Google is entering the browser wars.
But true to its “Don’t be evil” slogan, Google is not really waging a war. In fact, just last week Google announced that they would continue their support of Mozilla’s Firefox browser until at least 2011.
So why launch a new web browser?
Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.
What, more specifically, does Google think it can contribute?
Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.
On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff — the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.
In other words, Google’s browser will apparently focus on web applications, rather than on the comparatively “simple” matter of web browsing. This reflects a more general trend towards “Web 2.0/3.0″ and, to bring in another buzz word, “Cloud Computing.” In short: Google anticipates that more and more of your interaction with the computer will actually be interaction with the web. The software you use, the files you store, and the Operating System you run will increasingly be web-based, not hardware-based (Microsoft agrees, by the way). To put the matter even more succinctly, in 10 years Google expects that your web browser will be your OS. I suspect that their release of this new browser is intended to reflect this prophecy, while at the same time assisting Google (in its real war against Microsoft) to fulfill its own prediction. A self-fulfilling prophecy, in browser form.
Will it work? We will see (I personally would like to see a hybrid system—I hope the “cloud” will be grounded in open-source-supported home-hardware). In the meantime, it is encouraging to again reiterate: Google is still supporting Mozilla, and in addition to this continued Firefox support, which serves Google’s own interest (for the time being), they have committed to an open-source model for their own offering:
We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we’re committed to continuing on their path. We’ve used components from Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox, among others — and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward.
This is a good move (and the only legal one available to them, since Mozilla publishes Firefox ‘s code under an open-source license that requires open-source reciprocation).
So how can you get your hands on this technology?
Check in again tomorrow to try Google Chrome for yourself. We’ll post an update here as soon as it’s ready.
The only hurdle I can foresee here is the recent controversy Google has had over privacy issues (regarding ad-targetting in Gmail, the Viacom/YouTube controversy, and, of course, Google street-view concerns). But Google makes such good “products,” it’s hard not to trust them.
Read the whole story here.
Related posts:
I wrote on my blog this afternoon that the whole thing stinks of Google trying to “flush out” Microsoft. In fact, it seems like they feel the urge to do everything that Apple and Microsoft does.
I’m tired of it really. I wish they would just keep working with organizing the world’s information in order to put ads on it.
Google has had a hard time getting Google Gears working with IE (because IE 7 is not standards-compliant), and it needs Gears to work in order to compete. Firefox is nice, but Google’s control over that browser is indirect. It can control Chrome, with the hope that (at best) it will compete/replace Firefox, or (at worst) be integrated within Firefox’s code trunk. Either option is acceptable.
To put it in business-model terms: selling adds requires a product and/or service (gmail, google docs, google reader, etc.). Selling a (free) product/service requires standards compliance. And, of course, if it has to be done right, do it yourself.
It’s too bad Google isn’t running for president.
Ted Stevens wouldn’t allow it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_of_tubes
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