Chrome US downloads hit two million mark

It appears nearly two million people in the US downloaded Google's new Chrome web browser in its first week of availability, Nielsen Online said Wednesday.

Nielsen, which bases its statistics on the behaviour of a panel of internet users, said that from 1 September to 7 September, 1.93 million people visited the Google "Thank You" page associated with the download process.

That's nearly 1.4 per cent of all US internet users, Nielsen said. That may sound small but it's a pretty good response for a beta version of a product that most people don't need, since so far, it only refines the familiar activity of using the web.

Of course, getting people to try Chrome is easier than getting them to switch but Google appears determined to push the open-source browser as hard as possible. On Tuesday, the company began a programme to let people get the latest Chrome updates.

The buzz followed on the heels of the launch, according to Nielsen's measurement of Chrome mentions on blogs, discussion boards, and other online forums.

Jon Stewart, research director of technology and search at Nielsen Online: "The interest in all things Google was apparent in the online discussion surrounding the somewhat-unexpected Chrome launch. The browser was mentioned in nearly one per cent of all online discussions the day after its launch - a respectable slightly-more-than-half of what the highly anticipated iPhone 3G generated when it launched earlier this summer."

Original article: Study: Chrome reached nearly 2 million in U.S. from CNET News.com