Google’s Chrome seeks to conquer Web
October 2, 2008 by ELLIS CHAMBERS
Filed under Variety
he PC wars may be over if Internet juggernaut Google has its way.
The quiet release on of the company’s Web browser Chrome marks the next step in the search-engine behemoth’s conquering of the Web. The company claims on its Web site that as Web pages become increasingly littered with rich, interactive media and Web-based applications, a new, re-thought browser was needed to serve as a platform.
Its sleek design gives it a user-friendly interface that’s nice to look at, but not everyone is pleased.
Clearly, the browser has worried its most obvious competition: Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Safari. However, the companies behind these browsers, especially Microsoft and Apple, are more worried about the implications Chrome could have for their operating systems.
“It is attempting to blur the line” between the operating system and the Web browser” said Travis Ray, a Web developer with the University’s EITS. “It will serve all intended purposes of an OS without being an OS.”
As Web applications become more interactive and powerful, Google hopes to harness them with Chrome. The browser is coupled with another Google technology, Gears, that ties Web application activity to the hard disk. With Chrome there will come a time when “it won’t matter if you use a Mac or a PC,” Ray said.
For the moment, however, Microsoft and Apple need not lose sleep. The browser is still in beta stages and has not yet been released for Mac.
But the companies shouldn’t be fooled by Chrome’s beta stage existence. The popular email host Gmail, which was introduced in 2004, is still in the beta stages. The browser is fully functioning and was downloaded by nearly 2 million people in its first week, according to Nielsen Online.
Kevin Grommersch, a junior from Alpharetta majoring in finance, downloaded Chrome the instant it became available. Grommersch said the new browser has a definite supremacy over Internet Explorer. He cited Chrome’s intelligent search, effective pop-up blocking, and simple design as superior features. Recognizing Chrome’s threat to Windows and Mac, Grommersch said: “I think the browser as a platform will be increasingly important.”
For now, users are discovering the new features of the browser. Chrome adopts the idea of the tabbed window from Mozilla, but it goes one step further by creating each new tab as a separate instance of the browser. Should any one Web site falter or crash, the user can conveniently close that tab without having to close the browser entirely.
At startup, Chrome also displays the front page of all your most visited Websites – kind of like a visual favorites list.
Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Safari still have a huge chunk of the browser market share, despite their new neighbor’s allure. Though Chrome is a definite contender in the browser market and could become a new threat in the battle between Mac and Windows, expect to continue to see Jeremy Long and John Hodgeman’s snarky Mac vs. PC debates on Apple commercials.
