It was hard not to notice the fact that Google released their own open-source browser, Chrome, in beta two weeks ago. After downloading, installing, and experimenting, I have to say that I was a lot more impressed by the comic than by the browser. Not that it's a bad browser, just that it was not as exciting as I thought it would be.
First impressions aside, this release does have some serious implications for web developers and designers.
- Those of us who don't use Macs usually put the webkit rendering engine underneath Mozilla's Gecko and IE's Trident in terms of priority--way underneath. We will need to rethink that strategy in the near future.
- Javascript is getting sexier. Chrome promises some dramatic and much-needed enhancements to client-side scripting. If they pull it off, Ajax will become a lot more useful than it already is.
- This could mean the end of FireFox. Google has the potential to out-firefox Mozilla. FF has achieved a near 100% penetration with technology professionals and power users, but they are unable to make a dent in the everyday user market. Google has the name recognition and relationships to make this happen.
The browser wars are far from over. The best news are that competition from a big player like Google is going to push better features and more creativity.
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