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Google Chrome, just another browser?
By Tom Farmer, 2nd October 2008
The start of September 2008 saw the release of the Google Chrome web browser, into an increasingly competitive market.
Microsoft’s dominant Internet Explorer browser has seen its market share fall in recent years to the likes of Firefox, Opera and Apple’s Safari; browsers which are generally considered to offer a better experience to users who make the switch.
So what does the new browser on the block have to offer?
Initial views of Chrome are promising. The user interface is uncluttered and well designed, the traditional address bar has been replaced with the ‘omnibar’ which can also act as a search bar and offer helpful suggestions as you type. Many of the ‘new’ features are already available in other browsers but there are some nice touches like independently crashing tabs – only the affected tab closes rather than the entire browser.
Browser vendors will be sitting up and taking note...
Chrome is also engineered from the ground up to be stable, secure, and fast, but what is most interesting about Chrome is the inclusion of Google Gears. This is a technology that can enable web applications, such as Google Docs or Google Mail, to offer offline functionality which was previously only available when connected to the internet – an ability which is particularly useful for the increasingly mobile worker on a laptop computer or smartphone where a permanent internet connection is not always guaranteed.
This ‘Cloud computing’ approach is a paradigm shift away from the traditional ‘personal computer’ ecosystem with locally stored applications and data, but rest assured that browser vendors are not sitting on their laurels. A new version of Microsoft Internet Explorer is in the pipeline, which promises to be a big improvement over previous versions, particularly in the web-standards arena. Implementation of the new HTML5 specification is also becoming more common in all new browsers; offering, amongst other new functionality, a standards compliant alternative to Google Gears.
Browser vendors will be sitting up and taking note, and the increased competition should be a good innovation driver and can only be a good thing for end users.
What does it mean for web managers and agencies?
With the continuing demand by developers and the industry for browsers that render html and css in accordance with the published specifications, it could mean a simpler job for agencies as new browsers should display existing standards compliant pages with relative ease. However, in the short term, until older browsers such as Internet Explorer 6 are demised, it will mean more testing.
On the positive side, the increasing pervasiveness of technologies such as Google Gears and HTML5’s offline storage will mean opportunity to develop more compelling applications.