How do Google make money from Chrome?
Posted on November 20, 2009
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Just downloaded and tried out the Google Chrome web browser tonight to give it a whirl and it turns out I really like it. I especially like the omnibox which is basically an integrated address bar and search box. I’ve yet to use it enough to give a definitive view on it but I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far.
It did get me thinking though; how does google make money from it? It’s free to download and free to use, so why have google spent the time and money developing it?
In this article Google founder Larry Page makes the statement that “it’s about making the browser faster, since substantially greater usage translates directly into revenues.” Let’s think about that for a minute. He’s basically saying that the faster the browser, the more searches a user will undertake and the more searches a user undertakes, the more money Google make (presumably from advertising).
Another view is that Google are scared Microsoft will block its ads. This would be a major issue for Google as IE has around 65% of web surfers – we’re talking billions of dollars. But if this is the case, would they not have been better off acquiring Firefox rather than developing from scratch?
Perhaps though, Google just developed Chrome because they can?
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