Management
Technology
- Applications
- Business Intelligence
- Development
- Hardware
- Mobile & Wireless
- Networking
- Internet
- Operating Systems
- Security Products
- Servers & Datacentre
- Storage
Toolbox
Training
Books
White Papers
Webcast
Resource Centre
Chrome: Google's Anti-Browser
September 02, 2008
Posted by: Glyn Moody
The most surprising thing about Google's new Chrome browser is that it's taken so long for it to appear. After all, the browser has been central to practically everything that Google does, so it would be foolish to allow others to control it.
Google's relationship with Firefox may be good, and their intentions reasonably closely aligned, but it's no substitute for controlling your own destiny.
Since the reason for holding off from releasing a home-grown browser certainly wasn't technical, I suspect the main motive was political. If Google had come out with a browser five years ago, Microsoft would have squawked – with some justice – about unfair advantages and bundling. Today, with Firefox holding around 20% of the browser market, Google can claim with a certain plausibility that its Chrome will be a minor player in comparison.
Aside from taking back control, it's fairly clear what Google is trying to achieve with Chrome. In fact, the Google blog announcement was quite frank:
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 a sense, Chrome is not a browser, it's an anti-browser. It's mission is to destroy the concept of the browser, and become a frame for other applications – or, more pointedly, a kind of "chrome" window. In other words, Chrome is the long-awaited Google OS, a way of running Web-based applications like Gmail, Google Docs and the rest (the inclusion of Google Gears, which allows such apps to be used offline, is a big clue here). That Chrome's default function is as a browser is almost a historical accident.
That's why I don't think Chrome is a threat to Firefox, at least not in the short term. Even if Chrome takes off and becomes as reflexive as Googling, I expect many people will stick with Firefox as their browser. There are lots of reasons why they should – for example, the fact that Firefox aims to optimise the browsing experience, not to function as a pseudo-operating system layer.
In addition, the huge number of really great browser extensions now available means that giving up Firefox will be painful for many who have come to depend on one or other of them: even assuming Chrome develops as rich an ecosystem, it will be some time before it matches Firefox in this respect (the old momentum problem, which has also been a significant brake on Firefox uptake by Internet Explorer users who want to keep familiar ActiveX controls.)
Just as important is the developer side of the equation. Firefox extensions are written by a band of dedicated coders who have grown to know and to like Firefox: I don't think many of them will jump ship to Chrome just because it's Google. On the contrary, Firefox is widely supported precisely because it doesn't come from a big company; Chrome is bound to be viewed with a certain suspicion in the free software world, giving Firefox an edge in terms of developer loyalty.
Google also seems to have been careful to flag up its non-hostile intent by agreeing to a three-year extension of the deal with Mozilla that provides the latter with most of its income. If it really wanted to weaken Firefox, it could have chosen to keep it going for only one year, or not to have renewed it.
The real loser, of course, is Microsoft. Even though it has responded in part to Firefox by starting to make Internet Explorer more attractive in its own right – rather than simply the default that everyone got and therefore used – it's still by no means achieved parity. Google's Chrome will not only make the browser market even more competitive – something that will frankly be good for Firefox, too – and hence challenging for Microsoft, but will also attack more directly Windows' grip on the desktop.
Against that background, Chrome looks a potentially an exciting project. By doing something very different from Firefox, it challenges the latter to think through what exactly its mission is.
Since Chrome is open source, and builds on other free software projects (including Firefox), it is not undermining the larger open source ecosystem, even if it does eventually prove problematic for Mozilla. My only regret is that for this otherwise innovative project Google adopted a truly conventional release plan: Windows only to begin with, and Mac and GNU/Linux later.
Update: Wired has published a detailed story about the background to Chrome's creation. Key quotation:
From the beginning, the Chrome team hoped that its visual presentation would be so understated that people wouldn't even think they were using a browser. The mantra became "Content, not chrome," which is sort of weird given the name of the browser.
Follow highlights from ComputerworldUK on Twitter
Sign up for our Daily Newsletter
The UK IT News widget Get it for your site!
<<newer entry | back to blogs index | older entry>>
Advert
Email this article to a friend or colleague:
PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.
- This article is now being printed.
What are your views on this subject? Use the form below to post a comment on this article up to 1000 characters.
Click below to add 'Chrome: Google's Anti-Browser' to your blog.
If you do not have a ComputerworldUK Account and would like to use this feature, please Register.
If you are a registered, logged-in user, this will post the title and first paragraph of this story to your blog to share with your readers.
Advert
Newsletters
Sign up to our Weekly Round-Up for the past week’s not-to-be-missed news analysis and insight delivered straight to your inbox.
WHITE PAPERS
-
Legal risks: Employee use of the internet and email
Exploring the challenges facing IT Mangers today and vital steps to ensure safe internet an email use by employees. -
Phishing for victims
This White Paper examines the phenomenon of phishing. It explains the potentially catastrophic threat it presents to all kinds of organisation. Exploding some widespread myths, it lights up the murky waters where phishing first emerged and where it continues to evolve. But it also highlights what your business can do to blunt the threat.
