What Chrome means for Web start-ups

Many stories focus on what Google Chrome means for Microsoft, Firefox, and the fate of the current online world. But what does it mean for up-and-coming Web start-ups? Here are six implications for the start-up world that I can see. These assume that Chrome lives up to its hype. That's a big if.

1. Chrome is to current browsers what Windows was to DOS. Twenty-three years ago Microsoft started its march from being just another software company to being, well, Microsoft. It did this by offering order in a fragmented world. Back then, you couldn't just run an app on your personal computer. There were dozens of OSes, all doing basically the same thing, just a little differently. If you wrote an app, you'd have to cater to not just OS, but sometimes to each version of an OS. Sound familiar?

Google, both for monetary and ideological reasons, aims to make Chrome the standardized operating system for Web apps--and to make Web apps indistinguishable from native desktop apps. That means Chrome will let you turn any Web app into something you can reach from your Start Menu, Dock or desktop. It means Chrome is taking on the key jobs of the OS, like partitioning memory and managing application processes. It means if people use Chrome as a platform they'll get--Google says--huge, noticeable advantages like an end to worrying about the viruses and malware that use the Web as their primary means of infection.

The biggest hindrance to Web apps today are other Web apps that crash the browser. Google means to put a stop to this, and Chrome's featureset and priorities align toward this objective.

2. Chrome rebuilds JavaScript from the ground up. The key chokepoint of the modern Web app is JavaScript. Originally little more than a way to play cute little sounds, JavaScript is pushed to the limits via Ajax programming techniques and the host of excellent JavaScript libraries like prototype, script.aculo.us, and extjs.

But after 13 years, the JavaScript interpreters built into browsers are way past their prime. They can't carry the load and leak memory like sieves. Off in Denmark, Google has been building V8, a new from-the-ground-up JavaScript interpreter that's built into Chrome and available under its own open-source license.

What does this mean? Take the online video revolution that advertisers are in heat over. It might be helpful if the underlying browser displaying the video, and the main interface language that accesses it, is based on current computer science rather than state of the art in 1992.

3. There's a new sheriff in town: Google. How many times has some crappy JavaScript function, plug-in or giant image choked your browser to death? Chrome is designed not only to sandbox misbehaving code, but to make it easy for users to see who's to blame. Chrome comes with its own task manager, and bandwidth malefactors will be called out of hiding. Chrome will be setting a very, very high expectation: if you use Chrome, Google in effect is saying, viruses, spyware, malware, keyloggers, and phishing will be trapped in their sandboxes. Given that the Net is the primary vector of infection today, Google is taking on the evildoers of the Net. As well as the current police force; Chrome could very swiftly adversely impact the business of every "anti" software vendor very quickly.

4. Google to closed social networks: Drop dead. How long before Google extends Chrome so as you surf the Web, you can connect with your friends looking at the same sites as you at the same time? How long before Google pulls together the strands of its social network initiatives (everything from Google Share to its growing support of OpenID to Google Talk's instant-messaging functionality in Gmail) into one unified, Chrome-ified, service that anyone can use?

5. Chrome Extension API is coming. Get ready. Firefox's huge extension "ecosystem" has been important to its adoption. While the beta released today doesn't support extensions, that is definitely on the road map. Best to keep an eye on Chromium, the online home of the open-source project emitting Chrome.

Click here for full coverage of the Google Chrome launch.

[LEOPiC]

Bob all of that is great but if they don't get a decent market share it won't mean a damn thing, not much besides "inspiration".

It has taken years for Firefox to get near to 20%, how many time will it take Google to get NEAR that and IF it does get near that 20% who's share is going down? Microsoft? Firefox? My bet is on the second one and that does not change a whole lot, just a better experience for the minority of Web Users that already enjoy most of the joys that Chrome brought us (minus V8).

Now saying that Chrome is the equal to Windows when everybody was using DOS is a statement that you lightly made.

[MeNext]

Um, I only count 5 implications...

Was "omg, it's so kool!" #6?

[BobWalsh47]

Sometimes the runt of the litter doesn't make it :( - but see my comment here...)

[LEOPiC]

I can haz Chromeburguer!

[daveman692]

I'd love to see Google build support for things like OpenID into Chrome. I really do see browsers needing to start to understand who you are and help you manage that as you move about the web.

