Five reasons why Chrome will crash and burn
Summary
Google dipped its mighty toe into the increasingly crowded world of internet browsers today with the announcement of its open source offering, Chrome.
Topics
After all the polished promises of a streamlined new way to tame the web, the blogosphere was ready to predict Chrome would inspire everything from the end of Firefox to the demise of Microsoft itself.
silicon.com spoke to industry experts and Google's new rivals to find out why Chrome matters and whether the browser reality can deliver on the hype.
Internet Explorer's stranglehold
The average computer user tends to lack the technical know-how or motivation to change from their default browser, Internet Explorer, giving Microsoft around 60 per cent of the market without even trying. Despite being the only really viable alternative to IE's domination, Firefox has struggled to gain above 20 per cent of the market.
In spite of Google's huge brand leverage analysts feel Chrome could still struggle to gain a foothold when faced with consumers who prefer to stick with what they know.
David Mitchell, VP for IT research at analysts Ovum, said: "Internet Explorer is still used by about 60 to 70 per cent of people and there is a big chunk of the population who are remarkably reticent to change platform.
"I think that Google will grab market share but whether they will knock IE off the top spot is another scenario."
Microsoft itself is confident of IE's unassailability. The company said: "The browser landscape is highly competitive but people will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it 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."
Bad track record
Despite Google's search dominance, its other homegrown applications have failed to attract anywhere near the same popularity.
It was one of the first companies to enter the social networking market with orkut but the site remains largely unknown outside of Brazil, and despite being launched before YouTube, Google Video always failed to match its popularity, eventually forcing Google to buy up its rival.
Similarly, despite being perhaps the most well-known Google branded app outside of search, Gmail still lags behind Windows Live Hotmail.
Nate Elliott, research director at analysts Jupiter Research, said: "In most cases the products that Google has delivered on its own have failed.
"To achieve success they have had to buy in services from elsewhere and not build them themselves."
Google backlash
With the Google brand already ubiquitous worldwide, could the sheer scale of the search giant's reach start to scare consumers? Tor Odland, head of communications for rival browser Opera, thinks the brand's attempted dominance could prompt an anti-Microsoft style backlash against lack of choice.
He said: "You have to ask whether people want to use products and services from only one company. It is a return to the days of Microsoft.
"I wonder how people will feel about being so tied into one company - the one thing that the online world has taught us is that people like choice."
Damage to Google services
Google has traditionally taken a cross platform approach to its services and worked closely with its soon-to-be rivals Opera and Mozilla, and recently renewed a deal with Mozilla that puts Google as the default search in Firefox. Focusing on Chrome could see those all-important bonds start to loosen.
Odland said: "It is important that they keep testing their services for compatibility with other browsers.
"We hope that they will continue to work with Opera and Mozilla to deliver a better internet experience."
Jupiter Research's Elliott believes Google is hedging its bets: "They have given themselves plenty of time to make progress in the browser market while maintaining a strong presence in Firefox."
How to get it out there?
There is also the question of how Google will get Chrome onto people's computers in the first place. Will it take the Apple approach of bundling it with other application downloads as Apple did with Safari and iTunes or Sun's bundling of Java downloads with OpenOffice.
Ovum's Mitchell said: "One thing that has not been made clear is what is their distribution strategy? Are they going to rely on downloads straight from the Google site or follow the lead of Apple?"
Jupiter Research's Elliott said: "Firefox is by all accounts a fantastic browser and still has less than 20 per cent browser share. That speaks volumes about how big an advantage Microsoft has by installing IE on PCs."
On the other hand, see why Chrome may well be the next big thing...
Talkback Most Recent of 112 Talkback(s)
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Beta version not stable
Atleast the beta version of Google Chrome is not stable, even though it is fast and light weight. See some screen shots of Chrome crashing minutes after use - http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/35865-Google-chrome-reviews.aspx.
matojo20063rd Sep 2008 -
The process seperation and sandboxing is best of class
conasidering this is version 0.01 that the public have seen, so far this is looking amazing.
What will they build on top of the browser?
