Eight years ago today, on September 2, 2008, Google Chrome was officially¹ introduced to the world.
The aim was simple: improve the web browsing experience and ‘help drive innovation on the web’ forward.
Eight years on and I reckon that it’s more than lived up to its mission statement.
Google Chrome is now the world’s most popular web browser, with a smidgen under 54% of the desktop browser market¹ — almost double the marketshare of its nearest rival, Internet Explorer on 28%.
‘Chrome is much more than ‘just’ another web browser.’
On mobile the browser has a similar market share.
On an occasion like this it’s important to remember that Chrome is much more than ‘just’ another web browser.
Through Chromium, the open-source framework underpinning the browser, Google has used Chrome to incubate and promote new and emerging web technologies, web features and web standards.
Today the browser is doubling down on efforts to go back to basics and to move the burden of many of the web technologies it’s championed out of its codebase and onto the wider web.
Google Chrome 8 years ago:
Google Chrome 8 years on:
