Google Removes Chrome Download Link from the Homepage
by
on September 10, 2008,
I rarely go to Google’s homepage myself (mainly using search bars) but when I went there to see a special logo they have today for Large Hadron Collider start-up day I noticed something unusual in addition to the new logo - and that unusual thing was absence of the Chrome download link that Google placed on the homepage to get more people using Chrome from its most powerful resource - search page.
My guess is that the team has realized that the browser is not ready for such a large-scale and very public testing at this early stage. Chances are they thought it was more ready for launch initially but frequent reports of crashes of the browser and persistent attempts by users to crash it deliberately made the team change their minds.
I believe the main reason for the problem is that after 4 years of Gmail in beta we have come to expect way too much when we are offered a beta product by Google. And probably this is what has happened to Chrome - everyone thought it was almost ready when apparently it was not.
So now that Google has realized this fact they have decided to remove the download link from the homepage and this will definitely limit the userbase for the new browser to a group of geeks that will probably keep using Chrome and helping improve it from iteration to iteration (by the way, Chrome is still available for download from its official site).
There has been no official announcement about the decision to remove the doanload link on the official Google blog yet (or maybe they did not want to attract undesirable attention to it) but I’ll update this post with official commentary if it is posted.
I personally thought advertising Chrome right there on Google’s homepage and pushing it to millions of users was way too early and it is good to see Google reconsidering this decision. After all, the product should be promoted this heavily only when it is ready for the mainstream market - which Chrome evidently is not.
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Svetlana Gladkova
Opensource 
Michael Fidler 
I don’t think this is related to bugs with the software.. otherwise the official page would not still have the download. They probably intended on only leaving the link on the homepage for a short period.
Seems ready enough for me — and perhaps much more ready than any other early Google product I have tried.
I would not be so sure. Google has already corrected a few mistakes with Chrome (remember the EULA) so maybe they realized Chrome was not ready for the front stage performance yet?
@Brian: Hm, surprising opinion, I really think it is not ready for the mainstream attention to me. Any other opinions on removing the download link from the homepage?
I think you’re thinking too much into this. I’ve never seen Google put anything else than the search box and other necessary boxes and links on the home page for too long.
You’re gathering a lot of anti-Chrome feelings I think. It really doesn’t have that much bugs as you’re making it sound. Even IE and Firefox have almost the same amount of , if not more, bugs.
I like this blog a lot, but these recent biased articles aren’t giving a good impression.
@Imran Hussain: This post is not intended to say Chrome is a bad browser, it was just meant to say that it is far from ready for mainstream attention - it is simply too early and Google should wait for a stable version to promote it like this.
As for my biased recent articles, it is not actually bias, it is my own opinion. What’s more, I am writing this comment in Chrome (I use it for a few tasks - Google’s products like Gmail and GReader and Wordpress where it is wonderful) and have Firefox open for all my reading, research and networking tasks. And I’m afraid I can’t even tell when was the last time I opened IE at all. I am not biased because I am a fan of any of the products, I simply tell what I think of the browser myself.
I don’t think this is biased at all, Imran. Facts are stated. “Google Removes Chrome Download Link From The Homepage” could quite easily have been “Google Admits Defeat And Moves Buggy Chrome Browser’s Download Link From Homepage In Shameful Attempt To Cover Tracks Over Premature Large-scale Release Of Unprepared IE-8 Copycat Browser”.
But no.
- D
I agree with that, but my point wasn’t just narrowed down to this post alone. The ‘10 myths about Chrome’ if read before this, just gives a different feeling.
I myself use both Firefox and Chrome, and not IE 8 Beta 2, but only because it’s very slow at opening new tabs for me and the rendering is slower than other browsers.
If the Chrome comic is read carefully, they have made it clear that Google has taken inspiration from the best features of other browsers and wish that others follow spade and use Chrome’s best features. But, the whole idea of Chrome copying a browser that was just released into Beta 2 a few weeks earlier sounds absurd. As, anyone would know, creating a browser isn’t a one week game. It takes ages.
To me, it’s just unfair that people blast Google over trying to do something good for the end users.
@David: Definitely could not say it better myself, thanks for your support
@Imran: I guess I have already explained in the “10 Myths” post you refer to my position - I basically wanted to show that Google did not invent all the much-hyped features of Chrome (as many in the blogosphere tried to make it sound). I am not biased, I am trying to be objective instead. But it is difficult to be objective when your opinion differs from the commonly shared one.
Maybe they’ll put it up again in the future after fixing the issues. Or maybe they already gain enough traction and the ball can roll on its own (or through other channels, not on their elite homepage)
@Son: That’s exactly what I expect to see and that’s exactly the reason for the post. I believe the browser is not exactly ready for the prime time but once the version is stable it will be strange not to use their strongest asset - search homepage.
In Chrome’s short life there have already been 4 critical security vulnerabilites discovered. There are bound to be lots more. I’m talking about code execution people. You don’t want some hacker in Russia running arbitrary code on your machine. If you think that you are safe from these kind of attacks because you don’t go to dangerous websites you need to go to wikipedia and read up on a little thing called “cross-site scripting”.
Google did the right thing by pulling the download link. They were implicitly telling naive users that Chrome was ready to use as your full time browser. It’s not.
@Jamie: Thanks for support, that’s exactly what I am talking about here - seeing the download link many not-all-that-geeky users could decide it was safe to download and use the new browser, especially knowing how many of us tend to rely on everything that comes from Google and trust the company. And security vulnerabilities - while understandable for such an early product - should not be pushed into mainstream user under any conditions.
I’ve been using chrome and really like the approach..a few minor things but that’s to be expected. It’s certainly much farther along than IE8 which just keeps crashing.
I find it amusing that MS heads are accusing Google of “Stealing” when that’s the entire business plan of Microsoft through the years. BTW guys IE8 is a poor copy of Firefox.
Chrome is built on the same engine as Safari and both are DRAMATICALLY faster than IE or Firefox. They both have similar issues with certain pages (likely those designed FOR IE) but overall are better.
@Ray F: I am no MS head myself and I have not seen MS accusing Google of stealing anything - it will be great if you could send me a link to such accusations.
And while Chrome is faster and I like the approach myself, I would not name security vulnerability to be a minor thing, honestly (take a look at Jamie’s comment above).
i too noticed removal from the home page. kind of disturbing after such a media blitz. i love chrome. too bad it’ll never catch up to microsoft IE without it on the front page. i think the guys at mozilla were rattled by their agreement into 2011. just a theory.
@incognito: The thing is that to catch up with IE, Chrome also needs to be absolutely ready both in terms of functionality and safety. Good for Google they have realized it was not ready for this type of promotion early enough not to receive tons of complains from users. I bet the link will be back there again once the product is actually ready for the mass use.