The Chrome browser underpins
Google's efforts to expand from
search to
applications, as part of
a
broader
business diversification. This is a diversification that is
both necessary and timely, writes Laurent Lachal, senior analyst at
Ovum.
Until now Google focused on delivering various applications
rather than integrating them.
Chrome could herald a change in this strategy. The implicit
assumption behind the announcement is that
Chrome will not just be a particularly good platform for
Google's own applications but also the starting point for a more
integrated experience across these applications, irrespective of
their underlying platform (PCs as well as devices).
Indeed, Google is very keen to
improve users' browsing experience with a focus on speed,
simplicity (as with the Google homepage), stability (claiming that
Chrome is 'rock solid') as well as security (based on lists of
phishing and malware software/websites and on the 'sandboxing'
capabilities of the JavaScript VM and multi-process design).
Chrome's built-from-scratch JavaScript VM provides operating
system and hardware platform independence (and runs applications
faster by running machine code rather than interpreted code, among
other tricks). Its multi-process (rather than multi-threaded)
design provides the same isolation capabilities found in operating
systems. It turns each tab into an independent application
environment with its own controls and URL box. This design prevents
tabs from crashing the whole browser and enables them to move not
just within the browser but also out to their own window.
Google will challenge not just Microperating systemoft's
Internet Explorer browser (especially in the mobile browser space,
on the desktop space it simply makes the forthcoming Internet
Explorer version 8 look much less inspiring) but also its Windows
desktop (by supporting richer web applications less dependent on
standard operating systems). It is a much better bet against
Windows than a Linux-based Google operating system (which, like the
Google browser, has been talked about for years). Chrome is not
about replacing Windows, though, as much as moving users beyond
it.
It is much less of a challenge to Mozilla Foundation's Firefox
browser. Its release comes a few days after Google renewed its
partnership deal with the foundation, effectively funding it for
another three years until November 2011. Mozilla's main challenge
(to grow independent from Google's funding) remains unchanged. The
foundation now has more time to get its act together in a market
that, owing to Chrome, could become not just more competitive but
also more open source browser-friendly. Eventually Chrome and
Firefox could converge, but at the moment two strong players
(Chrome with Google's mindshare as well as marketing and financial
muscle, and Firefox with its market share lead and ecosystem) have
more chance against Microsoft than one.
Chrome is only an experiment, in line with Google's usual
approach to try various offerings and see which ones stick. Many
become resounding successes others remain complete fiascos. It is
too early to see which category Chrome will eventually find itself
in. We expect success but it will be much more gradual and slow
than most suppose and more likely in the mobile browser space than
in the desktop one.