HitChrome

The Internet pundits had begun writing off Chrome, Google’s new browser,before it was barely out of its wrapping. As the first wave of early-adopter enthusiasts lost interest in their experiments and returned to their original browsers, so analysts began to declare Chrome dead. But there is a far more interesting set of dynamics at work. Google is not after Microsoft’s share of the browser market: it’s after something much bigger.

To understand what’s truly and enduringly interesting about Google Chrome, one needs to understand what is special about V8, its new Javascript engine.

Ten years ago, Java was so slow it was inconceivable that anybody could use it to build serious systems; its garbage collection process brought entire applications to a shuddering halt.  Then a new virtual machine for Java that enabled code to be compiled on the fly, improving Java’s performance 20 times or more was developed.

Hotspot changed everything: suddenly Java became a language to take very seriously indeed.

Without V8, Javascript suffers from the same problem Java had ten years ago: it’s painfully, unbelievably slow, tens or even hundreds of thousands of times slower than other languages. So despite its flexibility, it’s never been used for any kind of serious development; in fact, it’s been the single biggest hurdle to the development of more interesting applications that can run inside a browser. Read the rest of this entry »

It is the first step in Google’s plan to convince consumers and businesses to replace Windows-based software with hosted web applications. Google is expected to launch an online storage offering.

Google’s new Web browser, has grabbed a lot of attention and already holds about one per cent market share.

That’s actually a pretty good number, considering Chrome is still very new, is lacking some important features (such as plug-in support) and is only available for Windows.

The downloads have been driven by the new-car smell and the hype that big Google projects always draw, but most of this attention has been paid to Chrome as a browser, when it isn’t really a browser at all, or at least not primarily. Because while it sports some serious browser  improvements (notably, the creation of a new process to handle each browser window), Chrome is really a platform for Web applications. This is evident in an often-overlooked feature called Create Application Shortcuts. Enabling this gives you links on your desktop or Quick Launch Bar to Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar. Clicking the shortcut launches the Web app in a streamlined window that gives you more room to work by eliminating the standard browser controls.

Essentially, this makes Web apps look and act like desktop apps. And because is built in, you can work in Google Docs even when you’re not online, and offline support for Calendar is coming. This makes a PC with Chrome into a go-anywhere, work-anywhere office productivity kit.

In researching this piece, I came across the following from blogger Joe Wilcox of Microsoft Watch: “Let me be absolutely clear: Chrome is not a Web browser, it’s an application runtime. Chrome is really Google Gears with a browser facade. Sure, Chrome is based on Webkit and has browser legacy, but the product’s core capabilities  - and Google’s objectives for them - is running Web applications. Chrome is a development platform, but in the cloud instead of on the PC.” Read the rest of this entry »