Google Chrome now holds 1/3 of the entire browser market, extends lead over IE

Jake Smith

Google’s Chrome has been on quite the tear lately after it took over as the world’s top browser for a short bit in May and all of June. Well it looks like Chrome has hit another noteworthy accomplishment, according to StatCounter. The browser out of Mountain View now holds one-third of the entire browser market—certainly something to be proud of. The accomplishment was hit in June, when Chrome took 33.8-percent share, including a 10.7-percent year-over-year growth. To compare, Internet Explorer sat at a competitive 32 percent share and Firefox sat at 23.7-percent during the same month. Surprisingly, Apple’s Safari only had a measly market share of 7.1-percent. [StatCounter via The Next Web]
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Chrome OS users might receive 100GB of Google Drive storage for free

Jake Smith

As first reported by Chrome Story, owners of newer Chromebooks and Chromeboxes might soon get their hands on more cloud storage…for free. According to references discovered in Chromium OS code, the storage increase will most likely come soon in the way of Google Drive Google currently makes 5 GB available free to users for storing files and documents.

According to the code reference “553 GDATA_WELCOME_TITLE_ALTERNATIVE: ‘Get 100 GB free with Google Drive’,” it sounds very likely that users will be able to receive 100 GB of cloud storage for free. That is definitely useful, especially considering most Chrome OS devices only have 16 GB of local storage. We will let you know when the 100 GB goes official.

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Google’s Chromebook displays land in Best Buy with free Chrome CDs/coasters for shoppers

Jordan Kahn

Google told us during its Google I/O keynote that it would bring Chromebooks to 100 Best Buy stores in the United States in the near future. Today, customers tipped TechCrunch that in-store displays for the Chromebooks finally started popping up in Best Buy retail locations. One interesting aspect of the displays is a rack of CDs loaded with the Chrome browser being offered to customers for free. However, we are not sure how many users this will actually convert. In a blog post on his Google+ account, the customer described the CDs and provided the screenshots above:

One thing I was most surprised about was the free +Google Chrome CDs. The CDs were in really cool plexi-glass cases held together by magnets. The Chrome Expert also gave us the cool idea of using the case as a picture frame after we were done using the CD. I think it is a great idea for Google to use their Chromebook’s placement in Best Buy stores to also spread the goodness about Chrome.

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iFixit tears down Google’s US-made Nexus Q media streamer

Jordan Kahn

The folks at iFixit recently took a look inside Google’s Nexus 7 tablet, and today they are ripping apart another new Nexus device: the Nexus Q media streaming, Apple TV competitor. We already told you all about Google’s reasoning behind manufacturing the device just 15 minutes away from its United States headquarters, but iFixit wanted to find out exactly what parts came from where.

There was nothing too shocking in the teardown, but iFixit was able to identify the origin of many components. As noted in the report, “it’s nearly impossible to have a truly American-made electronic device.” Here is what it found:

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StatCounter: Chrome now the world’s most popular browser, beating out Internet Explorer

Jake Smith

Google Chrome is considered by many to be the essential tool driving their daily work. All of us at 9to5 swear by it and that seems to be the status quo among most of our readers. Despite its popularity, Chrome has always been overshadowed by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which comes pre-installed on all Windows computers shipped. However, times are changing. According to StatCounter, Chrome passed Internet Explorer during the week of May 14 to May 20 to become the most popular browser in the world. It looks like the Chrome team will be celebrating today.

The Verge pointed out that Internet Explorer still has a commanding lead in the United States, with a 37 percent to 26 percent lead. So where is all the growth coming from? Other regions like South America, India, and Europe are starting to rank up even more Chrome downloads, where as countries like China, Japan, and South Korea are still being lead by Internet Explorer. Read more