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The release of Google’s Chrome browser sent the blogging world mad, including myself.  And after its release on Tuesday there were at least 3000 new articles and blog posts reviewing and analysing it. Most writers have equally been surprised at the bold movie by Google, who has long supported Firefox and their growing market share of web browsing.

Some of the initial questions after its release were, are they competing with Firefox? Does this end the partnership?

The answer simply, is no, and even though the Mozilla Foundation was surprised by the release (even though they won’t admit it), they don’t feel that Chrome is meant to be an attack against Firefox or a sign of impending doom for the partnership between Google and Mozilla.

Mozilla Europe president, Tristan Nitot, commented in a PC Pro article:

I think Chrome is not aimed at competing with Firefox. Rather it’s made for competing with Internet Explorer.

And the featureset that Chrome has been released with seems to backup this statement. With Internet Explorer 8’s Beta 2 release on August 27th, Microsoft has been hard at work perfect a multi-threaded browser to allow each individual tab run separately away from the main bulk of the application.

Tristan goes on,

We don’t have a strategy which is competing with Google. We’re not offering a search service, we’re not selling advertising, while Microsoft has made a lot of noise that it wanted to go there.

It makes sense that as the web presence of Google grows, so does Microsoft’s desire to chase the revenue that Google is trailblazing.  Mozilla’s always remained a simple, neutral entity directed at improving a user’s web experience, regardless of any other corporate giants vying for their attention.

What’s been made clear is Google is about web applications, and Chrome was designed to improve that relationship with the user, and both Internet Explorer and Firefox have yet to venture into a deeper, more focused browsing experience in that sense.

It’s important to remember that Google knows the Internet. And Chrome is their gateway to building the future the way they see it. And Microsoft will stop at nothing to end the trend-setting whirlwind that they (ironically) invented with the release of Windows 95.

Google has made it clear that they don’t feel the state of browsers on the market is acceptable. Also quoted in a PC Pro article, Eric Tholome, product managing director of applications at Google says:

The pace of development of apps on the internet has outpaced browser development. There’s a lot of frustration out there that we could solve. The only way we could do that is from a fresh start.

And with Google Documents competing directly against Microsoft Office and providing those services as an online resource only, it made sense that in order to further their share of the business they provide they needed a way to better present that and to make it more useful.

So does this mean that the heat’s off Firefox? Not entirely, there are some features of Chrome that will need to be standard on browser (private browsing, threaded tabs) and Firefox will catch up to those, but it’s impossible to release a product like this and expect the other siblings on the market to rub shoulders and play fair. The future of the Mozilla/Google partnership might be friendly, but surely won’t be quiet.

The war against Microsoft however, just got a lot louder. And if anyone in Silicon Valley is reading this, it might be time to hide the chairs again.

* And for anyone still concerned about the Chrome TOS that were blatantly ripped from their other services, it’s been updated:

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

The Comic Knows All

Google Chrome first came to my attention on Monday via a Blogoscoped post linking to a comic strip that detailed the features of an upcoming web browser from Google. The comic strip, meant to be the initial ground-breaker to the public about the web browser, was created by none other than Google.

I checked the date several times to be sure it wasn’t April 1st, and even then I wasn’t fully convinced what I was reading was reality.

Nevertheless, the internet world was abuzz for a full 24 hours before Google announced a live conference to present and explain everything about the browser. I was also able to learn a few things about the browser before it was launched so I had a fairly good idea of what I was getting into.

The Skinny

Chrome uses the Webkit rendering engine that Safari and Konquerer use. One of the gentlemen during the live presentation stated that one of the reasons for using an existing rendering engine was to avoid unnecessary headaches for web developers in trying to account for a new set of rules (and it’s much appreciated, having to write for Webkit, Gecko, and IE is bad enough as it is).

Another feature to Chrome is Google Gears, which is intended to act as an advanced caching utility that will allow offline browsing of content you’ve already viewed. Essentially, it’s a super light database that Chrome manages for your viewing convenience, and the performance of Chrome greatly enhanced by this addition.

Chrome also has threaded tabs, which means that each tab is an independent browsing application of its own, and Chrome even features an in-application task manager (right click on title bar) that will allow users to manage and kill any of the running processes.  What’s important to note is that any plugins running on webpages, like YouTube’s flash module to match the example from the live presentation, can be killed independently from the window in the event the plugin fails.  What replaces the flash objects are a frowny face in a puzzle piece, and a refresh of the page will return the world to normal. It’s important to note that even if a plugin is killed, the rest of the page objects that were not apart of that process are all in working order, easily browseable.

The Fancy

Google Chrome was made for the minimalist, but it was also made for those of us who like a few sprinkles on our vanilla ice cream.

Tabs slide in creation and destruction, can be pulled away from the main frame with a fancy transparent overlay, and released as a new application window. The download process will flash an arrow to the bottom bar, show the progress and flash when finished. All downloads by default live in the My Documents/Downloads directory.

As well, clicking on the page icon and choosing “Create application shortcuts…” will allow whatever site you are on to be linked as a shortcut on your system, and when launched, will act as a new application window that appears to reside outside of a browsing format. Useful especially if your primary email happens to be webmail, and need the quick access.

The Fat

Most power users will immediately notice the lack of in-depth options. Which is to be expected, as Chrome is very much a beta product, but nevertheless there are certain things an experienced user would prefer to have control over. For instance, third party cookies can only be restricted in their use but not blocked entirely.

Another feature that is not surprisingly missing is the ability to block advertisements. Having used Adblock for what feels like a blissful eternity, seeing all of my favorite sites smattered in annoying and error-laden objects is a little disconcerting.  Third party themes and plugins should definitely high on the priority list in getting Chrome some lasting exposure.

The Verdict

Google Chrome is a very nice product in which a lot of careful thought was put into. Clearly, a new browser is on the block, but it may not be entirely for competition’s sake as it intends to be more focused making web applications a more important experience rather than just flipping through web pages. Nevertheless, a significant amount of pressure now weighs on the shoulders of both Mozilla and Microsoft to match Google’s out-of-the-box thinking on the web experience.

Currently, Google Chrome is only available for Windows, but on the horizon are forthcoming versions for both Mac and Linux operating systems.