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Preview : Google Joins the Browser Race
After enjoying the status of being the most loved search engine, Google now seems to be aiming at the browser market place. But is it worth the hype?
Rahul Sah and Richa Sharma
Friday, October 03, 2008
There is no denying the fact that Google had been and still is the most
comprehensive search engine for everyone, but on 2nd September, 2008, Google
stunned the world by introducing Chrome, its very own open source Web browser.
Chrome became a part of the existing Web browser fraternity, and entered the Web
browser marketplace, a domain that it never technically owned. But what forced
Google to enter this domain?
Isn't Google trying to fiddle with the (stable) browser platform that exists?
Is Chrome any good? We know, just like us all these questions must be bothering
you, for sure, but before providing answers to all these, let us first take you
to a brief introductory tour of Chrome and its features.
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About Chrome
Chrome like other Google applications is simple with no fuss and frills
attached. It's an Open Source Web browser that's fast, stable, and has been
built with concepts and elements borrowed from Firefox and Apple's Webkit
rendering engine. Despite investing in Mozilla for long, Google opted to use
Webkit engine that powers Apple's Safari Web browser over Firefox's Gecko, shows
that Google wanted the best from the open source world. What Webkit has offered
Chrome: speed. For the appearance, Chrome is bland, it just has an outer skin,
an address bar termed as 'OmniBar,' and two buttons placed beside this address
bar that have most of the options listed to control the browser, this gives user
more space to view the content. Since there are elements from Firefox borrowed
into Chrome, the Firefox users will feel at home as all the shortcuts are same
here. It also provides tabbed browsing, but here's where Chrome becomes
different from other browsers. In Chrome, each tab starts as a different
process, which means that even if a site crashes in one tab, the entire browser
won't come down and the other tabs would remain intact. And just like Windows
Task manager, Chrome too has a task manager which functions the same, you can
monitor and kill a tab (process) that's eating too much of memory or functioning
weirdly.
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| InCognito browsing starts in a
new window having a separate icon on menu bar, while the OmniBar lists
suggested URLs from past history as well as search results. |
Many features that are new in Chrome; OmniBar for instance is the merged
address bar with the search box. You start typing in the bar, and it will
suggest relevant links based on its intelligence picking up the URLs from the
history.
For privacy, you also get an option of working in Incognito browsing mode;
when you work in this mode, the pages (not even the cookies) you surf won't get
saved in the history. This mode certainly is advantageous for Web users for whom
privacy is the main concern. It also has support for Gears; it can run
applications offline, so one can expect applications like Gmail, Google
Calendar, and Google Docs to be integrated within the browser.
| Google, Mozilla parted their ways?
Well, almost! No, Google hasn't ended its 3-year contract with Mozilla
that it signed earlier this year, but it did raise doubts in the minds of
others, but when we questioned Google about the same, this is the reply that
we got. “Obviously we are now in the browser space but we remain great
supporters of Firefox. After all it was Mozilla that kicked off most of the
innovation we have seen in browsers over the last few years (including
features such as tabs, search boxes, extensions); and proved that you can
build a mass market software product using open source technology and
through collaboration. Competitive open source projects are good for the
industry because they allow developers to make advances and share them
quickly. We continue to have a valuable partnership with Mozilla. ” |
Note: By now you must have downloaded and checked out this browser,
but if you haven't because of any good or bad reason, check out PCQuest DVD of
this month.
| Interesting hidden eggs Chrome
has a few hidden functions; to check them out, type the following in the
address bar of Chrome.
1. about:memory-shows the memory usage vis-ŕ-vis other open browsers
of the system and also the break-up of all the tab windows.
2. about:stats-shows complete stats of various parameters that Chrome
is dependent on.
3. about:internets-starts a screensaver of 3D Pipes (doesn't work in
Vista as the Pipes screensaver was available in XP only)
4. about:dns-shows the DNS listing of sites visited and used for
pre-fetching.
5. about:plugins-lists all the installed and supported plugins.
6. about:network-shows the network activity that is going on for I/O
requests, etc. |
Why Google entered this domain?
Common sense implies that this is a result of the Google-Microsoft rivalry, and
when we questioned Google about it, they gracefully agreed, “We didn't think it
was long term good for their users that a major competitor (Microsoft)
effectively controlled access to our services.” Google further said, “The
browser landscape is highly competitive, and people want a browser that puts the
services they want right at their fingertips, respects their personal choices
about how they want to browse and puts them in control of their personal data
online. Though there are already browsers like Internet Explorer and Mozilla,
etc which are doing their job well, but we strongly believe that with Chrome, we
can add value for users and help drive innovation on the Web. We want to drive
the Web browser to shift towards Web 2.0-that is where all future applications
are heading to.”
| Will Chrome takeover your desktop?
Many experts and analysts say that Google has hidden agenda behind Chrome.
It will take over your desktop, encroach your personal browsing behavior,
and will gather information about users' likes and preferences to serve
right kind of ads on the page. We spoke to Google and they defended
themselves. They said, “At Google, we're committed to transparency and
choice. Our mission is to make the Web better for our users through product
innovation enabling users to access, share and create content quickly on a
stable and safe platform. Google does not collect additional personal
information from users of Google Chrome. For those using Google Chrome, the
information shared with Google when, say, you're using our search engine, is
similar to the information that is shared when you're using a different
browser and search on Google. Some features in Google Chrome, such as crash
reporting, error pages and (Nav) Suggest do send some additional information
to Google, but the information is not personal and those features can be
easily turned off. ” |
Is Chrome igniting the Web browser war?
Ever since Chrome came into existence, rumors of a Web browser war have been
doing rounds. People have been thinking that Chrome might create a mess by
fiddling around with the existing Web browser space, and these speculations
became rife when Chrome surpassed Safari's market share in just two days after
its official launch. After that people even went to the extent of saying that
Chrome might become an IE killer in future. But neither do we see any war in the
making nor do we find Chrome capable enough of decimating the leadership of
IE-at least not at the moment. Chrome lovers, don't get us wrong, but you can't
deny that we really can't compare Chrome with stalwarts IE and Mozilla Firefox
etc. at this stage. Agreed, with many features, fast processing, and its
minimalistic appearance, Chrome looks good and performs well too. But it does
not have add-on facilities that Firefox offers which provides users with an
option of customizing the browser as per their needs. With Chrome being open
source, one can expect such extensions coming up for Chrome too, once the
developer community starts backing the Google's open source browser initiative
called Chromium. But for Chrome to reach at the top it surely need's loads of
revamping and developer community's backing-this will take time, may be few
months or years-we will have to wait for atleast another Chrome's Beta to get
released to actually comment about its future.
If Chrome succeeds in near future, then this will be another testament of
Google's leadership (other than the apps) in the Internet space, and even if its
doesn't, users still have something to be happy about-it certainly has
benefitted users by providing them with another option (browser) that they can
look upto.
Want to pitch-in suggestions on Google Chrome? Join us at http://forums.pcquest.com,
under the thread Web-based Solutions > Google introduces browser.
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