I think: local Google Gears apps for Google Apps. These will replicate the data from the server, but run very fast locally.
This means a superfast machine independent office suite.
The future will be insteresting indeed!
stevey_d3rd Sep 2008 -
My reason
I like Chrome for its speed but one of my chief uses of a browser is to access my bank accounts via EGG and IE6-8 or Outlook are the only ones that do this.
Also I miss 'AutoFill'.
syhprum1@...9th Oct 2008 -
A chrome beta is NOT forcing a "work in progress" down consumer throats!
It's for early adopters, that's why it's tagged as beta. What do you expect?
Microsoft, on the other hand, are happy to lie, over-promote themselves and laughably FORCE a WORK-IN-PROGRESS (not my words) _OPERATING SYSTEM_ down the consumers throats. The sooner Microsoft die the better.
Go Google, go, go go!!!!!!
fr0thy29th Oct 2008 -
RE: Five reasons why Chrome will crash and burn
Chrome isn't going to crash and burn. Not a hope.
Google puts lots of widgety little applications out
there, like Picaso, for instance.
Even if Chrome does not slay IE, it is a good little
browser with an excellent (and simple UI) that zips
along faster than any other browser out there.
Crash and burn? Not a chance. Nada.
rbethell3rd Sep 2008 -
Agreed, and it's SOOOOOOOOOOOO fast!!!!!!
With web apps coming in at tens of thousands of lines of Javascript it really is a no brainer
fr0thy29th Oct 2008 -
RE: Five reasons why Chrome will crash and burn
The key reason they developed their own browser was for mobile browsing, which is expected to be more and more dominant in coming years. Chrome would be a good browser for the Google Android mobile platform - at least as good as Safari on the iPhone.
To understand Google, you have to think about the future like Google.
theArgiope3rd Sep 2008 -
And to stop CheatingLyingBuggySoft from making IE GoogleApps incompatible!
Not only is IE horrifically slow for anything web-appy, but we all know that ScumSoft will (and probably already are) "fiddling" with their pile of junk of a browser to break things in Google Apps so that they can force their ill-thought out strategies and create future monopolistic lock-ins. Can't have Google driving things forward, we MUST OWN EVERYTHING, no matter what the consequences to mankind!!!!!fr0thy29th Oct 2008 -
DUDE!
Try Valium....
bentedgz9th Oct 2008 -
LOL
No need, all my work is done on software that works, so that's not necessary.fr0thy29th Oct 2008 -
RE: Five reasons why Chrome will crash and burn
For those of us who enjoy avoiding microsoft, and are
tired of Firefox hogging memory and crashing, Chrome
looks like a pretty good choice. Sure, maybe beta is
not perfectly stable yet, but still, it has a light
footprint, runs pretty fast, is easy on the eye and
does a few cool things. If somehow they could
incorporate the advantages of Firefox with its
extensions for gmail, it would be perfect.
James Joseph3rd Sep 2008 -
So very happy
?We are so, so happy with Google Chrome,? mumbled Mozilla CEO John Lilly through gritted teeth. ?That most of our income is from Google has no bearing on me making this statement.? http://notnews.today.com/?p=57
David Gerard3rd Sep 2008 -
re: So very happy
yeah, use a fake quote from an obviously joke news site... the actual representatives have been very positive, it doesn't have to be a game where only one person wins and they realize it.
Insaniac99@...3rd Sep 2008 -
What?
That was a joke news site! Oh my god.......Thank you! I was hoping the browser would really make me a cup of tea.
micks_tricks3rd Sep 2008 -
RE: Five reasons why Chrome will crash and burn
It lacks a File-Edit-View menu. I really really dislike not having a File Edit View menu at the top. That's one reason why I don't use IE7.
It's not even compatible with Google applications.
Chrome won't run Google Lively as of yesterday, for instance.
I would think that even for a beta Google would have made sure that all Google apps, release or still in beta, would work in their own browser.
Chrome crashed on several occasions when FF, Opera, Flock, IE7, etc. wouldn't have flinched.
chuckbaggett@...3rd Sep 2008
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