Google Chrome: Renewal of the Browser Wars

By James Mowery Sep 2, 2008

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Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera, watch out — Google is entering the fray with its shiny new creation called Chrome. Google's newest creation will be available for download today in more than 100 countries for people using Microsoft Windows, but is the amount of drama brewing from Google's announcement just the beginning of a new browser war? Are we prepared for what Google will bring to the table and what personal information they make take from it as a result?

The timing here is impeccable — Google will be releasing the Chrome Web browser while Microsoft continues testing with Internet Explorer 8. Microsoft has been praising IE8 as one of its best creations thus far and now Google wants to make that a moot point. Not many people — if any — could have seen this move coming.

Could this new browser possibly take over some of the more competitive browsers that have been in business for years — even decades — within a significantly shorter amount of time?

What Makes Chrome Different

Chrome has plenty of competition and this means that there will need to be some sort of incentive to persuade users to switch. Perhaps those people will be impressed by this set of features:

Webkit: The same technology that powers the current Safari Web browser and the future Android browser will be utilized by Chrome.
V8: No, it is not a car engine nor vegetable juice drink; this is a new JavaScript virtual machine that will allow for better management and efficiency of JavaScript-heavy applications (e.g. Gmail and Netvibes).
Omnibox: It is another name for the address bar, but this isn't your typical address bar. It is capable of detecting site-specific search engines. It will also likely be able to search through a user's bookmarks with relative ease.
Incognito: Since Google snatched up GreenBorder, there were always questions of what Google intended on doing with it. Well, now the answer is clear. “Incognito” mode allows users to surf the Web in a virtual sandbox. In other words, this could significantly help in the fight against malware.
Google Gears: Of course Google would include Google Gears by default. This allows users to access content like Gmail and GReader while not being online.

Chrome Screenshot
Google Chrome

Sure there are other interesting features, but these exemplify what we will be seeing that is truly unique with the Chrome browser.

So, Do We Need Another One?

People already have like, what, a few dozen potential solutions in the Web browsing arena? One must question if there is really a necessity to have another.

In a blog post on Google's official blog, Sundar Pichai, VP of Product Management, and Linus Upson, Engineering Director, believe that there is room for improvement.

“The Web gets better with more options and innovation,” they explained. “Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the Web even better.”

Coming to a Consensus

Much discussion has been going on throughout the blogosphere and news organizations. The general consensus seems to be that one of the following is going to happen:

People will take to Chrome well and it will become the world's most popular browser; people then realize that Google will have too much control over everything.
People will like Chrome, but they will still like Firefox better — likely because of the extensions.
People will still end up using Internet Explorer because they are not computer literate or they simply like IE.
People will be indifferent to the project; it will just serve as a way to try to convince people to move away from Internet Explorer.

All of those scenarios are quite possible, but it is all speculation at this point.