Speculation on the new browser project, seemingly concrete at present, comes after a 38-page comic series published by the acclaimed Scott McCloud depicting proposed features.
Some claim that information on the project will be posted at google.com/chrome though Google slaps me back with a 404 Not Found!
Let's look at the proposed features as described by the comic series:
- Firefox 3 users will be familiar with the 'Awesome Bar' officially known as 'Smart Keywords'. If you're not a Firefox 3 user yet, you're definitely missing out! Chrome will have it too!
- A completely new tabbing design seems to be coming over the horizon. The new 'special tabs' will run on processes of their own, killable via the process / task manager. Remember the old pre-IE7 days when closing one browser via the process manager killed all your open browser windows. I still cringe looking at that dreaded error reporting window. Also, these 'special tabs' will feature their own interfaces. By interface, I mean the address bar, back, forward and the likes!
- Your Chrome homepage will feature thumbnails of your most visited pages. I hope the history's stored in my computer rather than on Google's servers.
- Chrome also claims to be looking at a feature similar to Microsoft's InPrivate Browsing Mode made available in IE8. It isolates your browsing history and cache while the mode is switched on.
- Other features are in line with standard browser marketing catchwords: Enhanced Security, Reliability, Stability, Performance, yada yada yada!
Now let's look at some of the reasons why Google could be building up its armies to march into the Microsoft dominated browser wars!
- Better competitor to IE than Firefox: Could Google achieve better results than the innovation-driven open sourced Firefox in chomping down market share from Microsoft? It did so with Search and perhaps a little, with Google Docs. But the primary reason was the frailty of their respective markets at the time of launch. Simple, swift search was non-existent when Google exploded into the web world and no major corporation really did venture into online document management at a scale that Google did. But browsers have been around for quite a while. Yes, Microsoft was negligent until the open source community threw its weight around Firefox but the post-Firefox browser wars have picked up pace. The Bill-less Microsoft has realized its vulnerability in the web world and essence of IE in pushing its web agenda. Google is up against very powerful foes and unlike common thinking, Google hasn't succeeded in every territory it's ventured into, prime examples being Google Chat, Google Answers and Orkut.
- Is it meant to be a step toward the Google Cloud?: For those unaware what Google plans to do with a cloud, no... it's not a weather control device. A computing cloud is basically an operating system similar to Windows or Mac OS but running entirely on the web, in this case, on Google's server farm. Not a farm as in farm for grazing cattle burping and contributing to global warming, but a state of the art complex filled with computing hardware whose combined thermal output require power plants of their own, on the most part, to cool those processors down. How can Google create its own online operating system without their own browser? The Google Cloud is a very powerful idea requiring a massive infrastructure. A failed browser will be a unacceptable setback for Google, that I believe is the reason Chrome has been open sourced. How many failed open source projects have you really heard about? The community of experts keeps them moving. Only this time around, expect heavy artillery support from Google.
See the full comic series here.
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