Chrome fails to attract users

I installed Chrome for grins. I couldn't use gmail. I think it's a bit premature.

I like chrome a lot and am using as my default. It some flaws that need correcting, but it handles a lot of tabs open really well and I like how simple its interface is.

Firefox is slick, stable, and fast enough for me...

I've have been using it almost exclusively since it was available, and have crashed *maybe* three times at the absolute most. There are a couple 'rendering' oddities now and again, but other than that nothing. Just lucky I guess.

A single week for statistics...really now. My site gets more traffic Monday through Friday. So we should presume that fewer or more people are using browsers X, Y, and Z after a week?

I like fresh interesting news, but only if it's accurate, otherwise please post pictures of pretty ladies or something, thanks.

I played with it briefly, didn't like that lack of some features, heard about the "EULA", and uninstalled it immediately. I'm a Firefox User who occasionally plays with AOL Desktop. Until Chrome makes some notable improvements, I'm sticking with Firefox.

This sucker was unfortunately released way before it's time, still practically grape juice with little time to ferment.
I'm not sure what the marketing philosophy was to release a product this early in development; it seems to me it can only do more harm than good.
The version number starting with "0.2" (assuming the final code released to consumers is around 1.0) really makes me think this browser just came out of alpha testing and a very early complete build was released to public. And as most people mention above, it clearly shows.
I see a lot of potential and there are some unique aspects to how the browser handles URL links and such (that will no doubt be ransacked by competitors like IE8 B2), but releasing a feature-limited build like this seems only harmful to me.
Unless Google just really wants to impress on the public's subconscious that a Google-branded browser is real and coming in the near future, and not just a rumour about vaporware.

I don't see the need for Chrome. Why didn't Google put their resources into improving Firefox which is already open source and successful. They should of just created a nice Google Firefox theme add a few neat custom addons and it's done.

maybe the reason is that the last thing we need is a new browser on top of that old os. What they really should be focusing on is a new os that integrates new technology. I think firefox already did a good job of debunking IE.

Obviously there will be an initial spike as people's curiosity is aroused and they "try" the browser.

No one in their right mind would expect to convert all those people so you'd expect a drop off as curiosity is sated.

If that drop off is only 30-40% then I think that would have to be considered an enormous success rate.

Early days yet of course, calling Chrome as either a success or failure at this point is highly premature.

Chrome looks good, I really enjoyed using it and for some sites it was fast. But it´s still too buggy... When final release is out, then real measure will begin.

It has the potential of being a serious competitor for FF and or Opera, just needs adblocker, bookmarks managements and page refresh function to be improved.... A lot !
i haven't seen it crash or get slow. it's just wrorks fine for me but it seems that bookmarks function has a mind of it's own in this app, can't figure how to manage 'em the way i like .
also if a page stops loading halfway, no matter how many time i hit the refresh button, it won't complete it .
now i'm back to my lovely FireFox !

I think the search functionality is great. The only webpage I use is basically google anyway. But... for advanced users no plugins no game. And for not so advanced users IE is the internet right?

If the spike was caused by journalists who think that Chrome is an O/S putting it through it's paces, then getting frustrated because they can't persuade it to burn a DVD

RSS is a real necessity these days for my browsing habits. Fx's GMail Notifier is another one. Chrome has neither at this stage of the beta game, so is of no interest to me.

The title is wrong. It should say "Chrome attracts users".

Obviously, with any freely downloadable test package, you're going to have some people try it out and then stop using it.

Personally, I never planned on keeping it installed. I'll make that decision when it comes out of beta.

But getting 1% of users to switch to an *unstable* test version of a new browser inside of a week ain't half bad.

One percent of the already crowded browser market in a week for a beta is more than they should have hoped for anyway. It's not as if those bugs aren't going to get fixed anyway.

Where they really dropped the ball by not polishing it even more before releasing the beta.

Had they done that, that .7 would be on the other side of the coin.

I'm running a P4 Northwood 2.6 gig circa 2003, with XP. All I did was install the browser and off I went, no crashes or problems with flash etc. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I'm happy with Chrome.




