Average joe did not do research. Forget it.

- They found the internet had gotten a new icon and had no idea how it got there. (bundling with popular software)

- They were instructed by google.

That is how chrome came to top. See other comments for more context.

I mean, what would you expect?

The fact is, browsers aren't a product, they're a platform feature. Users have zero incentive to ever switch from whatever their OS came bundled with, unless you make a massive advertising push. The fact that Google managed to get people to switch to a non-platform browser at all is a shocking achievement.

Done by tricking people, and sneakily bundling itself with everything. Sleezey, scumbag achievement.

I agree that some of their tactics were questionable, but they were up against IE, and Microsoft's bundling of it.

Would you rather everyone still be using IE? Because that's exactly what would have happened otherwise.