Chrome's market share stagnates

Google's Chrome browser is failing to gain new market share, according to online monitoring.

After its launch last month, the browser quickly jumped to one per cent which might not sound like much, but it's above both Opera and Apple's Safari. Two weeks in, it was at 0.85 per cent, but this week, it's slipped to 0.77 per cent, according to data from online market monitor Net Applications.

"The trend line on Chrome still has a slight downward angle, and these weekly numbers reflect that," said Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president of marketing at Net Applications.

The browser does still manage to hit the one per cent mark - at the same time most days, in the middle of the night in the US. Use of Chrome seems to drop off during working hours, echoing a pattern seen in Firefox. Both browsers likely suffer from the corporate reliance on Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

However, all the major PC-focused browsers have seen a slide in the past week. Internet Explorer slid 0.91 per cent to 71 per cent of the market, while Firefox slipped 0.13 per cent to hover just under 20 per cent. Safari has gained slightly, helped by the lack of competition, Vizzaccaro said. Chrome is not yet available on Macs.

He noted that a low-key marketing campaign could be holding Chrome back. "The only marketing effort I've seen from Google is in sponsored links on search results for browser' or browsers' search terms," Vizzaccaro said.

"On Google, Chrome is naturally the top sponsored link. On Yahoo, it was second. And on Windows Live, I couldn't even find it in the first five pages of organic results."