6 ms·

Chrome beats IE market share for one day

128 points by r7000 15y ago

AznHisoka 15y ago
As much as I like Chrome, the increase in Chrome's share also means more people will be using Google by default.. and their search dominance scares me. Consumer web startups can literally die overnight if Google penalizes them(google "TeachStreet"), or if their Adwords account got banned for some unknown reason.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- sad_panda 15y ago
  No it doesn't. This is screen that greets new users of Chrome: http://www.google.com/help/hc/images/chrome/chrome_95346_search_engine_en.png http://www.google.com/help/hc/images/chrome/chrome_95346_sea...
- strawbucks 15y ago
  Isn't Google's dominance in the search engine business pretty well established at this point? Is there a sizable group of people that, upon using Chrome, will be using Google search more often?
- TheCoreh 15y ago
  When you first install Google Chrome, you're presented with the choice of search engine. I'm pretty sure 99% choose Google not because they are already using Chrome, but because they probably trust or know Google more than Bing or Yahoo. From my experience, IE users will usually either ignore the Bing search field, type "google.com" in and search manually, or change the search provider to Google anyway. I would also speculate that a very large portion of Chrome users has no idea that the address bar is also a search field. They probably type in "google.com" manually every time. If Bing, Yahoo or anyone else provides a more compelling search experience, these users will switch.
  - guynamedloren 15y ago
    Random story: I've used Chrome since the day it was publicly released and am fully aware that the address bar does more than just accept urls - in fact, it's called the omnibox for a great reason. But I still type in "google.com" for 99% of my searches (probably 100+ times a day). The reason is that I like the Google homepage. The white space allows me to clear my thoughts without being distracted by whatever would be on my screen otherwise, and the search box is perfectly positioned in the center of my screen. Weird, I know, but I like it.
    - Donito 15y ago
      Interesting, I actually use Bing (or at least go there once a day) mainly to see a new picture every day. It's often high quality nice shots from random places, so I feel like I'm learning about a new place every time... makes me dream :/
      - freehunter 15y ago
        This is one reason I don't mind that the only built-in option for search on Windows Phone is Bing. While I believe I get better results from Google (though that may be bias on my part), when I hit the search button it pops up a nice picture. Many times the picture is relevant to a holiday or special event that occurred on that day, and there are call-outs you can press to see quick facts (today's is about Yamuna River pollution and the Taj Mahal). It's a good example of TheCoreh's point that it's all about providing a more compelling experience. If I was given the option when I first turned on my phone, I likely would have put in Google just out of habit. Today, I probably would not. Probably.
- jonknee 15y ago
  Perhaps, but that's mostly because people prefer Google. When you install Chrome it pops up asking what search engine you would like to use. What should Google do differently? Microsoft hides the default search provider in the initial setup behind a "choose custom settings" button. http://nyacomputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/chrome-setup-page-1.jpg http://nyacomputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/chrome-se... vs http://static.arstechnica.com/ie8_search.png http://static.arstechnica.com/ie8_search.png
  - cgs1019 15y ago
    Wow. The difference in the two images speak volumes. I may be mistaken but, having happened to install Chrome several times recently, I'm pretty sur that they even randomize the order of the entries so as not to favor any one position. Can anyone confirm/disconfirm?
    - duskwuff 15y ago
      The Google-Yahoo-Bing order appears to be fixed. That being said, the MSIE search provider install process is much more complex.
      - nextparadigms 15y ago
        Some would say the middle choice would be the most obvious to people, if they were to choose without knowing too much about each one of them.
  - vibrunazo 15y ago
    Also, I have the impression that a few microsoft products (MSN, live etc) will automatically change other browser's search engine to Bing. My girlfriend told me her "google changed" after installing MSN. But maybe it was something else, as she's doesn't exactly knows what she's doing. Can anyone confirm that?
