As reported by tech reporter Jolie O’Dell over at VentureBeat earlier this month, Chrome has passed Firefox and is now the second most popular web browser.
It’s really no surprise to anyone – but if you’ve been hanging around here you’ll know I’ve been keeping track and sharing my statistics of browser usage at StudioPress.
Here’s the updated chart, which includes an abbreviated Q4 in 2011:
The Inevitable Trend Continues
If you look at the actual numbers below, you’ll see a steady pattern of increase for Google Chrome, and likewise a significant decrease in Firefox.
Firefox
Q1 2010 - 56%
Q2 2010 - 54%
Q3 2010 - 51%
Q4 2010 - 49%
Q1 2011 - 46%
Q2 2011 - 45%
Q3 2011 - 42%
Q4 2011 - 39%
Q1 2010 - 56%
Q2 2010 - 54%
Q3 2010 - 51%
Q4 2010 - 49%
Q1 2011 - 46%
Q2 2011 - 45%
Q3 2011 - 42%
Q4 2011 - 39%
Chrome
Q1 2010 - 12%
Q2 2010 - 15%
Q3 2010 - 19%
Q4 2010 - 21%
Q1 2011 - 23%
Q2 2011 - 25%
Q3 2011 - 29%
Q4 2011 - 32%
Q1 2010 - 12%
Q2 2010 - 15%
Q3 2010 - 19%
Q4 2010 - 21%
Q1 2011 - 23%
Q2 2011 - 25%
Q3 2011 - 29%
Q4 2011 - 32%
Even though we’ve seen a number of Firefox updates over the past few months, it’s quite clear that Chrome is winning the battle.
Are you hanging in the Mozilla camp? Or have you jumped on the Google bandwagon?
I jumped to Chrome almost a year ago. I think Firefox 4.x or maybe 5 was really buggy on Mac OSX and kept hanging/crashing. I jumped to Chrome and never looked back. Chrome isn’t perfect, but it’s very stable and light – plus the minimal browser layout is excellent.
I’m a visual person, and wanted to customize the Firefox experience by having a theme other than the default. Once they started updating their versions, pretty much any theme was incompatible and that drove me away.
I’m at 42% and 36% for Firefox and Chrome respectively on my site. That’s changed from 44% to 31% over last year. Personally, I use Chrome. I have all the others installed, but that’s just for HTML/CSS testing.
The most annoying thing for me is Firefox takes literally forever to even open… then seems to freeze for long periods of time just during normal use. Even if I wanted to use it, I couldn’t.
It took me a while to make the switch from Firefox to Chrome. In fact, I actually went back and forth for weeks at a time, until I just couldn’t resist the awesomeness of Chrome. While there are a few add-ons from Firefox that I wish Chrome has, it’s just a better browser experience.
I have been loyal to Firefox for years until just recently and only because I can’t stand my productivity levels going down. I’ve been having the same issues as John mentioned above and it’s just getting to be too much.
I’ve been playing around with Chrome on and off for a while and like you said Brian, it is a better browser experience, however I’m still having a hard time committing to the switch. I’m not sure I’m ready to give up some of my favorite add-on’s.
This is tough.
Agreed. I was the same way. I’d tried Chrome when it first came out and it was so “bare-bones” I immediately switched back to Firefox. I ignored the hoopla about Chrome for a long time, because I’d “been there done that”… but, eventually, I got so sick of Firefox that I tried Chrome again. Haven’t looked back since.
Hopefully, though, it doesn’t get bloated like the others all seemed to have. Firefox was that lean, mean, web browsing machine when it first came out, too.
Considering the direction that Google is going with it’s UI experience, I doubt that it gets bloated. Google+, Gmail, and even Analytics, Adsense and Adwords are all undergoing “minimalistic” visual transformations.
Thanks Brian for this article. I have been using Firefox but I am going to start exploring Chrome now. Seeing you made the switch, I’ll probably will do the same
I’d love to find out what you think in, say, a week or so of using Chrome as your primary browser.
It took me several weeks to make the total switch to Chrome and I like and enjoy it so much better. It’s just clean and smooth, it feels ‘free-er” if you will. Thanks for highlighting it!
You got it bro!
This might just have been me, but I found that Firefox just seemed so sluggish in comparison to Chrome, especially in handling multiple tabs at once.
Biggest reason for my switch, although I have no idea if it’s a real phenomenon or was just in my head, Chrome just seems so much lighter.
