It depends how you look at it. You could say it’s actually less of a web browser. For those of you ‘in the know’ (although apparently it was even in the news) Google has released a new browser aimed at taking on Internet Explorer, it’s called Chrome.
For those eagerly awaiting how Google would approach building a browser it might well have been an anti climax. There’s not much to it really. It certainly doesn’t have the bells and whistles Firefox is capable of. It doesn’t even have a bookmark manager! So what’s the point? 
Well becoming the next Internet Explorer competitor is just the beginning…
Google’s long-term goal is clear: Dominate the enterprise and small business market in the same way it now dominates Internet search. – Computer World Blogs
The aim
Currently Google have applications such as Google Docs which includes a spreadsheet, word processor and even a Powerpoint alternative for presentations, all of which remain online, within your browser. Rather than installing big expensive, resource hungry applications such Microsoft Office, the idea is that you’ll simply be able to use free services such as Google Docs and with that comes all the advantages of seamless collaboration. The speed and efficiency at which they will run will depend on the speed of your internet connection.
This isn’t just another online Web 2.0 application. Chrome, along with a few other behind the scenes technologies, will allow access to your documents even when your offline. Chrome will act as the ’skin’ to these applications. In the not too distant future, they’ll be releasing the code that runs these applications to allow web developers to build more applications. This is a similar to what Apple did with the App Store. They built the platform and allowed the developer community to create applications to run on it.
As of August 20, 2008, there are 2,139 applications officially available for the iPhone, not including the ones built into the iPhone. WikiPedia
BUT, would you be happy with storing all your data on Google’s servers? I guess it’s a matter of weighing up the pro’s and con’s. It’s not like the decision will need to be made next week either, it’ll take a while for this new trend to catch on, but it definately is a new trend. Have you ever known Google to do anything that didn’t make an impact?
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Written by Brad Halcrow.Brisbane Beyond Chalk Facilitator
