Posts Tagged ‘Chrome’

Chrome for Android was released with about 3 months delay (or more than 3 years, depending on your view) on Tuesday. Google hopes to replicate the runaway success of the desktop version of the browser, but the browser is less appealing and less accessible to the user than Chrome, which makes this mobile browser an inconclusive product that, in addition, lacks compelling features over rivals.

January 2012 has been a remarkable month for the web browser as we know it. Those who closely follow the popularity of web browsers already know that Chrome has, according to StatCounter, surpassed Firefox in market share in November 2011, thus rearranging the rules of the browser game and turning it, for now, into a two-horse race. Now, Chrome is beginning to approach IE in most regions around the globe and has reduced its distance to IE, on one day, to less than four percentage points. If the current trend, which has lasted for more than 3 years, continues, then Google will surpass IE within 3 months.

Chrome ended 2011 with 42.50% market share gain for the year and the highest monthly market share growth in its history, according to data released by StatCounter. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was the only browser to lose market share, but slightly slowed its losses over 2010. Firefox had a tough year with a loss that more than quadrupled over 2010.

Analysis – Google is rumored to be paying at least $1 billion in advertising revenue, or royalties, depending on your view, to Mozilla over the next three years. This investment may seem over the top, especially since Mozilla has seen its market position weaken in 2011 and since we have seen plenty of public Mozilla firing poisoned darts in the direction of Google’s Chrome team. However, even at a billion dollars, it’s a good idea for Google to have Mozilla on its side. It appears that Mozilla has played its cards very well.

The development process of Chrome and the way Google has scaled the release of Chrome in an apparently effortless way to hundreds of developers and hundreds of millions of users is one of the big success stories in software development these days. A Chrome developer recently gave some insight in this release process and the pillars that allow Google to succeed with a model that causes so much headache for other software companies.

Analysis – It’s the first of the month and it’s market share day again. Of course, the big news isn’t such big news, if you have been following us for awhile. Chrome has surpassed Firefox in market share in November and is taking big steps toward IE, which it may reach by Q3 2012. For Mozilla, it isn’t such a surprise either, but the result of a series of mistakes as well as Google’s much greater capability to advertise and push the adoption of its browser. Food for thought.

Google developer Mike Belshe posted some thoughts on the future of SPDY, which addresses shortcomings of HTTP and accelerates Internet connections. While not confirmed by Google or any other company, a SPDY gateway could enhance Internet connections dramatically in the future.

Google’s Aura hardware accelerated window manager remains a mystery to the outside world, but there is now a video that gives a first impression of a feature in Aura: Translucent windows.

In the first half of November, Chrome continued to gain market share, while Firefox’ losses accelerate again. Microsoft’s marketing campaign to support Internet Explorer has shown some effect, but is weakening again. To stay relevant, Mozilla will now have to deliver new features such as bookmark migration, silent updates, the Android tablet UI, the home tab app and the new tab page on time.

Google unveiled preliminary information about its new Aura window manager for Chrome and Chrome OS, which had us guessing for the past half year. Now we know that Aura will be the next big milestone for the browser as it transitions to a hardware-accelerated user interface that will enable much richer visuals than Chrome does today.

A Firefox developer just posted some revealing information about a process of how Chrome users could be converted into Firefox users. The good news may be that there is now a reasonable hint why Mozilla may not be able to gain users once they have become Chrome users. The bad news is that Firefox, in its current form, is not equipped with a critical feature to lure influential Chrome users.

The Internet is at war. In fact, the whole consumer market is actively engaging in many wars across many different levels. The thing is, while we know that there is a “browser war” going on out there, we find ourself wondering what exactly is going on. Who is actually fighting and how? We are all familiar with the “big 3” and I would even risk saying “big 5”: Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Google’s Chrome Browser, Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and Opera’s Opera Browser. But what are they fighting for? Market share? Mozilla will tell you that they are fighting for the open web, and yet, no one else is. At the end of the day, regardless of the individual motives of the companies, this whole war is about who has the browser you should use.