Chrome is everywhere! Facebook's statuses, Twitter, mailboxes .... On Hacker News, Reddit, Digg, Slashdot, TechCrunch ... even on BBC ... virtually everywhere on internet! It is the new browser by Google launched today and it has created an explosion of buzz. It is already default browser on most of my friends' PCs and am sure so it'll be on many other desktops around the globe. People are discussing its features, pros and cons and blogging about it. Even the not-so-technical people are talking about it.
Chrome has some great features. But unfortunately great features don't matter a lot in browsers for user adoption. After the IE vs Netscape browser war, many browsers tried to come into the market. But despite offering great features, nearly all of them failed to pass the barrier of IE's monoply made by shipping as the default browser with Windows. Firefox is the only exception; but its 30% market share does not justify the great features and user experience it provides. Clearly, Microsoft has (unfair) advantage which does not depend upon how good IE is, but rather how tightly it is coupled with the OS to enforce the users to use it. Due to this people are already skeptical about Chrome's success. User adoption is going to be tough!
However just like Microsoft, Google can also take such an advantage. With so many widely used products they can enforce users to switch to their browser. But because of "Don't be evil" motto, probably they won't. And they don't need to do that either. They have created enough buzz to spread their product virally. Within 24 hours of announcement, they are everywhere. They've taken a great start and if they are able to sustain it, they can penetrate very quickly.
I firmly believe in word of mouth marketing. Looking at the buzz they've created, I believe they'll be able to catch up with IE very soon. The next edition of Anatomy of Buzz might have a big case study on Chrome along with iPhone.
PS: This is the first time I've used a browser other than Firefox/Flock to update my blog :)
PPS: Chrome screwed the formatting. I had to do further editing using Firefox :D
