Chrome just keeps chugging: One in four desktop installations, now within spitting distance of Firefox

9to5 Staff

Chrome and Android, the two crucial weapons in Google’s assault on mobile and desktop, are showing no signs of stopping. We already reported today that Android passed iOS globally. When it comes to browsing the web, Google’s Chrome zoomed past the 25 percent mark for the first time this weekend, ConceivablyTech observed. More precisely, Chrome grabbed 25.02 percent share this past Sunday, per StatCounter Global Stats data.

The software has been growing rapidly, registering global market share of 18.29 percent in April, 19.36 percent in May 2011, 20.65 percent in June and 22.14 percent in July. Apple’s Safari grew marginally, adding just 0.02 percentage points to its 5.17 percent share in July. The latest StatCounter data, which may not be representative of the entire market, really spells trouble for Mozilla’s Firefox. Mozilla’s browser used to be the preferred alternative to Microsoft’s market-dominating Internet Explorer not that long time ago. How times change…

Firefox’s share is declining five times faster than Internet Explorer’s, indicating that Chrome is slowly but steadily chipping away at Firefox’s market position, which is now within spitting distance. Firefox scored a 27.49 share for the month of August versus 41.89 percent for Internet Explorer. The fact that only 14.5 percent of web users, or 54 percent of Firefox users, have upgraded to Firefox 6 is another indicative of shifting tides as Google gains significant ground in the web browsing space.

Google also benefits from the silent updating mechanism, a computer process that sits in the background to automatically keep your Chrome installation up to date, without any intervention on your part. Did the latest StatsCounter numbers surprise you? The writing has been on the wall for some time.

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Google partners with FedEx to offer Docs uploading within Print Online service

Jake Smith

Announced by the company in a blog post, Google is now partnering with FedEx to offer Google Docs uploading inside of Print Online. Print Online is FedEx’s service that allows users to upload documents to be printed at a local FedEx stores for pickup. But what happens when you write your documents inside of Google Docs, and not Pages or Word? With the companies new partnership, you will now be able to upload files directly into Print Online from the cloud.

Tuesday, Google also announced in a blog post that support for one click Cloud Print has been added — along with the ability to add page numbers. As you can see in the screenshot after the break, Cloud Print is easy — with just one click you can print to any printer (as long as its setup) from any device or OS. The Cloud Print feature is currently available only in documents and spreadsheets. Furthermore, the new page numbers feature is a must for those of us who use the MLA format on a daily basis. The ability to add page numbers is definitely a feature Docs has been lacking..

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Chrome turns three, Google posts interactive infographic of browser innovations

Jordan Kahn

While it might feel like yesterday in comparison to the other browsers, Chrome is celebrating its third birthday this month after having launched the Windows beta in September of 2008. In celebration, Google has posted an interactive HTML5 graphic charting innovations of Chrome that you can check out here.

They’ve also posted some of Chrome’s highlights over the years including innovations in prerendering technology, the Chrome Web Store, hardware accelerated 3D CSS, and the launch of the Chromebook.

Chrome has come a long way in just three short years, having released support for Mac and Linux a year in with its sixth release, and not long after moving to a six-week release cycle. Recent stats have Chrome steadily growing in market share and recently benchmarked as the fastest browser for real world use.
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Google believed to be launching Gdrive soon

9to5 Staff

If you believe the rumors, Google’s been working on a cloud-based drive for your computer since 2005. Code-named “Platypus” and also known as GDrive, it was supposed to arrive long ago, as I wrote over at TG Daily in January 2009. Today’s article by TechCrunch asserts that the search company may be close to launching Gdrive, based on code hooks discovered in Chrome that point to the drive.google.com URL:

Diving a bit deeper into the code reviews, what’s most striking is that drive.google.com doesn’t appear to be referenced anywhere besides this one exposed ticket. This suggests that it’s either no big deal, or that Google is keeping this very secret.

TechCrunch also reminds us of Steven Levy’s book “In The Plex” which describes how Google+ lead Bradley Horowitz “convinced Google’s top executives not to launch” Gdrive back in 2008 because he felt “the concept of a ‘file’ was outdated”.

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Samsung Chromebook receives slight price drop for two weeks

Jake Smith

Samsung’s Chromebooks are receiving a slight price drop today, as noted by TechCrunch. The Wi-Fi and 3G versions of the Chromebook originally both sold for $429 and $499 — respectively. Samsung’s new prices of the Chromebooks are now listed on Amazon as $399 for the Wi-Fi model and $449 for the 3G model. The price drop is a two week back-to-school promotional. You also might like to know that offline mode is coming soon. Get yours hands on it while you can!

Google signs up three schools for Chromebooks

9to5 Staff

Google’s put in motion an Apple-like plan calling for Chromebooks in education, traditionally a strong market for Apple’s Macintosh computers. The company announced on its official Enterprise blog back-to-school deals with three schools that will begin using Chromebooks when students return over the coming weeks. First up, the Fessenden School in West Newton, MA, an independent K-9 institution which will add two carts of Chromebooks that will also be available for use in the library.

Grace Lutheran School, a small private school in Oshkosh, central Wisconsin, will be sharing Chromebooks throughout the day in classrooms among 5th through 8th grade students. And finally, Merton Community School District, also in Wisconsin, will give 110 sixth graders Chromebooks to keep and use until they graduate from eighth grade. At $20 per user per month, users get a Chromebook, a web-based management console for IT and 24/7 support from Google. The company says it’s seeing “a lot of interest from K-12 institutions” from their Chromebook for Education initiative.

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