If you've been following the INQ you'll know the EULA has been revised and not all your activity are belong to them.

But yes I agree, the foundation is there for a great browser, but to the end user there isn't a compelling reason to switch.

It. Doesn't. Have. Extensions.

I think it is not fair to talk about marker share for a beta. Maybe they should have called it "alpha" and was a bit too optimistic, but for me the ideas behind it is exactly what I was wishing for. I'm looking forward to when it will be released for real and on Mac OS X. I'm so tired of simple pages making the browser unresponsive giving me a spinning cursor, and tired of Flash constantly crashing the browser.

Lets give Chrome some time and *then* talk about market share. And if they fail, I'm sure other browser developers will bring in some of the ideas, so not a total loss.

It's odd enough that still 1% uses it, since it's a beta with still many flaws. And from the Feature perspective it doesn't offer any browsing comfort similar to Opera or Firefox(with Addons).
With this Feature List it is a Browser for People, who currently use IE or Safari and these people usally get the Browser along with their new OS or itunes.
Most early Adopters most likely will stick to a real Browser until Chrome becomes a final with hopefully more featuers. The only goog thing currently about Chrome is its loading speed. That's not enough IMHO. 

PS: Once a site with Active Content (Flash ..) ist loaded it needs much more CPU Ressources than Opera which makes it slower on slow machines. Probably an unoptimized Beta or Bugs but it's hardly usable on a slow machine.

Well it is still a bata.. but then again gmail is still a bata so am.. yeah!!

It's brand new, still in beta, has no plugin support, requires a beta version of Java to work properly and comes with a sneaky Google Updater service... and people are surprised that after giving it a once over most users are removing it and waiting until it's a bit more mature and developed?

Hardly a newsflash. I particularly like it but I won't be using it in anger for some time yet.

And the hassle with the EULA has no effect? Give me a brake!

What do you expect, it's a work in progress.

I tried it.. I went back to Firefox.

Reasons:

1) It imported my bookmarks but I couldn't find how to access them in the UI! I hate UIs that hide things just because they would make it look messy.
2) It wouldn't import my saved passwords. I had to uncheck this as it caused the install to explode.
3) I forgot how hideous the intarweb is without an adblocker
4) I saw all the "everything you do are belong to us" reports about the EULA!

It shows some promise, but it's a bit too "ahhh pretty", and not enough kick arse features for my liking.
Sure it seems pretty snappy, but most things are on a quad core desktop. The lack of adblocking outweighed any speed increase they may have gained in the rendering engine.

Even my single core laptop I'm using right now doesn't have a problem with two firefox V3 windows open containing over 40 tabs between them, so speed really isn't going to swing the masses. They need to find a new pitch, preferably a new, inventive, technical one, and not just a load of spin about it being able to run the cloud OS... *yawn*

I like chrome, it needs a few things here and there that other browsers have but its a great browser, I do keep pressing the firefox shorcut out of habit tho.

Browsers like Opera have slightly above one per cent, a market share that took them several years to build.

Others like mobile browsers have less than one per cent. And they are still in business.

It is awesome in any case that Google could conquer 1 per cent market share in just a week.

The reason I guess people are not using it daily is because of the "security bugs" and EULA scaremongering. Both issues are sorted now but few people know about the bugfix update..

I know its a beta, but running it on several of my machines was problematic at the best of times. Whenever I even went near the Options window or clicked on the Favourites button, the whole thing crashed. I also could not get past about 5 different page views before the whole thing dropped dead with a bit of error sarcasm thrown in.

Chrome in its current incarnation is utterly useless.

The only justification to install it is to stay up-to-date of what Google is offering.

The technical core might be great, the features are inferior. These days scaling of a website is very important and Chrome does not do a good job at it. In this respect it is completely inferior to Opera, who offer good scaling since ages.

There are no merits at to all to actually use Chrome at this point in time. Maybe this will change in future, but right now it's a waste of time.

The Chrome-Beta is much too early on the market. As Win Vista, this biest is one too early.