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In case you haven't heard the news yet, Google Chrome is coming. What's that? A new open-source browser from Google, soon to be available at http://www.google.com/chrome or http://gears.google.com/chrome/?hl=en (currently redirecting to Google's home page at the time of publishing), depending on which sources you read.
The point of this post is not to rehash the news. For more information on that, Eric Lander at Search Engine Journal has a nice write-up of Google Chrome that includes links to many other prominent news references near the end.
If you're looking for some opinion, read on. I'm going to go out on a public limb with a prediction. You can all laugh later and throw cheeseballs at me if I'm proved wrong.
This browser will be lucky to see the light of day.
This is not to say the browser won't be interesting, useful, or innovative. In fact, all three are likely. The reason the browser will remain in the shadows is because IE, Firefox, and Safari are too entrenched in the minds of web-surfers everywhere. Sure, some people will experiment, but most of them will soon file it away for playtime like they do the majority of Google's applications.
Google Docs, a Microsoft Word killer? Hardly. Android, a revolutionary mobile phone platform? Not yet.
Like so many other Google programs, the number of actual users and power of "mindshare" for Google Docs and Android do not keep pace with the hype that greeted their introductions.
Google already owns so many products that are isolated in niches. Just take a look at its ever-evolving lineup and tell me how many of these applications you use in your daily web adventures. In other words, is Google Chrome going to be just another pretty icon on that page that's loved by a niche community, or is it really going to challenge Microsoft the way GMail does, or the way Google Docs is often breathlessly predicted to?
I, for one, would be happy to be proved wrong. I have wholeheartedly rejected IE ever since my discoveries of Firefox and Safari. But for Google Chrome to succeed on the scale that carnival barkers proclaim? That's a lot of old habits--and commercial clout--to break.
About the Author: Paul RichlovskyA member of the company since 2006, Paul is a College of Wooster graduate who has served in various writing, editing, and account management capacities. He currently helps lead Fathom's internal marketing strategy, contributing to brand and product activation while helping manage content on the company website. A former teacher of English as a foreign language, he has previously written about vocational education on YouShouldGoToSchool.com.
Comments
3 Comments so far3 Responses to “Google Chrome: Shiny and Soon Forgotten”
looking forward to Chrome for efficiency's sake... Google seems to make consistently high-quality software in any case
Like many, I've downloaded it and played with it. I think if you are a web designer (I'm not) you are obligated to add it to your testing matrix, if your analytics show your visitors are using it in any real numbers.
I agree that there is buzz about it because it is Google - and that causes some suspicion as to what their end game is. Can they leverage users of Chrome increase web domination?
One statement about why Chrome will fail that I saw in this article really sticks out at me:
"...IE, Firefox, and Safari are too entrenched in the minds of web-surfers everywhere."
I agree 100% with you on this, Paul. If you look at the Google blog post you link to in this article, Google itself describes just how much we rely on browsers for things we do everyday online (like banking, shopping, email, etc). Because we use our "browser of choice" as a vehicle to get things done online, I can't see the masses making the switch to Chrome.