Google Chrome ... one year on!
A year ago I downloaded and installed the first public beta of Google's Chrome browser and I instantly fell in love with the speed, reliability, ease of use and simplicity of the browser. A year on and I still pretty much feel the same ...
In just a day Chrome's market share had jumped to between 1.5% and 3.0% depending on which yardstick you used, but it quickly declined. Over the past year Chrome hasn't really caught the attention of the masses. Current market share hovers at between 2.8% and 3.5% (again, depending on the yardstick used) and growth is now slow.
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But despite not gatting as much attention as IE, Firefox or Safari, I think that Chrome is a super browser. Sure, it's a pretty basic browser, and doesn't have all the bells and whistles that other bowsers have (Firefox especially), but it's a rock-solid, reliable way of browsing the web. I love the fact that I can have dozens of tabs spread over severa browser windows open and be able to swap between them effortlessly. I can count the number of times I had a tab in Chrome crash on me on the fingers of one hand, and I've never (to the best of my knowledge) had the whole browser lock up on me.
Personally, I'm pleased that Google hasn't rushed to cram everyone's wish list of features into Chrome. In fact, before Chrome was released I was starting to feel tired of the features arms race that had gripped browser makers and was glad to see a browser that got back to basics and put performance, reliability and security ahead of a features list.
I look forward to the next year of using Chrome.