[BobWalsh47]

Leopic - You're right of course re market share, but consider three things Google can do to build that up (I'm speculating here):
1. Every google search for "Internet Explorer", "IE problems", "cannot connect IE" etc. will have a Chrome ad.
2. Google will put a team of engineers on a "Firefox to Chrome" function so that FF 3 extensions run out of the box on Chrome. They will further twist the knife by making it very easy indeed for Apple Safari to pick that up.
3. Expect to see some major partnerships between Google and major web apps. How long before "Better with Chrome" badges start turning up?
4. Expect to see Google launch an Android software - contest for Chrome.

[BobWalsh47]

Leopic - You're right of course re market share, but consider three things Google can do to build that up (I'm speculating here):
1. Every google search for "Internet Explorer", "IE problems", "cannot connect IE" etc. will have a Chrome ad.
2. Google will put a team of engineers on a "Firefox to Chrome" function so that FF 3 extensions run out of the box on Chrome. They will further twist the knife by making it very easy indeed for Apple Safari to pick that up.
3. Expect to see some major partnerships between Google and major web apps. How long before "Better with Chrome" badges start turning up?
4. Expect to see Google launch an Android software - contest for Chrome.

[bradleyguyle]

Good point, LEOPiC, but Google would seem to have better brand recognition than Firefox did when it started out.

[onlyauser]

Do not trust Google Chrome.

Chrome is spyware mascaraing as a browser.

[Don Key]

How is Chrome going to handle adblocking software considering that Google's entire business model is based around ad revenue. I won't use Chrome until good quality ad blocking is implemented like it is for Firefox.

[LEOPiC]

@ bradleyguyle: I agree that Chrome has a far better brand recognition than what Mozilla or Firefox has but that is not Mozilla's bigger problem (or Opera for that matter) their bigger problem is: people simply not leaving IE.

IE is bundled in all computers and it seems to be working **fine** for most users, WHY would they switch? (please don't get me wrong, I am Firefox enthusiast since version 0.9) that by itself is the biggest challenge Google has to overpass, developers don't need to be sold on why is it better to handle each tab the way Chrome (or IE8 for that matter) does (will) or why V8 is a huge leap for JS, we know it, however to sell this to the average user is not an easy task.

@ Don: Do you think Google will shoot themselves in the foot? Hell no, thing is Chrome is open source, so even if they don't like it, someone will eventually port AdBlock for Chrome.

@ BobWalsh47: Better with Chrome? Is this going to become: http://www.w3junkies.com/toocool/ Too cool for IE? Hopefully not. Leave that aside, what will ever happen to Web Standards? Would you get more information if you use X or Y browser? Kind of sounds a little bit Microsoft-ish does not it?

[rverp]

Who are you kidding...Google has almost as big a name as Microsoft and people like it...We tolerate Windows' problems because there are no other viable choices in the business world...In reality PEOPLE LOVE GOOGLE, WE ALL USE IT...Firefox needs to become part of this or they will not survive..If Firefox and Google partner on this MICROSOFT WILL COLLAPSE....

[chisophugis]

I completely agree. Both Firefox and Chrome (and Mozilla, Google) are making everyone's internet better. Microsoft is not really doing that. For Google and Mozilla to compete for each other's market share is everybody's loss, if they team up against Microsoft, everybody gains. They HAVE to work together and make the internet a better place for everyone.

[igal_alkon]

i'm just in the middle of developing a new website from the ground up, i had a problem with the local web server, some ajax stuff just didn't work there, they worked fine on the live server (i use Firefox 3). so i just guessed it's something with the local server configuration.

and then i installed Chrome, and everything works fine on the local server. so guess it's not the server after all?

[clarity99]

" Originally little more than a way to play cute little sounds"
Err, Javascript is unable to play sounds. I really don't know where you got that from??

[bradleyguyle]

LEOPiC - You are right, of course. Google's brand name may help it 'outsell' Firefox, but as for taking on IE, most people are perfectly happy with what comes bundled with their machine. So outside of the relatively limited tech savvy users, Chrome - or any other browser, regardless of superiority over IE - will most likely have a limited market share.

[LEOPiC]

I was looking for this quote:
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and director of the W3C, has said it best:

?Anyone who slaps a ?this page is best viewed with Browser X? label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network.?

And also, as predicted: http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/09/08/early-stats-google-chrome-hurts-firefox-not-ie/