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Nic Brisbourne’s view from London on venture capital and exploiting change in technology and media
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Chrome - wondering why we need a new browser?

Started by brisbourne · 6 months ago

When I saw Google’s announcement of their new browser, via the neat marketing trick of a comic book, I wondered what the point of it was. I was struggling to think of what it is that they could offer than Firefox 3 doesn’t have already.
The answer - to run applications. ... Continue reading »

6 comments

  • Andy McLoughlin

    10 months ago

    Long term it's a great move - any initiative that enables web apps to run more smoothly can only only a good thing. In the short term it's a royal pain in the ass, though - yet another browser to cross-platform test against. Oh well - maybe one day soon we can think about stopping support for IE6.
    reply
  • Joshua March

    10 months ago

    I'd also add that Chrome is built on Webkit - the same as Safari. This means that it will run far faster than Firefox, whilst allowing the flexibility of plug-ins - kind of a mash up of Safari and Firefox, with a new AJAX system that makes it EVEN faster, built to work perfectly with gears and web apps generally.

    So even before the huge jump forward in the operating system capacity, as a pure web browser this should rock.
    reply
  • Alex Kelleher

    10 months ago

    After a quick first test, it's pretty fast, and what you'd expect from Google - simple and does the job. Gmail and google maps are fast, though not a hugly noticeable difference from IE or FF.

    Be interesting to see if they can convince large numbers of people that they need another browser, but if they make their own services easier and better by using Chrome - that's a pretty powerful starting point. Meanwhile, I hope they keep it open source and easy to develop third party plug-ins, which does seem to be the idea.
    reply
  • famebook

    10 months ago

    There is an amusing irony surrounding all these debates and gatekeeper jostlings in that the real consumer paradise is to me, glaringly obvious. A whole generation of PC/ Mac users have more or less educated themselves mostly on operating systems and programs supplied by two companies. The subsequent online revolution and the battles in between amongst the old guard and new pretenders are merely foreplay to an opportunity for people to connect personally and professionally in one place and all on a hosted basis without the need for millions of tons of future landfill waste.

    Personally I look forward to being able to work, connect, socialise, enjoy and stream my choice of content in one place and within one browser wherever I happen to be in the world and of course securely and without risk of invasion of privacy. I also hope that I may be able to extend my technical education from where it is now rather than take huge leaps backwards, never again suffer the hair-pulling irritation of migrating all my old data and software from one system to another and most of all not feel that in order to secure all the above I am trapped in an advertising nightmare bombarded with unsolicited messages I never asked for.

    In my opinion none of the obvious companies individually can possibly provide me with this 'ideal' scenario, so until they can collectively deliver the best of each, I guess I just have to put up with the sad fact that corporate competition and greed isn't always in the interest of the consumer or the environment! In my humble opinion, whilst these handful of companies continue to battle against each other for gatekeeper domination and in doing so duplicate each others' best assets again and again instead of jointly improving them, billions of dollars are being squandered and the consumer's jouney to nirvana is infinitely longer than it need be.

    Jan at FAMEBOOK - the celebrity amalgamator! Access All Areas - Your backstage pass to the famous?...coming very soon!
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  • nic

    10 months ago

    Thanks for the comments guys.

    Having had a chance to play with it a bit myself it is greasy quick for ajaxy sites - if all my FF plugins would work (which I guess they might soon) then I would seriously consider moving.

    Jan - competitive destruction is part of the capitalist game - wasteful I know, but somehow it seems to be the least wasteful system anyone has managed to come up with!
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  • famebook

    10 months ago

    Nic - Agree completely...and the net end result is usually progress I guess. Who knows what sworn enemies could arise as friends moving forwards though, if one were to venture to raise the possibility. "If the kids are united, they can never be divided" Sham 69 - Jan
    reply

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