Yep, lighter it does feel, and no – not just in your head.
I fell in love with Chrome about a year ago and haven’t looked back. It would be hard to live without the unified search/address bar. It just let’s me find what I need faster. There are plugins that emulate the combined bar for Firefox, but none works as smoothly as Chrome from what I’ve seen.
I love the unified search – something that when I went (temporarily) back to Firefox I desperately missed.
I like chrome more. If you let me use firefox, I’d rather to use the firefox engine in Avant browser.
Still with Firefox. I’m running the most recent version (8 I think). On my computer they run at the same speed. And recent versions of Firefox are just as light as Chrome. In fact, I personally like the look of Firefox better. Any good ideas Chrome had, Firefox has now.
And if I hear one more person talk about the unified search/address bar… I was searching Google from my Firefox address bar in 2006. Chrome didn’t invent that. Actually, Firefox even lets you create keywords to search other sites. (example, in my address bar if I type “w” before the search word(s) it searches straight out of wikipedia)
Here’s what I don’t understand with Firefox. Why do they have a unified search/address bar AND a Google search box?
Started using Chrome full time about 2 months ago. Ditto the comments everyone else has said here. Love the speed most of all. My only gripe is that I still find the bookmark management weak. I know there are other vehicles for doing that, but I would like to do it within the browser & have it more robust. Of course, I realize there may be a compromise between the “lean-ness” and that, but so far that is the only feature I felt it didn’t measure up to FF on. Having said that, I can’t say that I will switch back. I really like Chrome, and unless it starts to get buggy as I found with later versions of FF, I am happily here to stay.
A lot of times lean-ness (or lack thereof) consists of what add-ons/extensions folks put into their browser. I can see instances where Firefox could seem to run faster than Chrome if someone has a ton of Chrome extensions, and vice-versa. For me, I don’t run many, so Chrome definitely wins the race.
Maybe it’s changed in the last 6-8 months, but I replaced Firefox with Chrome and hated it.
Then when I tried to remove it (Mac ), it wouldn’t leave.
Then I really hated it.
I have one thing keeping me back from Chrome being my default browser (I’m still hooked on Firefox and open Chrome sparingly). I use Spybot Search & Destroy (among other programs) and every time I use Chrome, the next morning, I have a slew of alerts about cookies, etc. and they are all in Chrome. It gets me thinking that there is a security issue… am I imagining that?
Chrome is just so much faster than anything else.
Now we just have to find a way to make IE go away. Like Gadaffi went away.
Tyrant
I jumped ship from IE (:o) to Chrome almost immediately when it was released. I have never really adopted Firefox although I do have it installed along with others just for testing purposes. Chrome wins hands down for being the fastest and I am so used to its minimalism now that any of the others just seem cluttered!
I liked Firefox, only stopped using it when it became so slow for me. Now Chrome is the only thing I find dependable. Although, I’m beginning to think Google is going to take over the world.
This is very true that Chrome has been changed a lot and becomes very much user friendly. I personally use Chrome from a long time and just loved it. Recently WebStore Apps in Chrome has been changed user’s outlook. Angry Bird and other games and all other apps are just awesome.
Thanks for sharing this awesome article.
Keep it up mate.
Is there an equivalent of Firebug for Chrome? That’s what keeps me as a (frustrated and reluctant) Firefox user!
There’s Firebug lite, which isn’t that great. But Chrome has it’s own thing called Developer Tools which is even better than Firebug.
I have been using Chrome exclusively since about Oct and really liking it. However, one issue keeps occurring and I took it to the Google forums and got such a bizarre answer that I was tempted to report it, but didn’t want to take the time, frankly. I have posted again there and no luck or answers. Thought I might bring it here since everyone seems to be using it, and Brian if this isn’t the place for it, please feel free to delete the post.
I mentioned I would use it unless I see “bugs” and one keeps happening and it drives me nuts. My pages will randomly go back a page in the middle of what I am doing (filling out a a form for instance). I get a very quick white back arrow in a semi circle appearing to the left of the page itself and then it goes back. I have run virus scans and disabled plugins (don’t have that many but have tried).
Has anyone else seen this? The only results I get with google searches point to my forum posts on it at google along with two others with a bunch of “me too” posts, but no solutions. If it keeps happening I may have to switch back to FF. Thanks if anyone has any ideas.