    - jxi 15y ago
      I believe there is often a check box asking if you want to change you default search engine to Bing, and its checked by default, so yes she might be right.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  As if Google search wasn't already used by most people? Google has like 90% market share globally. That was the case even when IE had 70% market share, and maybe even earlier.
- ootachi 15y ago
  Google can't realistically push more people to use Google by default. Google search is a monopoly. I believe it is fair to state, however, that one of the reasons that Chrome exists is that Google wants Google to be synonymous with the Web in the minds of consumers. When your browser is Google and your search engine is Google, the web to you is Google. This will dovetail quite nicely with all the other places they're trying to expand to once they manage to establish a dominant browser market share.
- ttt_ 15y ago
  This will only get worse as Google progressively decides to plussify Chrome. Out of all of Google's products, Chrome is the one that worries me the most. Using Chrome means that you just upped Google's reach on you by many fold, they now are running code directly tied to your machine and not within the constraints of a web page or app. Are they invading your device privacy through Chrome? I dunno, probably not yet, but they can, and how long until they decide to? Given their history, specially their recent history, I don't plan on giving them the chance to do so.
  - Produce 15y ago
    It's funny how just a few years ago Google could seemingly do no wrong. The more I see of life, the more I agree with Stallman's fundamentalist perspective that all software should be free and open. It would prevent these abuses as anyone could just setup a search engine or web based document editor if they didn't like the way their provider was conducting business.
  - onemoreact 15y ago
    The fact that Chrome added incognito window is a good sign, the fact that there is still no flash block is a bad one IMO. Honestly, I think gmail and search are probably more dangerous when it comes to privacy. People can track the information Chrome sends back to Google, but you have no idea what happens once your data is on their servers.
    - Sindisil 15y ago
      You can set Chrome to block all plugins. There's a context menu item to selectively run the plugin, and a white-list, as well. Nice. Still, I've recently switched back to FF as my primary, for other reasons.
      - onemoreact 15y ago
        Cool, thanks!
    - thewordis 15y ago
codesuela 15y ago
Internet Explorer: the employees browser of duress
- zitterbewegung 15y ago
  Do you want the overhead of testing your internal web application on two browsers or one?
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - Nogwater 15y ago
    I'd rather test my web app in a browser with modern development tools (Chrome, Safari, IE 9, Firefox with Firebug).
    - sirclueless 15y ago
      I'm not so sure. If half of the value of the app you are developing is that it will still work 5 years after your consulting gig with no intervention, then it's hard to fault someone for choosing IE.
      - sad_panda 15y ago
        Maybe in the early-aughts. Me, I'd be putting my chips on a Webkit future.
      - Nogwater 15y ago
        Maybe you've had different experiences, but I've had very few problems with forward compatibility in all of the major browsers (IE/FF/Chrome), and I don't know why that would change going forward. Actually, I'd go so far as to say that if you develop your apps to work cross-browser, they're more likely to work in future versions of IE than if you specifically target your dev at a single version of IE. Also, just because I do 90% of my dev work where there are good tools, doesn't mean that I can't or don't test in IE 8- (depending on the target audience).
cobychapple 15y ago
It's great to see (from the peaks in usage of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera on weekends) that people are choosing more progressive browsers over IE for home use. It'd also be neat to see the breakdown of IE versions in this data too. Microsoft sure do have their work cut out for them!
- rhplus 15y ago
