Google Chrome has been around for nearly three months now, which is time enough to assess its impact. Given the stats, it seems that the features are not in great demand by users, or at least that any incremental improvements are not being lapped up. However, I’d suggest that Google might be less bothered about gaining browser market share than in shaking up the browser market in general, because stimulating competitive improvements in other browsers also improves their revenues.

Briefly recapping, the most significant features of Google Chrome are:

• Speed
• “Incognito mode” (popularly known as “porn mode”) – doesn’t leave a history on your machine
• Application shortcuts – the ability to create an application from a webpage
• Crash control – it stays standing when one tab crashes

The adoption figures from MarketShare show that permanent switchers are about 0.7% of the market, although the first week’s average of 1%+ probably represents a much higher percentage of people giving it a quick try.

(Current browser stats are about: 70%-IE, 20%-Firefox, 6%-Safari. See Wikipedia’s round up for more.)

So, a few tried, possibly quite a few, but not many stuck. Why?

Speed

Many people (e.g. this person), and this assessment say that Chrome is faster than Firefox, but some others point out that the upcoming Firefox 3.1 will probably be faster than Chrome. (By the way, nobody says that IE is faster than either of them.)

Anyone, if asked, would say they prefer fast, but given the numbers switching, it’s either not noticeable, or it’s marginal and not that important. From Google’s perspective, they make money if people use the web, and use it quickly, because that means more searches, hence speed=money, regardless of which browser it’s in. If Chrome forces speed improvements in other browsers, then that works for Google too.

Incognito mode

This is probably a red herring. The next version of IE (i.e. 8) will have the equivalent “InPrivate browsing”, and Firefox 3.1 will have “Privacy mode”, which interestingly has been on the Firefox to do list since 2004, prompted by the fact that Safari was about to get it.

As the Guardian points out, in many cases, private browsing is more or less just privacy from yourself: it doesn’t solve real threats, which might be why the Firefox didn’t rush. If this feature sells browsers because some people believe it protects from serious threats, then it’s creating a false sense of security.

Application shortcuts

Firefox’s Prism extension handles this. Is it popular? 145,000 people have downloaded it, which is hard to benchmark, but looking at other Firefox add-ons: AdBlock plus has been downloaded 35 million times, and Delicious 3.5 million times, so it doesn’t look like making web apps stand apart from the browser has captured too many people’s imagination so far.

Crash-proof browsing

Apart from the extra processing issue, this is good for everyone because it brings stability. Stability is especially good for people using serious and multiple applications in their browser, and that in turn is good for … Google, who produce enough web apps to run a business. Gmail, calendars, and the office suite Google Docs, or more importantly the paid package Google Apps. The aim is to take some of Microsoft’s Office market share, which is apparently worth $19 billion. Assuming browser stability is one hurdle, any shift towards more stable browsers serves Google. And again, it doesn’t matter whether that’s Chrome or not, although to my knowledge the other browsers won’t be adding this feature soon.

Conclusion

Chrome’s poor uptake shows people’s inertia, and also their current lacklustre response to the features. However, that might not be the main point. The faster the browser world moves towards speedy browsers and well-supported web applications, the better for Google, whether or not they’re using the Google browser.