
How Can Google Chrome Become More Popular? - aj
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/06/29/google-chrome-more-popular/
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pmichaud
The articles actually makes a great, albeit obvious point: despite the geeky
caterwauling for Chrome to have a robust add-on ecosystem, addons are not only
uninteresting, but unknown to the internet population at large. Chrome needs
to be easy, fast, and above all, installed by default, to make significant
inroads against IE.

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trickjarrett
It doesn't need to be installed by default. If Google made the insane decision
of requiring it to be able to search Google, then they would get a huge amount
of converts, but that decision would also be classified as clinically insane.

The real secret to them winning is going the route of Firefox and playing the
long game. Get it working on as many platforms as possible and then begin
evangelizing the shit out of it.

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ErrantX
Plus of course Google were seriously involved in Firefox till recently. A lot
of the lessons learned by Mozilla wont just be passively taken onboard by
Google: devs / managers there probably saw some of it first hand.

I suspect your right and this will be their approach; they have a killer base
engine and a decent browser (in an amazingly short time if you really think it
through).

I suspect Google have figured that the Browser could well be a very important
tool for the next generation of the web. At least if they have a working
product they can instanlty compete in such a market - and with Wave coming in
and Gears proving pretty popular it will be good to have a browser they can
control. Right?

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trickjarrett
I posted on my blog a few months ago after the news of Google Chrome that I
expected Facebook to follow suit and release a browser as it is becoming a key
tool in the platform wars.

The Google team sponsored and helped develop for Firefox, and I'm sure some
Google employees still do develop for it, however the creation of Chrome is a
clear sign that the honeymoon is over and it's time for Google to internalize
it.

Google's strategy has been support other people's projects until they prove
themselves, then either acquire or create their own.

It sounds ludicrous to suggest, but consider what would happen if IE, in IE 9
decided to block Google. Oh sure there would be an outcry from the
technologically savvy, but what about our non-computer literate friends. What
would they do? How many of them would actually install FF or Chrome rather
than just try Bing and find that 'hey, it is almost as good as Google.' It's
crazy, like my suggestion in my first comment, but it's a fact that one day
they're going to stop playing nice and platform companies are going to begin
trying to build the walls to their advantage.