  You could interpolate from the chart that shows distribution by browser versions up to February 2012. Chrome's auto-update feature is staggeringly efficient. IE 8.0 18.86 IE 9.0 12.08 IE 7.0 3.32 IE 6.0 1.48 Chrome 16.0 13.39 Chrome 15.0 0.35 Chrome 14.0 0.35 Chrome 12.0 0.27 Chrome 13.0 0.25 EDIT: removed the Firefox and "Other" numbers as their sum is nowhere close to the aggregated numbers in the browser monthly charts [2]. StatCounter must be counting recent versions of Chrome and Firefox as "Other" in data set [1]. Source: [1] http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww-monthly-201102-201202 http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww-monthly-201102... (from the CSV file) [2] http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-201102-201203 http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-201102-201203
- ootachi 15y ago
  No, people are choosing Chrome over IE for home use. The trend is clear; Chrome is likely to achieve a crushingly dominant market share in a couple of years, or sooner.
  - zobzu 15y ago
    people chose what internet said to take internet = google.com and it tells them to do that
  - cobychapple 15y ago
    Yes, the trend you're referring to (Chrome becoming dominant) is clear, but it's the other pattern (the weekly cycles of troughs for IE, and the coinciding peaks for all other browsers) that I was referring to.
  - 15y ago
thought_alarm 15y ago
12 years ago I suggested that IE would lose its crown to a web browser developed by a web site using an open source cross platform rendering engine developed by Apple. And everyone said I was nuts.
- mariusmg 15y ago
  If it's open source, it's not developed by apple......
  - program 15y ago
    WebKit is open source and is developed by Apple and other companies such as KDE, Google, Nokia, Samsung and others.
    - cookiecaper 15y ago
      KDE is not a company and WebKit originated as a fork from KHTML, KDE's HTML rendering engine used in Konqueror. Too much credit is often ascribed to Apple for appropriating the engine on to a popular piece of software (OS X).
      - bad_user 15y ago
        They did applied polish to it though and also built a new Javascript engine. I don't know who contributed what, but today's WebKit is a lot better than what KHTML was before being forked. I was once a KDE user and the first thing I did after a fresh install was to replace Konqueror. But yes, truth be told, the KDE developers that worked on KHTML deserve a lot of credit.
  - ma2rten 15y ago
    You are not doing Apple justice. Next to WebKit, which is the base for Chrome and Safari, they also open sourced Darwin, which is the base for iOS and MacOS X.
    - 15y ago
avallark 15y ago
Chrome beats IE market share. It showed that over the weekend Chrome is the most used browser, while on a weekday, people go back to work and use IE. This has two implications: 1) Companies are still locked into some solutions like OWA and sharepoint because of which users still use IE at work. 2) Users have started distinguishing between browsers and at home they prefer using Chrome. For companies with most of their clients using their own personal computers (like for us), we could expect a fair share of Chrome over IE and hence the following: 1) Our QA should have a major focus on testing with these browsers. 2) Architecture needs to focus on this stat. as a guiding principle while deciding future architecture. Another interesting statistics is the second screenshot with the Mobile Operating systems. 1) The highest share of internet browsers still run a Nokia Symbian phone. Most likely these are traffic from developing countries, where monetizing from these clients is extremely difficult. 2) iPhone and Android are tied and very close. So focusing only on iPhone could be a mistake. We need to open up to focusing on Android just as much.
- Karunamon 15y ago
  Thought it would be worth mentioning, newer versions of OWA (14.2.247.0, at my workplace, the latest and greatest MS Exchange) explicitly support Chrome, but there is some silverlight in there. This is using the full featured interface, not the crippled "light" version. Firefox too.
- RossP 15y ago
  SharePoint is cross-browser, at least as of SharePoint 2010. I don't believe any functions require IE. Disclaimer: I work for an MS partner, while I don't admin SharePoint our company does plenty of SharePoint work and our clients are happy.
  - edwinnathaniel 15y ago
    You need IE for some of its feature such as Datasheet View, multiple file upload, etc. They don't show up in Chrome. But that doesn't mean you can use Chrome. Just less productive.
peterhunt 15y ago
In my opinion, successfully marketing a seamlessly up-to-date browser is the 3rd greatest thing Google has done for the world (behind search and gmail)
Sunspot 15y ago
How many people choose Chrome? I bought a Lenovo laptop recently and Google Chrome was pre-installed as the default browser. And although the desktop shortcut icon was the familiar one, it was renamed "Internet Browser."

