Conference for Information Systems Applied Research 2011 CONISAR Proceedings Wilmington North Carolina, USA v4 n1838 _________________________________________________ Why are People Using Google's Chrome Browser? J. Ken Corley [email protected] D. Scott Hunsinger [email protected] Department of Computer Information Systems Appalachian State University Boone, NC 28608, USA Abstract Google’s Chrome browser has quickly become the third most popular web browser worldwide following its initial public launch on September 9, 2008. To date, no known study has examined the factors influencing an individual’s decision to use the Chrome browser. This study employed two research methodologies for this purpose. First, a group of twelve individuals were interviewed and allowed to elaborate on factors that influence their decision to use specific Internet Browsers. Second, the interview responses and Ajzen’s recommendations for the Theory of Planned Behavior were used to guide the construction of a survey instrument. This survey was designed to measure factors influencing an individual’s decision to use Google’s Chrome browser including Attitude, Perceived Behavioral Control, and Subjective Norm. Given recent studies noting the significant influence of emotion on individual behavior, the construct ‘Affect’ was also included in the survey. The results of data analysis suggest Attitude, Perceived Behavioral Control, and Affect significantly influence a user’s decision or intention to use the Chrome browser. Contrary to the research literature related to the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study suggests Subjective Norm does not have a significant influence on an individual’s intention to use Google’s Chrome browser. Implications are discussed. Keywords: Google Chrome, Theory of Planned Behavior, Behavioral Intention, Affect 1. INTRODUCTION increases the pressure on technology firms to (a) reduce to cycle time required to design, Albert Bandura (1997, p. vii) notes “The develop, and introduce new products, and (b) societies of today are undergoing extraordinary anticipate which technologies should be informational, social, and technological developed meet the immediate needs of the transformations. Wrenching social changes are general public. To ensure success it is important not new over the course of history, but what is to understand the factors that influence an new is their magnitude and accelerated pace.” individual’s decision to use a particular This is especially true in today’s information age. technology. The speed at which new technologies are One example of this phenomenon is Google’s introduced, accepted, and widely adopted on a Chrome browser. Following its initial public global scale is increasing exponentially. This launch in September of 2008, Google’s Chrome _________________________________________________ ©2011 EDSIG (Education Special Interest Group of the AITP) Page 1 www.aitp-edsig.org Conference for Information Systems Applied Research 2011 CONISAR Proceedings Wilmington North Carolina, USA v4 n1838 _________________________________________________ browser has quickly become the third most was developed as part of Google’s web popular web browser worldwide application platform. This is what made the (StatCounter.com). Approximately two years Chrome browser unique. Google’s engineers before Google Chrome was publically launched, were often crashing traditional browsers while developers at Google noted popular browsers working on web applications such as Gmail and often crashed while running web based YouTube. To overcome these problems, the applications. These developers anticipated the development of a browser application for need for a web browser capable of providing a internal use began approximately two years stable environment for running web applications. before it was released to the public (Green, While this anticipated need led to the 2008). development and release of a highly successful product, it does not explain the factors Google’s goal in the development and release of influencing an individual user to choose Google’s the Chrome browser was “to change the nature Chrome browser. of Internet browsing and the way we use computers” (Green, 2008). This follows Google’s To date, no known study has examined the overall “Cloud Computing” initiatives with the factors influencing individual users to choose ultimate goal of moving computing from the Chrome over other popular web browsers. The desktop toward data centers ("Chrome Wars," purpose of this research study is to use both 2009). Google offers their Chrome browser to qualitative and quantitative methods to the public free of charge on an open-source investigate the factors influencing individuals to development platform utilizing Apple’s