Chrome

Administrator, 7 September, 2008.

It's sometimes difficult to understand how the Mozilla Foundation have been able to innovate their way to a better browser against competition from the existing browser makers, especially Microsoft, with their natural monopolistic and resource advantages. And yet there is no doubt that they have done it. For most Firefox users, the big advantage is it's ability to block most ads via Adblock Plus. This of course is an extension to Firefox, and like all extensions you don't have to have it, but it demonstrates the value of the extension architecture of Firefox against other browsers. You just use the extensions that you need or want and you don't have to weigh the browser down with the functionality that you don't need. That way, you preserve the speed advantage of Firefox over other browsers.

The release of Google Chrome has again focussed attention on speed, and there is no doubt it is the new leader of the pack on that score. Google have said that extensions will be a feature of future releases, and they will put in place an API (Application Programmers Interface) to encourage third-party interests to join in. However, it's difficult to see how Google will support an ad-blocking extension, given that their EULA provides for their inclusion of advertising. It's likely to be a contentious issue; the free version of Opera was held back by advertising for years, and eventually ads were dropped.

However, the issue which will eventually come to dominate our thoughts about Google Chrome is privacy. Google already has a wealth of information about us and our interests, and is able to use this data to target advertising. This is a powerful tool in the quest to make money from the web. The neat trick is to do this without the user being immediately aware that this is happening. Hence, Chrome's "omnibar". Hailed as a great innovation, it's not much different really from Microsoft's 'search from the address bar' (imho) in that it combines addressing with searching. In Firefox 3 if you type a few letters into their "Awesome Bar" (as others have called it) you are offered a list of items cleverly selected from both your shortcut tags and your history. A powerful and useful feature, driven by the user. With Google Chrome, you will be offered 'suggestions' - driven by Google. It doesn't take much imagination to see where that is going. One blog comment I came across said

"Google's new browser will give you their web and email services, photo processing, mapping, office applications that will run in said browser and will make you a cup of tea. This is all paid for by personally-directed text ads in your tea leaves, based on analysing a DNA sample taken when you sip the tea and sending your genetic code back to Google for future targeting."

OTT? Well, yes - but there is an Orwellian vein running through the web and this could easily be an outwardly visible reminder. It is easy to imagine that these fears will lead to even more determined efforts by the Open Source community to fight for freedom and independence from powerful vested interests such as Microsoft and Google. Time, as always, will tell, but I forsee even greater support for Open Source products such as the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird mail client as the web community wakes up to what is happening.