Software
Chrome usage on the rise, Windows 7 now over 10%
Despite the awaited and long delayed release of Firefox 3.6 last month, that was hardly sufficient to keep alive the urge from users to favor the Mozilla browser against other worthy alternatives like Chrome, Opera or even Safari. According to January data released by Net Applications, Google's browser was the big winner with a sizable usage share bump from 4.64% in December to 5.20% last month. This came at the expense of both Internet Explorer and Firefox that were marginally down compared to December.
On the side of operating systems, Windows was slightly down to 92.02% overall, while OS X saw a marginal jump to 5.13% and Linux was flat at 1%. Scrutinizing those Windows numbers further, Windows 7 hit an estimated 10% share on January 31st, which likely had something to do with IE8 taking the top browser spot with 22.31% usage share. Painfully to say, IE6 remains to be used by some 20% of users, despite its obvious shortcomings and potential security flaws.
While it's hard to be completely sold on this data, it should remain a pretty good indicator of usage trends over time. Net Apps tracks software usage from 40,000 websites representing about 160 million unique visitors each month.
On the side of operating systems, Windows was slightly down to 92.02% overall, while OS X saw a marginal jump to 5.13% and Linux was flat at 1%. Scrutinizing those Windows numbers further, Windows 7 hit an estimated 10% share on January 31st, which likely had something to do with IE8 taking the top browser spot with 22.31% usage share. Painfully to say, IE6 remains to be used by some 20% of users, despite its obvious shortcomings and potential security flaws.
While it's hard to be completely sold on this data, it should remain a pretty good indicator of usage trends over time. Net Apps tracks software usage from 40,000 websites representing about 160 million unique visitors each month.
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User Comments (10)
Post a comment| Guest on February 2, 2010 9:02 AM | Since they just released 4.0 officially, I'm loving add-ons. Pretty much Firefox no longer has one big advantage over google. |
| treeski on February 2, 2010 9:33 AM | Been a Chrome user for about a year I think. I haven't had time to check out the new add-ons, but I'm very excited about them none the less! |
| slh28 on February 2, 2010 10:53 AM | Chrome is awesome, I'm using about as much as Firefox now that most of my FF extensions have been ported to Chrome. Although one thing that really really bugs me is the Other Bookmarks folder on the bookmarks bar - I have nothing in it and it takes up about 3-4 of my bookmarks space, which is quite a lot considering I run windows in half screen all the time. |
| Guest on February 2, 2010 6:29 PM | linux will never grow with a snobnosed user base like thay have. Open software with small closed minds. |
| flannelwarrior on February 3, 2010 12:54 PM | I've been using Firefox for two years or so. I don't think I could ever go back to IE. I've tried Chrome, but I don't like it as much as FF. But I might give it another shot given its popularity. |
| flannelwarrior on February 3, 2010 9:17 PM | I've been using Firefox for two years or so. I don't think I could ever go back to IE. I've tried Chrome, but I don't like it as much as FF. But I might give it another shot given its popularity. |
| SNGX1275 on February 4, 2010 12:45 PM | I recently got a netbook and Opera (my browser of choice) seemed to run slower than I wanted on it, so I tried Chrome. Chrome was really fast, and I got adblock (then later adsweep) for it and neither one really blocks ads, they load them, then remove them. And they seem to stop working if I don't close chrome every couple days. Then there is always a lingering concern about privacy. So I think I'm going to go back to Opera. |
| gzt7d8 on February 4, 2010 8:47 PM | I've been a user for probably a year now. Chrome is so much faster than Firefox, in my experience. I've run both Chrome and Firefox on the Peacekeeper browser benchmark and Chrome (5.307.1) scored a 6660 on my machine, and Firefox (3.6) scored 3517. I rest my case, Chrome is much faster for me. gs |
| red1776 on February 4, 2010 9:16 PM | I've been a user for probably a year now. Chrome is so much faster than Firefox, in my experience. I've run both Chrome and Firefox on the Peacekeeper browser benchmark and Chrome (5.307.1) scored a 6660 on my machine, and Firefox (3.6) scored 3517. This is what I don't get, is a search time of .00037 vs .00023 really a big deal to anyone? there's 14/10,000th of a second of my life I will never get back.
I rest my case, Chrome is much faster for me. gs |
| BluStang05 on February 8, 2010 12:32 AM | I am going to have to try chrome i think... maybe I have been a faithful firefox user and have been happy with it so really why mess with a good thing |
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