Comment by VancouverMan
1 year ago
Promoting Chrome may have gotten more people to install it and give it a try, but it didn't force those people to continue using Chrome. It didn't force them to keep using Chrome for years and years, in many cases.
Most people, including a great many former Firefox users, simply chose to keep on using Chrome because it offered (and still offers) a superior web browsing experience compared to its competitors.
This isn't specifically tied to the performance of Google's various web sites, either. Firefox still feels slow and bloated even on non-Google web sites. A lot of people who don't even use Google's web sites or services still choose to use Chrome anyway.
Many of Chrome's users could easily switch to Firefox at any time, yet they choose not to.
Firefox's developers simply haven't given people a compelling reason to start (or to switch back to) using Firefox.
> Promoting Chrome may have gotten more people to install it and give it a try, but it didn't force those people to continue using Chrome. It didn't force them to keep using Chrome for years and years, in many cases.
Isnt a huge reason Google just lost its anti trust case exactly this? Google search is the default on iphones and studies, and the court, found that that was enough to make a huge majority of users stay with google search for years and years.
We're discussing Chrome here, not Google's search offerings.
Aside from Google-produced products like Android and ChromeOS, I can't remember ever using a computer or device where Chrome was installed by default.
Even for the Android devices I've used, the earlier ones didn't come with Chrome. Recent Samsung phones I've used have also included Samsung's browser as an alternative.
It's conceivable that some Windows desktop or laptop vendors might have opted to install Chrome by default, but I've never seen that with any of the systems I've used. Even then, presumably IE and/or Edge would've still been installed, too.
Having dealt with a lot of Linux systems over the years, Firefox is actually the most pre-installed browser I've encountered.
I've almost always had to go out of my way to install Chrome any time I've wanted to use it.
Any sort of notice, recommendation, banner, or other ad I've seen on Google properties while using a non-Chrome browser has never resulted in Chrome automatically being installed on my systems.
I know my experience isn't unique.
People go out of their way to download and install Chrome. They go out of their way to continue using it, too.
A lot of people simply want to use Chrome, even if doing so requires some effort on their part.
Bundling IE may have gotten more people to give it a try, but it didn't force those people to continue using IE. It didn't force them to keep using IE for years and years, in many cases.
Most people, including a great many former Netscape users, simply chose to keep on using IE because it offered (and still offers) a superior web browsing experience compared to its competitors.
DEVO got America so right:
Freedom of choice
Is what you got
Freedom from choice
Is what you want