About the author
Glyn Moody Glyn Moody's look at all levels of the enterprise open source stack. The blog will look at the organisations that are embracing open source, old and new alike (start-ups welcome), and the communities of users and developers that have formed around them (or not, as the case may be).
Comments received
Tomy James said on Tuesday, 02 September 2008
If you are right Glyn then Mozilla should be OK and Microsoft should be worried...
Glyn Moody said on Tuesday, 02 September 2008
Let's hope...
Tyrrell said on Tuesday, 02 September 2008
I think that the "Windows only to begin with" issue might have been due to the accidental release about the browser info, I'm sure they will have them up soon. I'm pretty sure given how everything seems so prepared that they were intending to release the browser this month probably for their anniversary that's coming up soon ;).
Glyn Moody said on Tuesday, 02 September 2008
Do you think? I got the impression that the cartoon went out a day or two early, not more...but who knows? It will be interesting to see when the GNU/Linux version appears.
Tyrrell said on Tuesday, 02 September 2008
well, it's pure conjecture on my part, depending who you listen to Google was incorporated on 7 Sep 1998ish. And a huge announcement like a browser would be a great icing on the 10 year anniversary cake. I use Ubuntu as my desktop environment at home so I'll have to twiddle my fingers anxiously until the Linux versions released.
dave said on Tuesday, 02 September 2008
The real loser, of course, is Microsoft.
Why should Microsoft always be the real loser?. I think the real loser is Linux.
Glyn Moody said on Tuesday, 02 September 2008
AAMOI, why? If Chrome succeeds in making operating systems invisible/unnecessary, the only ones that will survive will be the free ones, that sit under Chrome. Sounds like GNU/Linux to me.
JJS said on Tuesday, 02 September 2008
The thing that has not gotten much play in the responses to this announcement is their Java engine. I suspect this is the main reason they are releasing it. Their apps are built on AJAX, and when browsers handle Javascript inconsistently, Google looks bad. If they write their apps to their own engine, it encourages users - especially business users, including embedded device vendors - a reason to switch to Chrome. And it gives Google a platform to build on, much like Windows has been for MS.
Being OSS, it is possible the Java engine might be ported to Firefox, and considering the relationship between Google and Mozilla, that doesn't seem too far-fetched. But I doubt they care nearly as much about desktop browsers as they do about smart phones and other portable devices. And they are not too late in the game for those at all.
If Android and Chrome get a major share of the embedded market, Google will be to M$ as M$ is to IBM.
Later . . . Jim
Glyn Moody said on Tuesday, 02 September 2008
Yes, I'm sure you're right that JavaScript and mobile are major focuses for Google in all this.
zaine_ridling said on Tuesday, 02 September 2008
I think what I liked in the comic book announcement was the fact that it was open source, and that Google simply took the idea of the best of current code. Google is famous for their bare interfaces, which makes the term "anti-browser" appropriate. The real attraction for many users to Firefox is its very modular nature: starts out basic and you extend as much as you need.
As a more efficient cloud-app tool, Chrome should be interesting. And let's face it, everything hurts Microsoft and will continue to. The cracks in their locked-down, lock-in system are slowing eroding any value the platform has.
annonymous said on Wednesday, 03 September 2008
sounds like firefox needs to work on it's ability to be used as a cross platform O.S., or get left behind...
Netscape has won the browser war. said on Wednesday, 03 September 2008
If you think about it ... the reason Microsoft fought the browser war was not because they wanted people to have IE, it was because they saw the potential for the Web to make the conventional desktop far less relevant, and they had to take that out of a third party's control. Microsoft may have killed Netscape, but most apps moved to the web anyway. Netscape won.
LostOverThere said on Wednesday, 03 September 2008
Chrome isn't there to destroy the browser. Its there to destroy Microsoft office. :)
Brian said on Wednesday, 03 September 2008
Fast JavaScript in Chrome = current Firefox 3.1 JIT compiler, which will be out in like 5 months, so it's a matter of time until Chrome loses this huge advantage, but Firefox will continue having the myriad of add-ons and plugins which is impossible for Chrome to create in such a short period of time. Considering this, both Firefox and Chrome are now somewhat equal but Firefox will top again several months later as version 3.1 comes out.
After that there will be no big speed-jumps since the fight will be not for doubling/tripling the speed anymore, but gaining a few percents of speed since you can't really get faster then a JIT compiler does, you can only optimize it a bit here and there. Look at Java, it first had like 300% speed increase when it introduced JIT, now every release is only about 30% faster. So roughly saying - next year it will not be about speed anymore, but standard compliance, features and alike.
Earhole Gringo said on Wednesday, 03 September 2008
It's "its", not "it's", unless you mean "it is", when it's "it's". Are you claiming to be a serious journalist?
Tom said on Wednesday, 03 September 2008
Chrome is a multithreaded browser that works with multicore CPUs (SMP). The other browsers are still running 1 thing at a time, like DOS did.
Just like people want to have multiple programs running on the desktop, they're going to want all thier AJAX apps running w/o stalling each other.
Oh, and the engine, webkit, scales down the the iPhone too. So it'll work similarly on mobile or desktop.
Roland said on Wednesday, 10 September 2008
It's about IE and ads:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080905_005415.html