[Macworld]

Post your comments for Google announces browser via comic book here

[garyi]

That is a really poor way of giving info, I got bored at page 12.
Looks like an interesting project though, but appears to be chasing problems I have never experienced.

[jwharding28]

Happy with Firefox, but always willing to give another browser a look. Competition is certainly a good thing.

[silverj]

I think this different approach looks fascinating and I really like the comic-book explanation--great way to touch on a lot of complexities. It's a great Neal Stephenson approach to technology.

[GregoriusM]

Google seems to be trying to be everything to everybody. Phones, search, online productivity apps, mail, etc.
It seems that the comment made by Steve Jobs about Google maybe having problems with some of its partners may also include this new Chrome project which is obviously going directly against Safari, although with some additional features. It will be interesting to see how Apple and Google work things out in the future.

[louielu12]

The comic book idea was smart, but got very dull.
I like the idea of building a browser from scratch, but one with its own task manager...not a good idea.
It will be interesting to see this Crome in action.

[Speed_Racer]

GregoriusM said:

Google seems to be trying to be everything to everybody. Phones, search, online productivity apps, mail, etc.

Agreed. If they weren't trying to do too many things before, they sure are now.

As for the comic book presentation, is it really that different from a PowerPoint presentation? At least PP would have seemed professional.

[Mac2008]

OmniWeb and iCab, both powerful browsers, are built with WebKit.

[alandail]

As is Safari

[dfs]

Regarding the final sente nce of this article, note this extract from Google's Chrome page http://googleblog.bl...on-browser.html
"We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust" (this announcement also states that this week's release will be a beta)
If you have the patience to read the comic book -- it's posted on the world's slowest server -- it's actually pretty interesting.

[Ceeb]

I agree that competition inevitably brings progress in this area. I use different browsers for different tasks. I use Camino for everyday use on my work Mac, Firefox on Mac and Win XP for eBay-ing (great plugin!), Safari and IE to test page compatibility from time to time and Opera on my Windows Mobile smartphone.



Can't wait have a go with the new browser with its fresh approach, especially as it is open source!

[cphoffman42]

What strikes me as odd about this is that Google stands to lose a lot of search business if it pisses off the makers of other web browsers. Everyone's heard about Microsoft trying to switch things to its own search engine. But Firefox and Safari both have deals with Google - they get a little bit of money everytime you use the Google search bar built into them (and Google gets additional hits). If Google goes all out with its browser, you might see Safari (and maybe even Firefox) eventually move to other search platforms. It's really all very strange.

That said - if this helps bring down IE, I'm all for it. The dominance of IE has encouraged developers to write all sorts of non-standards-compliant code, which makes some sites completely unusable with anything else. Things are definitely getting better, but there are still a lot of IE only sites (esp. business, rather than consumer, oriented sites).

[Ilgaz]

As a person who never missed an OS X upgrade, the "search" in Safari defaulting to Google and Apple getting share for each search really bugs me.
Apple shouldn't need some cents from Google. Microsoft, that evil microsoft, jelous owner of never successful MSN/Live gives people options every time they upgrade their IE or first run it.
What made me more mad is, I installed Safari for Windows to a friend, Safari on Windows has choice between "Google" and "Yahoo".
So, Apple doesn't give that choice to people who pays for their devices and operating systems and yet gives it to Windows users.
I don't like to search with Google, I don't like to hack my systems default browser to add another search. That is the issue without fix. Fix would happen if people question what Apple does with getting paid for each search from a browser they actually sell with OS X. If you think about it, the only way to run Safari is 10.4.11 or 10.5.x (full features) and so we are paying for it. At least its development.
Also a note to Google: I didn't like you very much and happily ignored you. When I was FORCED to Google search, I have chosen to hate you.

[dfs]

A lot of articles are more or less repeating the comment of the Microsoft spokesman, who said, as one summary put it, "Chrome could be the key piece in Google's effort to convince users to replaced packaged software with Web applications." As for me, I'll of course try Chrome and I'll of course use it if I like it better than Safari. But it's going to be a very long time before I walk away from the software on my Mac in favor of Web applications. Part of this, I'm sure, is because I'm an old fogy set in my ways. But I do have concrete issues. First of all, I am not on the road a lot, I do most everything on a single Mac, so the "cloud" has very limited appeal for me. Second, the only advantage I can see is that if I got rid of my software I'd reclaim some disk space. But these days disks are so huge and disk space is so cheap that this isn't a very compelling argument. Third, there are obvious security concerns, and I'm unwilling to entrust my data to a corporation with maybe a little less than perfect track record for showing concern for personal privacy issues. Fourth, it's unclear to me how Google proposes to "monetize", as they say, its Web software, so I have no idea what the economic implications of this technology would be. Will I be expected to pay for it? Will I be expected to look at advertising every time I write a letter to a friend?