Chrome OS use: 0.2% of North American web traffic, says Chitika

Google’s Chrome OS platform has seen quite an uptick in use. According to Chitika, the platform has doubled its web traffic from five months ago. With so many new Chrome OS device coming to market lately, that’s not a surprise. What remains troubling is the overall web traffic share Chrome OS holds.

At 0.2% of overall traffic in Chitika’s study, Chrome OS certainly has a long way to go. Chitika analyzed ad impressions from September 1, 2013 to January 31, 2014. In that time, billions of hits were registered, giving chitika a foundation for which platform was responsible for traffic.

Chitika’s studies use the most important metric for gauging success, and that’s use. Chromebooks may be one of the top sellers on Amazon, but at 0.2% of traffic in a widespread stud like this one, where are the users? GigaOM’s Kevin Toffel counters these numbers by noting their site traffic metrics are about double what Chitika reports, but theirs is a site likely visited by more tech observers than anything, many of whom are probably Chrome OS enthusiasts. It’s a niche statistic to a larger problem, which still doesn’t get to the heart of the matter.

Selling like wildfire, but accounting for one-fifth of one percent when it comes to overall traffic. What is really happening with Chrome OS? It seems the platform is firing on all pistons, save for the most important one. We’d still like to know where all the users have gone when it comes to Chrome’s desktop solutions.