Google Chrome is the most used browser on virtually all platforms on which it is available, and while going through the data I found something quite surprising that is not directly related to this report, but I find it interesting and therefore I will share it with you. As you know, I often turn to StarCounter for information on market shares of browsers, search engines and so on. Just an hour ago, when I was talking about the European regulators’ decision on Bing and iMessage, I used their data to illustrate an example of the meaning of a DMA application.

Checking Google Chrome’s market shares, I found the January data to be reflective virtually identical percentages on desktop and smartphone at 64.84% and 64.74% respectively., only a decimal difference, although we see significant differences in the rest of both tables. So it seems that the Chrome user is on PC as well as on mobile devices, which is explained by the features of the Google ecosystem that are integrated into the browser.

There are several reasons, we have already reflected on why on other occasions Google managed to become the absolute leader in this market. Of course, the advantage in its favor is a large presence in other areas (search for information on the Internet, e-mail, online storage, etc.), but it is also undeniable that the company tries to keep its browser up to date and provide it with new functions, improvements to existing ones and ensuring their safety.

New flag in Chrome Canary for Android to open PDF files inline (doesn’t seem to work yet): https://t.co/5gzPoEkVEQ pic.twitter.com/y4YFVReEU0

— Leopeva64 (@Leopeva64) February 13, 2024

So today we find ourselves at MSPowerUser with some interesting progress and that’s it Google is testing direct viewing of PDF files in Chrome for Android without having to download them first. At the moment, the flag can be found in the Canary version of the browser, although at the moment this feature is not yet available, even if the flag is enabled in the browser settings.

Although this feature has been available in Firefox for Android for some time now, it seems that it was Microsoft Edge’s advances in this regard that made Google want to implement this feature in the Android version of its browser. Be that as it may, and given that managing files on a smartphone is not as convenient as on a desktop. Since It is not currently active on the Canary Channel eitherwe will have to wait a little while before it reaches all users.