Launched last week, Google’s Chrome web browser is already making inroads into Firefox’s popularity, something that we feared (see comments).
A comparison of the past two weeks of traffic on Tectonic.co.za - a period that covers Chrome’s launch - shows that in the week of September 1 to 8 Chrome jumped from 0 percent of browsers used to an above-average 2.98 percent.
Last week Internet analysts tracked a one percent market grab by the new browser. So a 2.98 percent share of the browsers visiting this site means that Tectonic readers are clearly extreme early adopters.
In the same period Firefox use among Tectonic readers dropped from 72.9 percent to 67.5 percent.
Opera also suffered - albeit in smaller shifts - in the past week, dropping from 3.51 percent of visitors to 3.47 percent.
The surprising change, however, is that Internet Explorer jumped from 18.18 percent to 20.08 percent in the same period. Some of this growth may be attributed, however, to the Internet Explorer 8 second beta which was released a week ago. Internet Explorer 8 users increased from 0.58 percent to 1.51 percent in the two-week comparison.
Of course, the shifts in browser preferences may well be temporary as users, keen on trying out something new, give Chrome and Internet Explorer 8 a spin. On the other hand it may not be temporary. Day-by-day comparisons of the past week show Chrome topping 5 percent of the browsers used towards the end of the week.
The flux in browser usage probably also reflects the nature of Tectonic readers who tend to be willing to try new software well ahead of the average user.
By way of comparison, our sister site, Treevolution has a different audience and there Chrome was used by just 0.43 percent of users in the past week.
The trend that ought to be worrying Firefox fans is that its base is built on early adopters and the Net-savvy crowd. Chrome is in exactly the same market and poses a bigger threat to Firefox than to Internet Explorer at this point.
Disclaimers: This is not a scientific study but it is based on Google Analytics numbers. The numbers are based on approximately 28 000 visitors to the site in the comparison period, so the base is reasonably large.
