Chrome’s Growth Is Far Too Slow March 24th, 2009
I am a dedicated Chrome user. I actually even subscribe to the alpha channel, giving me the flakiest and most advanced version to be had. I love it. Chrome is light, fast, and very well designed. But as a daily user, I lose sight of the fact, that most people do not use Chrome. Really, most have never heard of it. Ask your friends, they will blink, especially the Mac users. I am beginning to wonder if Chrome is going to hit critical mass, and it worries me. Unless it becomes mass market, it will eventually be dropped by Google. I would not like that.
Google has money, developers, and distribution channels that we can hardly even begin to image. Still, what about Chrome? I recently checked into its growth, slow, that it is, and was depressed. Let’s take a look at what data we have. Clicky referrers to the global stats gathered by Clicky Web Analytics, and Hitslink refers to Hitslink Market Share data.
January:
Clicky: 2.1%
Hitslink: 1.12%
February:
Clicky: 2.3%
Histlink: 1.15%
That is enough to work with. It’s not much data, but that is beside the point. If it has only garnered between one or two percent since it was launched last year, Chrome is not growing much. The data for the last few months only further illustrates my point: Chrome is not growing quickly enough. This is akin to Toyota launching a new brand, and having no one buy those cars. Worse, actually, Chrome is free.
This would be a simple problem if Chrome was trash. Bad products deserve no audience. But Chrome, as I have stated, is excellent. Alright, let’s think about this. Head over to a YouTube video, and scroll down. You will note an ad for Chrome. Free, for Google. Promoting their own products on their own properties has no cost, other than the economic opportunity cost. Disregarding that, this is not enough. Read the text, “Try YouTube in a new web browser!” I am not sure who wrote that copy, but they should be fired.
Change the link placement, and then change the text. YouTube is so massive, and so mass market, that it is the perfect breeding ground for Chrome. Throw up two links on every video page. Make them scream “Make YouTube 30% Faster With Chrome – Revolutionize.” Or something like that, anything to build the buzz. As the technology behind the browser continues to improve (plugins, please) we will see more of the technology team (Silicon Valley, et al) on board. But to reach the masses you need to sell it like anything else. If you don’t grab my eyeballs, they slide on to something else.
Google, Chrome is amazing. Get more people on board, and turn this into a true three horse race. Right now there are two giants, and three infants (Chrome, Opera, and Safari) lost amidst the fighting dust, unnoticed. Get a move on, promote a great product as it deserves.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (11)
March 24th, 2009 at 10:27 am
I tried Chrome for a few months and I didn’t like it as much as firefox. It’s still on my work PC, but my laptop and home PC have been stripped of their chrome. Sorry, I just don’t like it.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:42 am
I LOVE Chrome. I love the ability to create “standalone apps” and i have several set up for my favorite web apps: GMail, GReader, Google Docs, Calendar, RTM, Delicious, and on and on. It makes it so much easier if you’re planning on visiting a site and not leaving it in that window.
I also love the speed. Just loading pages, it’s TONS faster than Firefox. And then there’s the fact the FF is slow to load up in the first place. I recently reformatted, and when I installed FF again, I took it easy on the plugins and addons and only installed what i really need/use. It still takes over 15 seconds from when I tell FF to open until it finally does. Chrome is 2 seconds, TOPS.
I love Google Chrome and I suggest it to everyone I know! I really hope it takes off soon.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
I tried Chrome was not impressed and went back to IE8.
To each his own I guess
March 24th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Chrome won’t be taken seriously until it supports the Linux platform.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I think Chrome is amazing too. Personally, I wouldn’t worry about the adoption rate yet–it only came out in September, so it’s been about six months. I think the Chrome team is doing the right things to make Chrome really compelling, but at the same time, it makes sense to get Chrome in really good shape (e.g. ironing out all the kinks and bugs, Mac/Linux support, adding extensions) before trumpeting Chrome too much. I think in time as some of those major items are in good shape, then it will make more sense to really talk about Chrome a lot, and I think adoption may naturally follow at that point as people hear more about where Chrome rocks (speed, security, web apps, clean design, etc.).
March 24th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Web browsers take a lot of time to gain share. Despite facing anemic competition from IE6 and including the then-widely-unknown tabbed browsing feature, Firefox took a couple of years to gain significant share.
Also, it would be a mistake to say that Chrome makes YouTube “30% faster”, since it doesn’t.
March 24th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Chrome is NOT excellent. Tried on BOTH Windoze and MacOSX. Compared to IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Camino, Shiira, Avant, Minefield. No great shakes over any, especially. Bland. Not an especially exceptional performer, and not especially a browser in and of itself: more intended as a “gateway” to the GoOgle Cloud or “GoOgle Operating System” (Gmail, Reader, Docs, Spreadsheets, Calendar, and oh so many others in the world of apps and services). Especially with the growing distrust of GoOgle motivations, monetizations, and unpredictable droppings of used services, it is not surprising that Chrome popularity has not grown.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Here’s a theory: One bump-up for Chrome when Microsoft stops supporting WindowsXP. Another bump-up for Chrome as VISTA is phased out for Windows 7, especially as fewer working people have the need to use Windows software from their jobs on their home pc’s.
Just a theory.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
I think a Mac version would help. Yes, Mac users are only 10-15% of computer users (but that is going up) but they’re also super-nodes… people who evangelize tech to their friends, family, office workers, etc.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Don’t worry:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161637/firefox_may_already_be_dead.html
March 25th, 2009 at 1:37 am
No adblocker, no want.