Lofty goals are important. Changes in the technology continuum create a better experience for everyone. No doubt about it. Things like the rise of Google, Youtube, Ebay, and so forth are all examples to that.
Something new comes along, some folks make money, a leap in technology is made and everyone plays catchup. And then we are all better off.
So let’s talk about this Chrome business. Now, just because a browser is better doesn’t mean people will use it. The only thing that will change Internet Explorer’s dominance is knocking Windows off the desktop. Don’t hold your breath.
I have been a Firefox user for years. I use IE when I have to. I love the flexibility, quickness, the tabbed browsing, extensions, etc all that stuff that makes it a 100X superior browser to Internet Explorer. And I have tried to get so many people to change over. Technical people, non-technical people, you name it. The bottom line is Internet Explorer is good enough. There are enough new features being released in IE that few but the technically elite will bother to change. I am also betting that most people that switch to Chrome will be Firefox users at least at first.
What will undeniably happen is that all the browsers will keep pace as well, transforming the web as we know it in the long run. Chrome and Firefox need Internet Explorer and vice versa. At the root of it all is a focus on Google Chrome to be the platform for their web-based Apps. We will have to see if this incentive along with the technical prowess of this browser is enough to turn the tide.
So give Chrome a whirl, know this is a first version. Some things will come up as Alex Lewis has mentioned, but they can and will improve. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and proclaim this will knock Microsoft’s browser out of the box. Maybe with steady improvements and some marketing or a tie-in with an Android-based phone revolution, we will see something significant in the long-run. This is certainly significant news and it could be one piece to a grand story that remains to be told.
Sergey just flew back from Burning Man to <a href=”http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2008/09/video_sergey_br.html”>handle the questions from Rob Hof of Businessweek.</a> Here is a great video from Rob asking Sergey some candid questions.
Just a short note on Google Chrome. I downloaded it today to try it out. I had not idea how hard that would be. The download was easy but it doesn’t seem to work with a lot of webpages. Most importantly for me if you try to visit Outlook Web Access the Exchange 2007 CAS server will force you into downlevel “OWA Light”. Any browser I use absolutelymust support the full functionality of OWA. Maybe I shouldn’t have had such high expectations from a beta product but I expected more from Google given all the hype.
My opinion is Chrome will have a somewhat limited use scenario once the novelty wears off. There’s a lot of potential with google app integration, but the web is full of unrealized potential (see Google, youTube, monetization).
Google is taking its’ experience in handling the massive videos of YouTube and previously Google Video and offering a new product for businesses - Google Video for Business (notice they didn’t say YouTube). Dean Takahashi of Venturebeat is reporting the story on this.
This is coming from the Enterprise group. The enterprise group has been serious about competing mainly with Microsoft but now it looks like they are targeting Cisco.
Here is the video from Google announcing the product. It doesn’t look compelling at all. It just looks like a retrofitted Google video product which was weak to begin with. Cisco and the rest of the competition is safe for now.
I’m pretty biased (having started a company to syndicate corporate videos) on business videos and this is a good direction. My big issue is Google needs to better position this - it’s almost like they don’t want to come out and say what the real positioning is? Is this YouTube for business? Personally, I think that it should have been branded YouTube for Business with direct tie into showing up in the results within YouTube.
John Furrier was way out in front of the Google Chrome story. What’s Chrome you ask? Google will announce tomorrow they are coming out with a new browser called “Chrome”. The feature list looks a lot like IE7 and IE8 with a sprinkling of Firefox. And the kicker, supposedly it will be 100% open source.
This is HUGE! And the strategy is only thinly veiled. Google is planning an end-around on the OS market. Between Google Apps, Gears and new Chrome they are attempting to make the OS irrelevant. Much the way VMWare ESXi, or Microsoft Server Core, boots to a minimal operation set as a foundation Google can bootstrap through linux. The vision is booting to a foundation OS that launches Chrome as a gateway to the Google ecosystem and takes Microsoft out of the game.
It’s a bold strategy and I’m not sure it’s realistic in the enterprise market but it could change the game for the larger (in raw numbers) consumer market. Emerging markets like China and India are huge opportunities. It’s the 80s land grab all over again. Except this time, instead of Microsoft and Apple it’s Microsoft and Google. Microsoft annihilated Apple in the 80s and 90s but Google may prove a more resilient competitor this time around. However, Google’s strategy begs for antitrust inspection. The analysis I’ve seen is that they hope to avoid this by keeping the project open source and furthering the ecosystem through open contribution. I don’t know enough about antitrust law to form an opinion but it seems a bit flimsy.
Phillip Lenssen posted the first story I’ve seen on the topic and it’s full of detail. More than one might expect from an as-yet-unannounced product. I think he’s been tracking this one for awhile. He also says to keep an eye out at http://www.google.com/chrome. I’d imagine this will end up at http://chrome.google.com sooner or later. Phillip pulled out the feature list in detail on his blog.
My personal feeling is Google will get bit by the 1.0 bug. For those unfamiliar it’s any company’s seeming inability to put out a good 1.0 product in their rush to go to market. Google’s made a interesting and bold strategic move but only Google fanboys (Ganboys?) would take it seriously at this point. In 3-5 years it might be a completely different situation. Either way, the pressure is on MSFT from a lot of different angles. Competition is good and Microsoft has been “the best” for a long time. I believe this competition will bring out the best in a lot of vendors and overall everyone will benefit from the accelerated innovation.
Today is Labor Day and I promised my family that I would take the day off, but just can’t resist this story about Chrome. It’s a great conversation and an important project - The web needs a Modern Browser and it’s called Chrome.
I’m taking the day off but would love to hear from anyone about what a Modern Browser looks like?
Over on my personal opinion blog I talked about the implication of this being an operating system war. There I talk about this being an operating system war in full action. One between Microsoft and Google. Google is coming out with their own browser called Chrome. This browser is a direct maneuver to block Microsoft IE8 (and other msft moves) from cutting off Google’s ‘hooks’ in search and desktop environments.
Chrome - Beyond Search - Chrome goes beyond search. Google having a browser (Chrome) is strategic. It’s just one piece of the user environment (aka the edge software) that Google needs to own to have a fully functional operating system. By making Chrome open source Google sends a message to the army of software developers that the Google platform is worthy to develop ontop of. Also Google garners the support from a growing and rabid community of developers while deflect any policy and antitrust discussions.
From a platform perspective Chrome as an open source development project increases the range of edge devices that the software can be ported to. I am talking about Android both phone and set top box environments. Open sourcing the project is good for developers and if played right great for Google. We will see which company is friendlier to developers - meaning how does each platform vendor incorporate new developer technology.
Impact on Startups
I am very bullish on Chrome as a good thing to push competition and innovation. It will be a good thing for startups to leverage this massive platform shift. For startups it’s an opportunity if you can see the vision of these platforms then intersect a business or technology deal into it.
Good Luck Google and I hope to see startups and 3rd party technology in the platform. For me success will be judged by the user experience and the amount of 3rd party participation. Google will fail if they can’t build a developer ecosystem around their platform.