[Macworld]

Post your comments for Analysis: Google seeks route around Microsoft with Chrome here

[sigzero]

"The browser presents a serious challenge to companies such as Microsoft and Apple, which hope their Web browsers will be the predominant ones used on the Internet and a gateway to more of their products."

I don't really see how. Innovative yes. I understand what it does and I don't see it displacing FF, Safari or IE.

[solipsism]

Jeremy Kirk wrote, "The introduction of Chrome raises concern that Google could use its browser—much as Microsoft did with Internet Explorer—to lock users in by offering features that are difficult for other browser makers to replicate."
— Exactly what features could Google offer that couldn't be designed by others?

Jeremy Kirk wrote, "Another question is how Chrome will impact Mozilla’s open-source Firefox browser project and Opera Software’s Opera browser."
— Most importantly, it will positively impact Safari as web developers will now be more conscience of WebKit. It was going to happening anyway with RIM and Apple on the mobile front, which will, at least in the US, show large numbers of users using WebKit based browsers within a couple years, but this will speed it up considerable and make the rendering engine a credible concern. So how long before the MLS is no longer IE6/7 only and gov't sites not being friendly to Safari even though they work fine once you use of Google Cache to log in?

[natmusak]

Oh IDG, how you continuously try to tie Apple and Microsoft together. :D
Google's Chrome uses Apple's own open WebKit! Chrome will serve as yet another foot soldier alongside Firefox, Safari, and Opera against Microsoft's attempts to monopolize internet search through their closed, standards-noncompliant web browser, Internet Explorer.

[GregoriusM]

Amen.

And I see Google's Chrome as more of a controlled environment for Google's web apps as opposed to trying to dominate the space that Firefox, Opera and Safari hold.

It may be based on WebKit, but the real power behind Chrome is the sandboxing of processes, and the ability of Google to control how it works with Google's Apps. I think that is their main reason for creating Chrome, not to try and beat out the other browsers with which it has a good relationship, most especially Firefox and Safari (I'm not familiar with any relationship they have with Opera).

Just as long as Microsoft's dominance is diminished, I'm all for it, and not just because I am not a Microsoft fan, but because Microsoft and their non Web 2 compliant IE are sitting on their duffs and not innovating in the best interest of their users.

The others are doing a better job of that.

The Google Apps/Google Chrome idea is, to me, a similar deal to the iTunes/iPod/iPhone ecosystem that is totally controlled by Apple. Google Apps and Chrome will work better together because Google will control both of the, while at the same time providing it as open source so that other browsers can, if they want, incorporate some of the features to themselves work better with Google Apps.

[Kontra]

The real victim of Chrome is Adobe.
It's possible that various open source Chrome technologies could melt into Safari and Firefox. But –? whether as a stand-alone product or a progenitor of fast, powerful and expressive browsers –? Chrome signals to anybody but the diehard Microsoft constituents that the browser itself, not a proprietary plug-in or a separate runtime, is the future of RIAs. With its huge ecosystem, Microsoft can live with that. At least until its enterprise monopoly seriously erodes. But Adobe cannot.
In a world where the online pie is divided among the .NET army of Microsoft, the browser-gang of AppleMozillaGoogle, and the lone Adobe, it's not difficult to predict whose share will shrink into insignificance. If the exclusion of Flash from the iPhone wasn't a wake-up call for Adobe, Chrome should certainly be one:
Google Chrome: Bad news for Adobe
http://counternotion.../09/03/badnews/

[sheilanolan]

I downloaded Chrome last night just to see what all the fuss was about. It does look pretty and is pretty fast. The lack of buttons is a bit strange and not having a bookmarks menu has been a bit annoying as the names that I have for some of my bookmarks have very little to do with the actual address. At the moment, it's a bit like a new toy for me in the same way that Flock was but I can't see it replacing Safari for me at the moment.

[dak]

sheilanolan said:

I downloaded Chrome last night just to see what all the fuss was about...

I can't believe that nobody has mentioned that there's no Mac version yet!

:d

[Kiminao]

This is very much a case of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," so long as Google is focused on creating an open improvement to the way people interact with the Web. It looks like there won't be an "embrace and extend" strategy here... And, at first glance, I'd very much like to try Chrome out--not in a VM or through Bootcamp, though. And even though IE is at less than 80% now, that Google decided to release for Windows first represents a type of entrenchment in their thinking that flies in the face of the stated openness and innovation of the Chrome project as a whole...
At any rate I'll download a native Mac version the day it's available...