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The browser wars have a new contender...

You can often tell a person’s age or online experience by asking them what internet browsers they have used.

You’ll probably guess my age when I tell you I started on PipexDial (yes, I’m that old), then Netscape Navigator, Opera (a very brief affair), Internet Explorer, and finally, Firefox.

Well now there’s a new kid in town that hopes to be next in line. Will this be the browser to end all browsers?

It will be called Chrome and it’s from the guys at Google – you may have heard of them. A browser application seems like a long-overdue logical progression for Google, who already have great applications and utilities such as Picasa and Gmail, not to mention GoogleMaps and GoogleEarth.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still holds roughly 80% of the world’s browser population and this is what Google want a slice of with Chrome. Initially launching as a Beta for Windows in over 100 countries, Mac and Linux versions will follow shortly after.

As a recent convert to Firefox (why didn’t I change sooner?), Chrome is going to have to work very hard to seduce me away from my browser but I shall certainly look forward to giving it a trial run.

Lets hope there is more to Chrome than just a shiny surface.

Posted by Richard on Tuesday 2nd of September 2008 at 10:08am

Tags: Interesting . . . or not, Online stuff

Comments

First visuals can be found at http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/01/first-public-screen-captures-of-google-chrome/.

Posted by Tasha on Tuesday 2nd of September 2008 at 12:07pm

Right - I don't get this. As far as I can tell, a browser is a browser is a browser.
I know people who swear by Opera and others who swear by Firefox.
All I want is to look at the internet (even the 'bad' sites that are built only in flash), without waiting more that 10 seconds for a page to load, (yes, I am liable to close the window and hate your brand forever if your page takes longer than that), and without having hundreds of pop ups assaulting me. I also want to be able to control my security settings, and clear any personal data quickly and easily.
Beyond that - I just don't care.

And while I'm on the subject - will people please start paying attention to the DDA when building websites! Sometimes I want to be able to see the writing BIG!

Posted by Siân on Tuesday 2nd of September 2008 at 12:13pm

Oh - and are they going to build in nifty little back doors to you machine like they did with Google Earth? Coz that'll be fun fun fun!

I know where I go on-line is tracked, I know my emails are stored and shared and about as secure as a postcard. I know that people leave memory sticks and cds lying around with my personal information, or post it online for all to see (credit card details and junior doctors), but I don't see why I should go out of my way to make it easy for people to do such things.

Don't get me wrong - I quite like Google. From the very little I know about them I like their stance against censorship, and against MS Monopoly. But I don't like the little car that's been down my road and taken pictures of my house with my washing on the line, and I think it's fundamentally dangerous to put all our information finding eggs in one basket.

Rant over. Probably. For a while at least.

Posted by Siân on Tuesday 2nd of September 2008 at 12:38pm

Sian - you forgot about how they aided the Chinese government in restricting freedom of speech.

Posted by Tasha on Tuesday 2nd of September 2008 at 2:18pm

that would be the "stance against censorship"... ;)

Posted by Siân on Tuesday 2nd of September 2008 at 3:27pm

This is great. The new Javascript engine is really fast. They include something called 'Gears' which lets developers do cool things like client-side database access, easy file uploads and desktop integration. This is going to take the web to the next level.

Google doesn't want to make any money on this one, or sell you stuff. It's completely open source and people can change the software and redistribute it if Google starts doing things people don't like.

It looks like they just want the internet to suck less so they can build better products, I think this is their way of kicking up some fear in other browser vendors.

Posted by James on Wednesday 3rd of September 2008 at 8:50am

Open source? Well that's pretty good. But how does that work? I get the principle - that everyone can tweak it, but how are the changes then incorporated? I assume there's something to stop people building in sneaky little things to steal my data?

Posted by Siân on Wednesday 3rd of September 2008 at 12:07pm

Jeez Siân, get over it, no-one wants your data!

Posted by Richard on Wednesday 3rd of September 2008 at 12:52pm

It's great that it's opensource etc but for the minions who don't know what to do with this, we just want to know how it's going to help us and why we should switch. As yet no convincing articles.

Posted by Tasha on Wednesday 3rd of September 2008 at 12:55pm

I suppose it answers the unanswerable question of 'what do you want from the internet?' and 'what don't you want?'.

Moving over to Chrome should give a more positive internet experience; more stability, less popups, faster browsing, more defined information etc, etc...

With regards to Open Source and security - surely it will be self-policed? In the same way you can submit and alter information in Wikipedia - no-one wants bad information. Chrome should be the same, Open Source should open doors for continual development and improvement.

Posted by Richard on Wednesday 3rd of September 2008 at 1:30pm

I've had a chance to read the blurb/cominc about it all now (pretty cool btw), and I think I may be sold on it. Bring on the mac version! I can always try it out on my work's machine right? ;)

Posted by Siân on Friday 5th of September 2008 at 10:55am

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