actinic
online marketing blog
Friday, September 5, 2008
Does Google Chrome Open The War With Microsoft?
Google has certainly caused a flurry of excitement with it's new Chrome web browser. But could this be their opening salvo in an all-out war with Microsoft?
Here's why I think it could be.
Google Chrome's multi-processing feature, which enables misbehaving web processes to be isolated and closed without shutting the whole browser down, is potentially quite useful when surfing; But it's of far greater use, and probably indispensible, for running web applications. And who is the current king and major exponent of web apps for the average user? Well surprise, surprise - it's Google! In fact, Google openly touts the provision of desktop shortcuts for web apps as a key feature of Chrome.
If Google Documents and Spreadsheets is ever to supplant Microsoft Office as the business application of choice, something like Google Chrome was necessary and inevitable. So forgive me for thinking that this is it's true raison d'etre.
Google and Microsoft have been sniffing around the periphery of each other's businesses for some time, but this is the first time that Google has taken on one of Microsoft's core applications head to head. It will be interesting to see just how far they can go with it.
The one thing Google still lacks in its portfolio is an operating system. Oops, I almost forgot. The first mobile phones running their Android OS are coming out this year. And Google co-founder Sergey Brin has already indicated that elements of Google Chrome will form a key part of Android in future(http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10031318-92.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20).
So Google now has the capacity to cut Microsoft right out of the mobile party.
Both Chrome and Android make use of Apple's open-source Webkit; and Chrome also uses elements of the Firefox code. So Google have already hung their flag on the open-source mast. Adapting Android for the PC would be a huge development - but could we yet see a version of Linux with a Google-built front-end, to take on Windows on the desktop?
# posted by Actinic @ 1:29 AM 
