September is almost upon us, and it will mark the first anniversary of Google's Chrome browser. The very first post I ever wrote on Chrome appeared on September 1st of last year, and I can remember the initial thoughts that came to mind when I considered its prospects: Won't it require extensions, like the great ones available for Firefox, to succeed? What kinds of resources will be available for customizing it? What it will mean in terms of the substantial financial support that Google gives to Mozilla Firefox? Will it be cross-platform?
Almost a year after the arrival of Chrome, it's doing reasonably well, although not shaking the Earth. Net Application's latest browser market share data shows Chrome at 2.6 percent of the market, and growing, not far behind Safari's share of 4.1 percent. I continue to believe, though, that an ecosystem of useful extensions, and good versions of Chrome for the Mac and Linux, are essential for its long-term success. On that last front, there is good news emerging.