128 points by r7000 15y ago

As much as I like Chrome, the increase in Chrome's share also means more people will be using Google by default.. and their search dominance scares me. Consumer web startups can literally die overnight if Google penalizes them(google "TeachStreet"), or if their Adwords account got banned for some unknown reason.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
sad_panda 15y ago
No it doesn't. This is screen that greets new users of Chrome: http://www.google.com/help/hc/images/chrome/chrome_95346_search_engine_en.png http://www.google.com/help/hc/images/chrome/chrome_95346_sea...
strawbucks 15y ago
Isn't Google's dominance in the search engine business pretty well established at this point? Is there a sizable group of people that, upon using Chrome, will be using Google search more often?
TheCoreh 15y ago
When you first install Google Chrome, you're presented with the choice of search engine. I'm pretty sure 99% choose Google not because they are already using Chrome, but because they probably trust or know Google more than Bing or Yahoo. From my experience, IE users will usually either ignore the Bing search field, type "google.com" in and search manually, or change the search provider to Google anyway. I would also speculate that a very large portion of Chrome users has no idea that the address bar is also a search field. They probably type in "google.com" manually every time. If Bing, Yahoo or anyone else provides a more compelling search experience, these users will switch.
- guynamedloren 15y ago
  Random story: I've used Chrome since the day it was publicly released and am fully aware that the address bar does more than just accept urls - in fact, it's called the omnibox for a great reason. But I still type in "google.com" for 99% of my searches (probably 100+ times a day). The reason is that I like the Google homepage. The white space allows me to clear my thoughts without being distracted by whatever would be on my screen otherwise, and the search box is perfectly positioned in the center of my screen. Weird, I know, but I like it.
  - Donito 15y ago
    Interesting, I actually use Bing (or at least go there once a day) mainly to see a new picture every day. It's often high quality nice shots from random places, so I feel like I'm learning about a new place every time... makes me dream :/
    - freehunter 15y ago
      This is one reason I don't mind that the only built-in option for search on Windows Phone is Bing. While I believe I get better results from Google (though that may be bias on my part), when I hit the search button it pops up a nice picture. Many times the picture is relevant to a holiday or special event that occurred on that day, and there are call-outs you can press to see quick facts (today's is about Yamuna River pollution and the Taj Mahal). It's a good example of TheCoreh's point that it's all about providing a more compelling experience. If I was given the option when I first turned on my phone, I likely would have put in Google just out of habit. Today, I probably would not. Probably.
jonknee 15y ago
Perhaps, but that's mostly because people prefer Google. When you install Chrome it pops up asking what search engine you would like to use. What should Google do differently? Microsoft hides the default search provider in the initial setup behind a "choose custom settings" button. http://nyacomputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/chrome-setup-page-1.jpg http://nyacomputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/chrome-se... vs http://static.arstechnica.com/ie8_search.png http://static.arstechnica.com/ie8_search.png
- cgs1019 15y ago
  Wow. The difference in the two images speak volumes. I may be mistaken but, having happened to install Chrome several times recently, I'm pretty sur that they even randomize the order of the entries so as not to favor any one position. Can anyone confirm/disconfirm?
  - duskwuff 15y ago
    The Google-Yahoo-Bing order appears to be fixed. That being said, the MSIE search provider install process is much more complex.
    - nextparadigms 15y ago
      Some would say the middle choice would be the most obvious to people, if they were to choose without knowing too much about each one of them.
- vibrunazo 15y ago
  Also, I have the impression that a few microsoft products (MSN, live etc) will automatically change other browser's search engine to Bing. My girlfriend told me her "google changed" after installing MSN. But maybe it was something else, as she's doesn't exactly knows what she's doing. Can anyone confirm that?
  - jxi 15y ago
    I believe there is often a check box asking if you want to change you default search engine to Bing, and its checked by default, so yes she might be right.
nextparadigms 15y ago
As if Google search wasn't already used by most people? Google has like 90% market share globally. That was the case even when IE had 70% market share, and maybe even earlier.
ootachi 15y ago
Google can't realistically push more people to use Google by default. Google search is a monopoly. I believe it is fair to state, however, that one of the reasons that Chrome exists is that Google wants Google to be synonymous with the Web in the minds of consumers. When your browser is Google and your search engine is Google, the web to you is Google. This will dovetail quite nicely with all the other places they're trying to expand to once they manage to establish a dominant browser market share.
ttt_ 15y ago
This will only get worse as Google progressively decides to plussify Chrome. Out of all of Google's products, Chrome is the one that worries me the most. Using Chrome means that you just upped Google's reach on you by many fold, they now are running code directly tied to your machine and not within the constraints of a web page or app. Are they invading your device privacy through Chrome? I dunno, probably not yet, but they can, and how long until they decide to? Given their history, specially their recent history, I don't plan on giving them the chance to do so.
- Produce 15y ago
  It's funny how just a few years ago Google could seemingly do no wrong. The more I see of life, the more I agree with Stallman's fundamentalist perspective that all software should be free and open. It would prevent these abuses as anyone could just setup a search engine or web based document editor if they didn't like the way their provider was conducting business.
- onemoreact 15y ago
  The fact that Chrome added incognito window is a good sign, the fact that there is still no flash block is a bad one IMO. Honestly, I think gmail and search are probably more dangerous when it comes to privacy. People can track the information Chrome sends back to Google, but you have no idea what happens once your data is on their servers.
  - Sindisil 15y ago
    You can set Chrome to block all plugins. There's a context menu item to selectively run the plugin, and a white-list, as well. Nice. Still, I've recently switched back to FF as my primary, for other reasons.
    - onemoreact 15y ago
      Cool, thanks!
  - thewordis 15y ago

codesuela 15y ago

Internet Explorer: the employees browser of duress

zitterbewegung 15y ago
Do you want the overhead of testing your internal web application on two browsers or one?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- Nogwater 15y ago
  I'd rather test my web app in a browser with modern development tools (Chrome, Safari, IE 9, Firefox with Firebug).
  - sirclueless 15y ago
    I'm not so sure. If half of the value of the app you are developing is that it will still work 5 years after your consulting gig with no intervention, then it's hard to fault someone for choosing IE.
    - sad_panda 15y ago
      Maybe in the early-aughts. Me, I'd be putting my chips on a Webkit future.
    - Nogwater 15y ago
      Maybe you've had different experiences, but I've had very few problems with forward compatibility in all of the major browsers (IE/FF/Chrome), and I don't know why that would change going forward. Actually, I'd go so far as to say that if you develop your apps to work cross-browser, they're more likely to work in future versions of IE than if you specifically target your dev at a single version of IE. Also, just because I do 90% of my dev work where there are good tools, doesn't mean that I can't or don't test in IE 8- (depending on the target audience).

