Google Chrome now most used browser
David Brancaccio: How much of your day is spent interacting with the world via the Internet? Increasingly that view is being shaped by Google. It’s not just a searching system. There’s word today that the most used Internet browser in the world is no longer Microsoft Explorer. It’s the one Google makes, called Chrome.
Danny Sullivan is a technology analyst and editor-in-chief of the blog Search Engine Land. Good morning.
Danny Sullivan: Thanks for having me.
Brancaccio: So why? How is it that Google Chrome is becoming more popular world wide than Explorer?
Sullivan: It’s been an incredible success story, really. Google has certainly been out there pushing Chrome. It’s one of the big TV ads that they had been doing for a long time; they never did any kind of advertising and then they did this sort of thing.
Brancaccio: But from the company’s perspective, it helps Google if you’re using their Chrome?
Sullivan: Oh yes, it’s a whole different story if you talk about why it matters to the companies. The reason Google got into releasing Chrome in the first place — unofficially — is that they were very paranoid that Internet Explorer, because it was run by Microsoft, might do things to prevent people from interacting well with Google’s services that they have online. You know, Google wants you to do email, they want you to do documents, they want you to do spreadsheets, all with their own products. And so if you’re having to use those products through a competitors browser, there’s a potential that the competitor could slow things down for you.
Brancaccio: So how many kinds of browsers do you have in your line of work?
Sullivan: I have four, maybe five — I’ve got Chrome, which I actually use as my primary browser. I have Firefox, Internet Explorer, Apple Safari…
Brancaccio: Man, we called the right guy. Danny Sullivan, technology analyst and editor-in-chief of the blog Search Engine Land. Thank you very much.
Sullivan: Thanks for having me.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of the headline has been corrected. Google Chrome is the most-used browser, not the most-used search engine.
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