Why is this (browser preference over time)...?

So I’m a Firefox user - what am I missing that Chrome offers that is making it so popular? EDIT - the data looks wrong though…

There’s nothing wrong with Firefox, but the three things that made it decline (IMHO) were:

  • Fashion, i.e. Chrome was/is perceived as lighter/faster. Firefox went through a period of getting a bit bloaty and people dropped it.

  • Phones, i.e. Chrome for Android comes pre-installed on the most popular Android phones. Firefox mobile was bad for a long time.

  • Chromebooks, comes pre-installed. They are popular at schools etc as no maintenance laptops.

The success of Chrome is also related to how successful Google have been. If you use Google Search or Gmail you get told about Chrome, especially if you use IE.

I tried chrome when it came out because I had an extremely positive experience with Gmail, and I switched because

  • Tabs
  • Performance
  • Usability
    I’ve stayed for the reasons @fearlessfrog listed, as well as it’s ease of development.

I actually moved away from Chrome to Opera. They changed how the homepage worked and I just didn’t like that

Back in the days I was a Netscape user for mail, newsgroups and as a browser until Netscape ceased to exist.
Then Mozilla suite was released. It worked just like Netscape, so I used it.

Then that new browser from Mozilla was released. MUCH faster, much cooler. And the mail program was also better. I grudgingly (wanted all in one!) switched to Firefox and Thunderbird.
(fun fact: Never switched back to all in one, although there are some now)

When Opera 9 was released I used it for some time, liked the new stuff they put in and that it was really fast. Switched back when Firefox implemented all those features as well, and became as fast in most cases (that was around 2011 or 2012 I think).

Never used IE of course, because Microsoft.

Chrome… I am tempted to use it because reportedly it is really really fast. But then I somewhat dislike some things google as a company does, privacy stuff and so on. So I don’t use it.

I like the overall Google integration. Since my old company went to gmail and Chrome some 5 years ago, we moved from Outlook to it. I’m a fan of the contacts, bookmarks and shared calendars and proficient with Sheets and Sites. And now that we are Droid users, that all fits, too.

+1, that is the big thing for me too… everything is nicely integrated from my phone, to my puter and other devices. My work puter has all the same stuff nicely synced up as m home puter, etc etc. Besides all that, Chrome is a really decent browser, never had an issue with it.

On my project laptops, Firefox crashes on any page with flash, which is why I transitioned. My credit union’s “Scan Deposit” feature is also not Firefox compatible, which is weird, but another reason I use Chrome.

Work doesn’t allow Chrome to be installed, so I use Firefox there.