cobychapple 15y ago

It's great to see (from the peaks in usage of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera on weekends) that people are choosing more progressive browsers over IE for home use. It'd also be neat to see the breakdown of IE versions in this data too. Microsoft sure do have their work cut out for them!

rhplus 15y ago
You could interpolate from the chart that shows distribution by browser versions up to February 2012. Chrome's auto-update feature is staggeringly efficient. IE 8.0 18.86 IE 9.0 12.08 IE 7.0 3.32 IE 6.0 1.48 Chrome 16.0 13.39 Chrome 15.0 0.35 Chrome 14.0 0.35 Chrome 12.0 0.27 Chrome 13.0 0.25 EDIT: removed the Firefox and "Other" numbers as their sum is nowhere close to the aggregated numbers in the browser monthly charts [2]. StatCounter must be counting recent versions of Chrome and Firefox as "Other" in data set [1]. Source: [1] http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww-monthly-201102-201202 http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww-monthly-201102... (from the CSV file) [2] http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-201102-201203 http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-201102-201203
ootachi 15y ago
No, people are choosing Chrome over IE for home use. The trend is clear; Chrome is likely to achieve a crushingly dominant market share in a couple of years, or sooner.
- zobzu 15y ago
  people chose what internet said to take internet = google.com and it tells them to do that
- cobychapple 15y ago
  Yes, the trend you're referring to (Chrome becoming dominant) is clear, but it's the other pattern (the weekly cycles of troughs for IE, and the coinciding peaks for all other browsers) that I was referring to.
- 15y ago

thought_alarm 15y ago

12 years ago I suggested that IE would lose its crown to a web browser developed by a web site using an open source cross platform rendering engine developed by Apple. And everyone said I was nuts.

mariusmg 15y ago
If it's open source, it's not developed by apple......
- program 15y ago
  WebKit is open source and is developed by Apple and other companies such as KDE, Google, Nokia, Samsung and others.
  - cookiecaper 15y ago
    KDE is not a company and WebKit originated as a fork from KHTML, KDE's HTML rendering engine used in Konqueror. Too much credit is often ascribed to Apple for appropriating the engine on to a popular piece of software (OS X).
    - bad_user 15y ago
      They did applied polish to it though and also built a new Javascript engine. I don't know who contributed what, but today's WebKit is a lot better than what KHTML was before being forked. I was once a KDE user and the first thing I did after a fresh install was to replace Konqueror. But yes, truth be told, the KDE developers that worked on KHTML deserve a lot of credit.
- ma2rten 15y ago
  You are not doing Apple justice. Next to WebKit, which is the base for Chrome and Safari, they also open sourced Darwin, which is the base for iOS and MacOS X.
  - 15y ago

avallark 15y ago

Chrome beats IE market share. It showed that over the weekend Chrome is the most used browser, while on a weekday, people go back to work and use IE. This has two implications: 1) Companies are still locked into some solutions like OWA and sharepoint because of which users still use IE at work. 2) Users have started distinguishing between browsers and at home they prefer using Chrome. For companies with most of their clients using their own personal computers (like for us), we could expect a fair share of Chrome over IE and hence the following: 1) Our QA should have a major focus on testing with these browsers. 2) Architecture needs to focus on this stat. as a guiding principle while deciding future architecture. Another interesting statistics is the second screenshot with the Mobile Operating systems. 1) The highest share of internet browsers still run a Nokia Symbian phone. Most likely these are traffic from developing countries, where monetizing from these clients is extremely difficult. 2) iPhone and Android are tied and very close. So focusing only on iPhone could be a mistake. We need to open up to focusing on Android just as much.

Karunamon 15y ago
Thought it would be worth mentioning, newer versions of OWA (14.2.247.0, at my workplace, the latest and greatest MS Exchange) explicitly support Chrome, but there is some silverlight in there. This is using the full featured interface, not the crippled "light" version. Firefox too.
RossP 15y ago
SharePoint is cross-browser, at least as of SharePoint 2010. I don't believe any functions require IE. Disclaimer: I work for an MS partner, while I don't admin SharePoint our company does plenty of SharePoint work and our clients are happy.
- edwinnathaniel 15y ago
  You need IE for some of its feature such as Datasheet View, multiple file upload, etc. They don't show up in Chrome. But that doesn't mean you can use Chrome. Just less productive.

peterhunt 15y ago

In my opinion, successfully marketing a seamlessly up-to-date browser is the 3rd greatest thing Google has done for the world (behind search and gmail)

Sunspot 15y ago

How many people choose Chrome? I bought a Lenovo laptop recently and Google Chrome was pre-installed as the default browser. And although the desktop shortcut icon was the familiar one, it was renamed "Internet Browser."