updates as Chrome does.

brudgers 15y ago

Statcounter has tended to estimate Chrome's share higher than other sources. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#Summary_table http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#Sum...]