So, I’ve used Google Chrome for an entire week now.

It’s nice. It’s clean, simple and fast. The UI is unobtrusive. It blends seamlessly into the look and feel of Google Applications (Reader, Mail, Calendar, Docs, Spreadsheets, Groups) but as a browser, it felt a little wrong. Things weren’t quite right. No home button unless I turn it on? Search in the address bar, powerful, but a bit of a mind twist to remember that’s how it works. No firefox style URL keywords. Bookmarks very marginalised (have to turn on the “bit horrible” bookmarks bar to get at them).

Then I read this:

Now along comes Google, carrying two nuclear missiles: Android and Chrome. Both are immediate problems for Microsoft. Let me be absolutely clear: Chrome is not a Web browser, it’s an application runtime. Chrome is really Google Gears with a browser facade. Sure, Chrome is based on Webkit and has browser legacy, but the product’s core capabilities—and Google’s objectives for them—is running Web applications. Chrome is a development platform, but in the cloud instead of on the PC. Way I see it, Chrome is the Google OS.

Which really put it into context for me. Google Chrome’s Application Shortcuts feature is great. Gmail runs really nicely in Chrome with that shortcut option. But as a day to day browser? It just doesn’t work for me.

It’s not just the lack of adblock. Or just the lack of del.icio.us integration. Or the lack of a home button by default. A separate search. Greasemonkey. Cookiesafe. NoScript. Developer Toolbar. Firebug. It’s the fact it’s streamlined for a purpose other than surfing.

It is a web based operating system.

Perhaps to move it to be more a browser, will make it fail as a web based operating system. But, to keep it as a web based operating system might fail it as a browser. Only time will tell.

But for now I at least return to Firefox, hoping some of the Chrome innovations will come to Firefox soon.

Popularity: 40% [?]

There’s a lot of discussion around the web, including here on my blog, about whether Google are targetting IE or Firefox with their Chrome browser. As I mentioned originally, I think the market is not 100% of browser use. It’s a subset of that where people are interested in switching. I think that subset is small. But if you are reading this blog, you are almost certainly in that subset. You are interested in development or browsers. That puts you in the market. Those who aren’t interested are much less likely to be in the market for a new browser.

But, as Sandeep says, Google do have the muscle to strike deals with OEM manufacturers to ship Chrome by default on the desktop of new windows machines. It will be hard, as the OEM manufacturers have good deals with Microsoft to provide Windows on the desktop, good leverage for Microsoft to stop them entering into a Chrome by default deal for windows.

But what about the OEM Linux machine market? Or the Linux distro default? How easily could that be switched to Chrome from whatever browser these systems ship with? Pretty easily I guess, what with the  Open Source chops. But, that doesn’t matter as using Linux almost certainly puts you in the browser market anyway. And you’ll probably use Chrome at least once, when it’s available.

On Monday, I expected Chrome to be massively discussed, eagerly tried, and thrown asside. On Tuesday I’d tried Chrome and decided it was worth trying to live with for a few days (read a week) to see what it was really like. And from my traffic logs I can see that this is happening with many people. People are trying to live with Chrome.

Those who are trying to live with it are nearly all people who use other browsers, or have tried to and switched back to IE. I don’t see any evidence of people “not in the market” trying Chrome.

Web traffic graph for this site, showing the majority is Safari.

My web log statistics show a swing, in the last week over 50% of my traffic comes from “Safari”, which I’m pretty sure must be Chrome.

And the reason for this swing? Most of the new traffic is coming in from Google Search. And what are people searching for? adblock for chrome. Or a variation upon that. Or Google Chrome XUL. People (who use a browser with adblocking) are finding many times over how awful the internet is when the adverts are back. The big animated flash movies in the sidebar, twittering away in the corner of your eye when you try and read an article. Hell, on CNET, one of the adverts “popped” out of it’s frame to show a bigger flash movie when I accidentally moused over it, obscuring the text I was reading and making me angry.

Without adblock. Chrome will die. In our big numbers we’re hunting for an adblock approach.

Thankfully, for Chrome on Windows there is a simple solution. I used to use this before I switched to firefox+adblock. It works across all browsers. Use the Windows HOSTS file to resolve the DNS of advert providers to your local IP address. You’ll get broken images and flash movie icons. But it’s better than the current state of ad-plagued Chrome browsing.

You don’t even need to manage your own black list. There are several available. I use MVPS’ hosts file, which can be found here. And magically, all is peaceful again in the browser.

Popularity: 100% [?]