Google Chrome - Usage

Usage

Further information: Usage share of web browsers and Browser wars

In 2008, Matthew Moore in the The Daily Telegraph summarized the verdict of early reviewers: "Google Chrome is attractive, fast and has some impressive new features, but may not — yet — be a threat to its Microsoft rival."

Initially, Microsoft reportedly played down the threat from Chrome and predicted that most people will embrace Internet Explorer 8. Opera Software said that "Chrome will strengthen the Web as the biggest application platform in the world". But by February 25, 2010, BusinessWeek had reported that "For the first time in years, energy and resources are being poured into browsers, the ubiquitous programs for accessing content on the Web. Credit for this trend—a boon to consumers—goes to two parties. The first is Google, whose big plans for the Chrome browser have shaken Microsoft out of its competitive torpor and forced the software giant to pay fresh attention to its own browser, Internet Explorer. Microsoft all but ceased efforts to enhance IE after it triumphed in the last browser war, sending Netscape to its doom. Now it's back in gear." Mozilla said that Chrome's introduction into the web browser market comes as "no real surprise", that "Chrome is not aimed at competing with Firefox", and furthermore that it would not affect Google's revenue relationship with Mozilla.

Chrome's design bridges the gap between desktop and so-called "cloud computing." At the touch of a button, Chrome lets you make a desktop, Start menu, or QuickLaunch shortcut to any Web page or Web application, blurring the line between what's online and what's inside your PC. For example, I created a desktop shortcut for Google Maps. When you create a shortcut for a Web application, Chrome strips away all of the toolbars and tabs from the window, leaving you with something that feels much more like a desktop application than like a Web application or page. —PC World

Chrome overtook Firefox in November 2011. As of September 2012, according to StatCounter, Google Chrome had 34% worldwide usage share, making it the most widely used web browser, while Internet Explorer had 33% and Firefox had 22%.

Along with Safari and Mozilla Firefox, Chrome receives a weekend "bump", which boosts its marketshare by as much as three percentage points on week-ends, at the expense of Internet Explorer.

It was reported by StatCounter, a web analytics company, that for the single day of Sunday, March 18, 2012 Chrome was the most used web browser in the world for the first time. Chrome secured 32.7% of the global web browsing on that day, while Internet Explorer followed closely behind with 32.5%.

From May 14–21, 2012 Google Chrome was responsible for more Internet traffic than Microsoft's Internet Explorer (for the first time), which long had held its spot as the most used web browser in the world. According to StatCounter, 31.88% of web traffic was generated by Chrome for a sustained period of one week and 31.47% by Internet Explorer. Though Chrome has topped Internet Explorer for single day's usage in the past, this is the first time it has led for one full week.

At the 2012 Google I/O developers' conference, Google claimed that there were 310 million active users of Chrome, almost double the number in 2011, which was stated as 160 million active users.