Thursday’s Google officially removed the beta label from Chrome. It’s very common for Google to keep the beta label intact for many of its products for years, but not Chrome.
Google is trying to lure Web surfers away from the leading browsers, Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer and the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox.
In the process, Google hopes Chrome makes it easier to gather insights about users’ preferences and extends the popularity of its online applications, which are supposed to run more smoothly and quickly in Chrome.
Since its Sept. 2 introduction, Chrome has attracted more than 10 million active users around the world, according to a Google blog posting that announced the browser’s upgrade.
Chrome still has a long way to catch up to Internet Explorer, which has about 70 percent of the market, depending on the differing estimates from various market researchers. Firefox held about 20 percent, while Apple Inc.’s Safari was third with less than 10 percent. Chrome has less than 1 percent.
Google said it decided to take Chrome out of beta because of improvements to the browser’s stability and security.
I’m not prepared to trust Chrome and less prepared to trust Google. They’ve already managed to get on my blacklist.
I like Chrome as it loads faster than the Fox and handles Java really well.