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Google's Chrome Declining In Popularity
holy_calamity writes "After launching in a blaze of publicity that even warmed Slashdot, Google's browser grabbed a 3% share of the market, but has been slipping ever since, and now accounts for 1.5%. Google has also stopped promoting the browser on its search page. Assuming they wanted it to grab a significant share of the browser market, have they dropped the ball, or is this part of the plan?" On Slashdot, Chrome is still the #4 browser (after FF, IE, and Safari) but it was ahead of Safari for a few days, hitting almost 10% of our traffic.
and no-script. Does it run on FreeBSD yet?
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Come on is this a surprise? I've downloaded Chrome, I've used it for a little bit of time and then gone back to Firefox as its got the plug-ins and other bits that I use everyday. When Chrome becomes a full product and has the plug-ins that I need then I'd consider switching, but for now its just something I'll fire up when testing my web code and then use that open window for some browsing because I'm too lazy to switch to another window.
Hell personally I'm shocked they beat 1% of people, I'm stunned that 1% of people cared enough to download a new browser.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
The fact that people are still using it regularly despite it being beta should say something at least.
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It seems to me that the pool of users that Chrome is seeking to draw from has already been taken by the likes of Firefox and Opera. And, unfortunately for Chrome, fans of Firefox and Opera are violently loyal customers. Even if Chrome supported addons I would have a hard time giving up my Firefox.
I find it surprising that Opera is still behind Chrome. I'm personally a Firefox user, but I really thought that Opera was more prevalent, especially on Slashdot. I guess the few Opera users there are, are just really vocal when it comes to promoting their browser.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I'm sill using Chrome, so I'm currently an outcast. I have Firefox3 with 9 plugins (of course AdBlock/Flashblock/... and so on). The major reason I keep using Chrome is that the Javascript engine is so much faster. It is actually faster for me to load all the extra crap with Chrome than it is for adblock to remove it and render the page with stuff missing. It sounds ridiculous, but it is my experience. Of course now my privacy is being raped 8 ways to Sunday, but its worth it for that 15 extra milliseconds of my life.
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So far...
*No Linux version yet - can't use it at home on Ubuntu without sloppy hacks
*No find-as-you-type - I didn't realize how much I used this in FF until it's not there
*No AdBlock Plus - I determined this to be my only real must-have FF extension. There are a few others I really really like, but I can get away without them for the most part.
*Lack of extensions in general.
On top of those, I think it's a novel new browser, has some good things, but there's a lack of transparency, too. At least with Firefox, I can view their Bugzilla, check out progress on Mozillazine, and feel like I'm seeing some progress and idea of where things are and where they are going. So Google has said they'll support addons and extensions. It's open source so people can hack it if they want. Well....where are they on supporting extensions? Where's the community building on the source? When is the estimated release of a more final version rather than something that really seems more like a technology preview demo?
That said, I'm having problems with the Minefield pre beta (FF 3.1) today, and am actually thinking of trying Chrome as my default for the day to see how I fare. Crazy.
I use the IE tab plugin for Firefox... there's almost never any need for me to start IE, even to test pages in it.
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For me, the issue was No native Linux version. Yes, there's the Linux version provided by the CrossOver guys, and that's great. I've used it a few times. But it takes forever to launch, and is generally a little slow. A native application would be better.
I'll look at Chrome again when there's a native version for Linux.
Once the open source Chromium version comes out and has been tossed around for a while, I think there will be a pretty solid case for using it. The rendering engine is competitive, and the one-process-per-tab thing is an idea that needs to happen; the browser is being used as an operating system more and more, so it makes sense to delegate some duties to the OS itself.