back in the early days I remember people switching over to it because it had a built-in Flash plugin. In more recent years, I've seen people installing it because they were sick of the pop-ups advertising it on Google sites, or they just assumed that it worked better with Google products because Google made it. Having learned that Google kind of made things that way, I'm not surprised.

Gmail was bait to lure millions into the Googleverse, where they usually don't leave.

Personally I'm kind of happy to see Microsoft Edge gaining some marketshare at Chrome's expense. (even if it's mostly just Chrome)