I have just finished reading Google’s “comic book” explanation of the thinking and technology that went into the company’s new Web browser, called Chrome. If you’re interested in the high-level details, it’s well worth a look.
Nutshell: Google’s promising that Internet users will find Chrome zippier, easier to use, more helpful and significantly less vulnerable than today’s browsers, primarily because it was built from scratch at a time when security risks and the limitations of competitors are well understood.
However, much of today’s post-holiday media crush about Chrome — and criticism of it — has focused on broader questions, only one of which was likely to have mattered much … to Google.
Does the world need another Web browser?
Most of the world would say no, although the Chrome comic makes a reasonable case for yes. There are not many companies that could even contemplate taking on a project of this magnitude, so the risk of a run-amok browser war would seem small.
Will Chrome be an IE killer?
Firefox is already doing a swell job of trying to apply that death by a zillion downloads, thank-you very much, so Chrome isn’t really needed there.
Will Chrome kill Firefox?
Not likely, although resentment would seem an inevitable reaction in some Mozilla circles. And Google went out of its way to profess that it has no such ill intent, writing on the final of the comic’s 38 pages: “We owe a great debt to other open source browser projects — especially Mozilla and Webkit. This is our contribution and we hope people will take some of these ideas, too; challenge them, build on them, and keep moving the Web forward.”
So, high-mindedness aside, here’s the question that mattered most for Google: Can we risk not doing this?
No way.
Succeed and the path to total world domination will never be clearer.
Fail and it’s only money Google can well afford.
Fail to try? … There would be no calculating the cost of passing on the opportunity.
(Update: My Network World colleague Adam Gaffin, who just has to try all the cool stuff first and usually hates most of it, downloaded Chrome a few minutes ago and says: “Wow, it’s fast.”)
Welcome regulars and passersby. Here are a few more recent Buzzblog items. And, if you’d like to receive Buzzblog via e-mail newsletter, here’s where to sign up.
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