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Google recently went away from its perpetual beta convention by finally bringing Chrome out into the real world. Google's notorious beta label on their products is a great umbrella cover for them to receive forgiveness when things go awry.

Unfortunately, the same practice can be a major problem when looking to gain serious market share.

OEMs won't touch you with a 10-foot pole if your product is still in beta. And once OEMs preinstall any product, its market share is exponentially upped.

Consider IE 8 ' it is currently not bundled with any version of Windows.

The only way to get it is by download, so market share is sure to drastically change once Windows 7 is ready for consumers. A quick look at some numbers online reveals that in this sort of level playing field, Chrome is doing better than IE 8 in terms of market share. (Though to be fair we must consider that IE8 is still in beta.) The battle which will now ensue to become the next browser of choice will definitely be interesting. Coming to the question of whether Chrome will be adopted by the masses, it all depends on user preference.

Users tend to get pretty attached to the little niche utilities that each browser has. The noticeable lack of add-on support in Chrome is one of the many items people who haven't made the switch typically cited. But regardless of how ready the browser is in the nonbeta avatar, this latest move puts them in a good position to take advantage of OEMs. Having Chrome pre-installed on machines will quickly boost its usage stats.

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