Web Kit use Google Chrome. and some of the best parts of Mozilla’s Firefox and other browsers (Perry, 2008). This paper is organized into several sections, beginning with the Literature Review section, Features of Chrome which provides background information about Google Chrome and competing browsers. This One of the best features of the Google Chrome section also includes the theory behind our browser is security. Chrome includes the use of paper, followed by the Hypotheses. The next sandboxing to limit the amount of damage section is Methodology, which describes our caused by malicious software, automation of approach in collecting both interview and survey browser updates, and a variety of technical data for this study. In the findings section, we strategies for protecting against malware (Reis, provide the results from our correlation and Barth, & Pizano, 2009). Chrome received much hierarchical regression analyses. We provide the praise and publicity from experts for implications of our findings in the Discussion incorporating security into the core underlying section, which is followed by the Conclusion development (Ashford, 2008a, 2008b; "Google section. Chrome -- an essential guide," 2008; Reis, et al., 2009). However, recent reports have 2. LITERATURE REVIEW pointed out security vulnerabilities in Google Chrome (Brinkmann, 2011) and its operating Google Releases the Chrome Browser system extensions (Finkle, 2011). Google introduced an Internet browsing platform Other advantages of the Chrome browser named Chrome on September 9, 2008 (Perry, include speed and improved user interaction. 2008). The initial launch, included 43 languages Chrome was developed with a focus on running and 122 countries (Green, 2008), which is quite web applications and supporting cloud an extensive launch for a completely new computing. This resulted in a faster and more browser. Many experts reported the Chrome stable browsing experience (Ashford, 2008b; browser to be the most significant change since Reid, 2008; Schenker, 2008). Chrome also Microsoft launched Internet Explorer (IE) to offers a streamlined user interface with less tool compete with Netscape (Rapoza, 2008). bars, menus, and includes multipurpose areas for entering both web addresses and search Google’s Overall Goal in Launching the terms. This increases the amount of real estate Google Chrome Browser on the screen dedicated to viewing web sites on the Internet (Gibbs, 2008; "Google Chrome -- In contrast to traditional browsers designed for an essential guide," 2008; Gray, 2009; Reid, simply viewing web pages, the Chrome browser 2008). Google Chrome is also the first browser _________________________________________________ ©2011 EDSIG (Education Special Interest Group of the AITP) Page 2 www.aitp-edsig.org Conference for Information Systems Applied Research 2011 CONISAR Proceedings Wilmington North Carolina, USA v4 n1838 _________________________________________________ capable of language translation without requiring with 3.38% of the market following Mozilla plug-ins or extensions (“Google Chrome Firefox (31.28%) and Microsoft IE (58.69%). In Features”, 2011). the United States, Google Chrome surpassed Publicity, Marketing, and Advertising Safari and Opera becoming the third most popular web browser in November of 2010 with The launch of the Chrome Browser included 10.89% of the market following Mozilla Firefox another initiation for Google – television (26.75%) and Microsoft IE (50.24%). advertisements. A series of promotional videos for the Chrome browser were created in-house According to StatCounter.com the most recent by Google in Japan. These promotional videos data available from June 2011 indicates Google’s became extremely popular after they were made Chrome browser is still the third most popular available on YouTube, and given the popularity browser in the United States (16.04%) and of the videos, Google decided to promote the worldwide (20.65%). Chrome browser with 30-second television ads (Morrissey, 2009). Google’s television promotion Figure 2: Percent Usage of Top 5 Browsers continued in 2011 with a campaign created with in the United States the ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (Cain Miller, 2011). However, this campaign focused on the overall mission of Google with more subtle 80 references to the Chrome Browser. 60 IE Browser Market Share 40 Firefox Google’s overall goal is to push the market 20 Safari leaders to adopt and support web based applications and cloud computing initiatives 0 Chrome ("Chrome Wars," 2009; Claburn, 2010; "Google Opera Chrome OS to Boot PC Within 7 Seconds," 2009; Green, 2008). The popularity and general 2008-07 2008-11 2009-03 2009-07 2009-11 2010-03 2010-07 2010-11 2011-03 acceptance of each application Google