Google Chrome browser and the future of the Internet/Web
Update for 02008 09 04: This story from Ars Technica describes how Google changed the licensing requirements retroactively for Google Chrome in response to criticisms that they could lead to potential abuse by the company. Here’s another story from Wired by tech writer Stephen Levy titled “Inside Chrome: The Secret Project to Crush IE and Remake the Web.”
Update for 02008 09 03: So far so good. No Google Chrome crashes. It’s pretty basic, as many others have commented, for a Web browser. Apparently it’s designed to work with Google’s own suite of Web apps. The acid test for Google Chrome and Google will be how it handles the open development model, especially in the area of Chrome extensions.
Update a little later on 02008 09 02: I see that Google’s released Google Chrome beta for downloading, so I’ve grabbed and installed it. Here’s a screenshot. I’ll be keen to follow the development of this browser as there are interesting features, including an “incognito mode”.Â
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Google Chrome Web browser
 I am puzzled by Google’s choice of words for its new Web browser: Chrome. Anyone who’s looked at the Mozilla Firefox directory structure will know what I’m talking about as the first directory under Mozilla Firefox is “chrome”. Google’s comicbook explanation of the Chrome browser shows that it’s a completely new application. I wonder if the choice of names was intentional since Google is Mozilla’s most important investor. As some observers are commenting, including Mozilla’s CEO John Lilly as quoted in this ZDNet Australia story, that Google’s open source browser may very well replace Firefox and reduce market share for Internet Explorer, though I don’t know how the latter’s even possible since most new PCs in North America come with Windows by default and Chrome only works under Windows at the moment. Maybe Google ought to look at investing in Apple, helping reduce the price of its computers, investing in OpenOffice, if it isn’t already, and then giving the world free Macs loaded with OpenOffice and Chrome that would give you sponsored advertising before you saw any search results. You could pay Google by annual subscription to eliminate the ads. Wouldn’t that be sweet?!
Source: DIG_REF mailing list, 02008 09 02
Google’s Chrome is aimed at Windows, not IE
This is no longer about browser but about the an entire marketplace spread between desktop, mobile and web. With Chrome, Google’s taking a shot at Windows, not paltry Internet Explorer
I’ve covered this in more detail on my blog
http://sachendra.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/googles-chrome-is-aimed-at-windows-not-ie/
Thanks for your comment Sachendra. I think what many online world predictors forget is that there are huge privacy and security issues around going completely online and that there are and will be applications that are simply not suited for complete online use such as financial management. Even if every offline Windows application were to suddenly be available as a Web-based one, is this really the best that we can expect in the long term? What about the cost of downloading those applications every time they need to be accessed? What if the majority of your time were spent in an offline rather an online environment? Remember, there have been predictions of the death of analog, but I still use and see lots of analog clocks around. Perhaps in a future such as I’m reading into your and other pundits’ views about Google Chrome, this will result in more Internet regulations, including an Internet impact assessment report, something I’m sure no one in the Internet industry today would welcome.
i’m willing to try it out just to see if it works more efficiently than FireFox… if it’s faster than Firefox and isn’t IE, then i’ll use it
David,
I understand the privacy and security concerns and I was the first one to bash up Google Docs. But Google Gears changes things dramatically, the data you work on will be local unless you choose to send it online. So cost of applications would be minimal (or zero if you allow ads) yet the experience will be that of desktop.
I wholeheartedly support regulations, it’s a must given the power these guys are going to enjoy
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