Chrome Ascendent

By  |  Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 4:39 pm

TechCrunch’s MG Siegler is reporting that Chrome is now the most-used browser among that site’s visitors, having slightly edged out Firefox in November. It’s yet another piece of evidence that Google’s browser is a major hit, especially among people who take their Web browsers really seriously.

Here at Technologizer, Firefox maintains the #1 spot–in fact, Chrome is only the third-most popular browser. (Internet Explorer is #2.) But Chrome usages is increasing at a steady clip, and both Firefox and IE have lost users over the past year.

Here’s the current breakdown of browser usage among Technologizer users (this is based on the last month’s worth of visits to the site):

  • Firefox: 32%
  • Internet Explorer: 27%
  • Chrome: 22%
  • Safari: 16%
  • Opera: 1%
  • Other: 1%

Here’s where it stood a year ago:

  • Firefox: 42%
  • Internet Explorer: 31%
  • Safari: 15%
  • Chrome: 10%
  • Opera: 1%
  • Other: 1%

And a year before that, when Chrome was a few weeks old:

  • Internet Explorer: 38%
  • Firefox: 37%
  • Safari: 16%
  • Chrome: 6%
  • Opera: 2%
  • Other: 1%

Where will the breakdown stand a year from now, at least among Technologizer users? Chrome’s on a trajectory that could take it to the top. But predictions are dangerous, especially since the browsers that’ll be competing then will be quite different from today’s crop. Internet Explorer 9, still in beta, looks to be the first version of IE in eons that could be good enough to prompt some folks who abandoned IE ages ago to at least flirt with returning. And I really like the Firefox 4 beta–in fact, it’s my primary browser right now.

Of course, people who read sites such as TechCrunch and Technologizer are by definition more interested in technology than average folks. Among the populace at large, IE is still the most popular browser, Firefox is #2, and Chrome is still a pretty distant #3. Different research outfits report different numbers; here’s a handy-dandy chart I swiped from Wikipedia.

So what browser are you using, and why?

 
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15 Comments For This Post

  1. johnwbaxter Says:
    December 2nd, 2010 at 11:55 am

    And after a machine restart, the strange IE9 described above displays this page fine. Was it the restart? Or a problem ad cycling away?

    I'm off to trigger a full AV scan.

  2. nick dafo Says:
    December 2nd, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    I am using the android browser
    my main device is not the pc but my android phone

  3. searchasyoutype Says:
    December 2nd, 2010 at 5:07 pm

    Chrome is based on Google's patent on 'Instant' search. My name is Pal Sahota and the company name is Pal Systems Ltd. This is the same technology I invented it in 1989 and I called it search-as-you-type. Google are calling it under a few names including Search-as-you-Type (SayT) see below links._ _http://code.google.com/p/search-as-you-type/__And their demo video on_ _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElubRNRIUg4/__The name of search-as-you-type was coined by me and used as our branded product and this can be clearly seen in the newspaper articles in my blog._ _http://searchasyoutype.wordpress.com/about__There are also two videos made in 1991 which can also be seen from this blog.__Watching these videos it can be clearly seen that the data is accessed in the same way as shown in the above Google demo!_ _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMB-vYrZ_ZE__http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFb87HRbKYQ

  4. searchasyoutype Says:
    December 2nd, 2010 at 5:08 pm

    My product Autodispens used search-as-you-type everywhere and not just for accessing data. I believe that every type of “real time parsing algorithm” application is covered in this extensive program and this was done in DOS and on the very first PC’s. Am I going to have to pay royalties to use my own product done in 1989!
    Until 2008 software in the UK was not patentable but was automatically covered under the copyright law. Is the US undermining UK copyright laws! There are dozens of concepts that I have developed based on this. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is any question you wish to ask me.

  5. Z. DeForrest Says:
    December 2nd, 2010 at 7:19 pm

    I am on my iPad so using Safari. I wish I could have Chrome on here though. I love it so much and use it on my home computer and at my work. I have also gotten quite a few people at work to convert as well as they noticed the drastic difference in speed and usablity over IE. Looks like IE is going with Microsofts normal plan of using others ideas as their own cause from what I have seen IE9 looks a lot like Chrome.

  6. John Baxter Says:
    December 2nd, 2010 at 8:21 pm

    Normally, I visit Technologizer using IE9 beta (refresh) with the engine part of IE Platform Preview 7 mashed into it. (That’s easier to do than it sounds.) My primary alternative is Chrome. Firefox is on the machine.

