Google recently unveiled its open source browser christened ‘Google Chrome’. According to a post on Google’s official blog the reason behind launching Google Chrome is, “We believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.”
As always, a lot of huff and puff surrounded the launch and I think such scenarios are now becoming synonymous with Google’s every move. It is being viewed by many as a direct attack on Microsoft and its recently launched IE 8, which is available in Beta version.
Some of them have even gone to the extent of naming ‘Google Chrome’ as the ‘exterminator’. As search engine industry giants make inroads into the technology industry, this was all but certain.
Browsers are our gateway to the World Wide Web and I believe that a little more competition in this arena won’t hurt. Whether or not it would sound the death bell for internet explorer, or for that matter Firefox is a thing we will have to wait to know. But if we were to go with the precedence set by Google, we would definitely see the balance tilting in Google’ favor. Open sourcing the browser is a smart move on Google’s part as it will help it fend off accusations of trying to create a monopoly. Google already controls a major chunk of the search marketing industry and having a browser (which is not open source) will be perceived as having a little too much than what is required. It would give critics and industry rivals enough ammunition to attack Google, something Google would certainly try to avoid.
Rumors are abuzz that ‘Mozilla Firefox Prism’ will be a step ahead of what ‘Google Chrome’ has to offer. Prism is a XULRunner based browser, and this makes it very different from the normal browsers. It is more or less based on a concept called ’site specific browsers’. So be ready for some more fireworks and heated action. Ensuring that the website is compatible with all the top browsers, is however going to a big headache for webmasters. So download your copy of the exterminator today and see your website do the Google dance!
First of all, I’m running Linux, so haven’t been able to test Chrome out yet. Wait and see for me.
But then again, there’s two problems at the moment.
* Google abuses the term “beta” so it can hide behind it if something goes wrong. (e.g. “Blame the users”)
* You can only invent so many new technologies people have to change their browsing habits for.
The blog post you link to mentions Moz Prism. I’m a big fan of the Prism, I especially want to see what it will give on embedded devices such as the Nokia Internet Tablet (n800, n810, etc). Google already tried to change the world once with Google Gears, and that didn’t work out so well. A few years after the launch, and I still haven’t seen a single website I wanted to visit from my own initiative that told me I needed to support GGears.
Though the move of launching a new browser is a smart one. There’s one thing everyone is a fanboy about, and that is the browser. Be it Opera, Firefox, IE, Safari, everyone loves their browser, no matter how poor it is, or good, it actually is. Obviously, seeing the free publicity Google got with this launch, Chrome is going to catch on. Like I said at the beginning, I haven’t been able to try it out, but I would love to, and I think everyone thinks that way. “Oooh, Google made it, it must be good”.
Yeah. Right. But there’s good, and good. And yes, it didn’t hold out until midnight. And I believe Google may be on the brink of burning itself a few times. Creating a browser isn’t an easy thing to do. There are so many security aspects that have to be taken care of, and well, let’s face it, Mozilla has been doing it for quite a while, Microsoft has been doing it for a while, and so, and so forth.
I really hope this is going to shake the world of browsers, it’s never a bad thing. But I wonder if this whole buzz around it really is anything good.
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