    This time, though, I’m using Firefox, as neither IE9 (as above) nor Chrome is willing to display this post after several minutes. (I’m suspecting an errant ad network. IE9 showed Hulu Envy just fine.) Hmmm: between typing the v and the y in “Envy” Firefox started making an alert sound and refusing to accept characters. I had to allow Javascript from Technologizer to get past that (NoScript).

    (Now Firefox is suggesting that I disable Bing bar (I hadn’t noticed it had crept in–I’m well trained in ignoring ads and other unwanted stuff) and one other addon.)

    I don’t know what all this means, but something about Chrome Ascendent has triggered oddities in 3 browsers. (Not to mention Firefox claiming Ascendent is wrongly spelt, with which Word disagrees.)

    It’s an odd evening all around. All this from about 19:33 to 19:47 PST.

    –John

  7. johnwbaxter Says:
    December 2nd, 2010 at 8:28 pm

    And after a machine restart, the strange IE9 described above displays this page fine. Was it the restart? Or a problem ad cycling away?

    I’m off to trigger a full AV scan.

  8. Collins Says:
    December 3rd, 2010 at 12:27 am

    Firefox, definitely. Despite all the advertised and bragged-about speed advantage of Chrome, I don't see many (if at all) dfference between Mozilla's 'old dog' and Google's 'youthful' performer. Firefox wins me for extensibility and flexibility; AdBlock Plus, among many others, is a real convenience boost that works much better under Firefox than Chrome. On the basic side of things, Firefox's bookmark feature is way ahead of Chrome with its keyword function. I know I can add a keyword-ed bookmark entry to the list of search engines in Chrome and use/access it pretty much the same way, but the end result is an utter mess.

    I'm not yet sold on IE, mainly due to its single-OS nature, but I'll take it for a spin on my Windows machine after it hits 'stable' status. Safari doesn't have a native Linux version, so that's out of my list. Opera is pretty good, but not as extensible as Firefox and Chrome.

  9. ahow628 Says:
    December 3rd, 2010 at 6:37 am

    The day I found how to enable Chrome sidetabs was the day I made Chrome my permanent browser.

  10. MJPollard Says:
    December 3rd, 2010 at 7:09 am

    No Chrome for me, for one very simple reason: I absolutely detest the interface. This “minimalist” approach, and eliminating/reordering items on the interface, is a bunch of bullcrap, in my opinion… bullcrap that IE9 and FF4 are slavishly emulating. (Hell, why not add ribbons! Yet another “wonderful” UI invention!)

    At least with FF4, I’ll be able to restore the interface I know and love; not so with Chrome and IE9, at least not that I’ve seen. A program that lets me do what *I* want is infinitely preferable to me to one that insists on doing things they way *IT* thinks I should be doing. This is *MY* computer, dammit, and I will do things the way *I* want them done.

  11. davezatz Says:
    December 3rd, 2010 at 9:51 am

    I've been nearly fulltime on Chrome for several months now. Still have occasional rendering issues, but I find it very sprightly and prefer the minimal err chrome.

  12. Ron Says:
    December 3rd, 2010 at 11:14 am

    Chrome. Fast, clean and doesn't get in the way. I focus on my destination rather than the vehicle that got me there. Plenty of extensions available, and I only need four or five anyway.

  13. Tom B Says:
    December 3rd, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    Safari benchmarks the fastest. Firefox has the most features. IE is out there for masochists. Why does anyone need Chrome?

  14. Anonymous Says:
    December 3rd, 2010 at 10:57 pm

    Opera. The same exact version runs on my Win7 x64 desktop, Win2k laptop, iMac G3 400 (OS X Tiger), and even the NT 4.0 VM I keep around as a novelty. (On NT it even kicks up an error that more or less says "copy this .dll from a WinME install to make shadows in the UI work properly".)

    Chrome is too bare-bones for me, Firefox leaks memory like a sieve, and I don't really use IE unless I have to (work, someone else's PC, etc. Not riding the "grr IE" bandwagon, just never got into the habit of using it again.)

  15. SirFatty Says:
    December 4th, 2010 at 9:37 am

    Chrome has been my primary since it was released. It's super fast and stable. The question is why would anyone use IE, it's such a piece of crap. I walked away from Firefox a while ago, too slow, too many memory issues. Safari? Yeah right.