Browsermore and Browserless: Google Chrome

Browserless Web:  a term that describes communication between web applications without the need for a web browser.  – Wikipedia

As everyone with even a remote pulse and a web browser knows by now, Google recently released their own web browser known as Chrome.  Currently it’s only available as a Windows Beta, but word on the ‘web is that it’ll be available for Mac within the next few months.  You can sign up for the Beta or for Mac updates over at Google.  Everyone’s already written about the UI (Ars) and the WebKit (including Google Gears) that’s under the hood.  There was also an article on digg about how this will and has affected everyone’s former favourite open-source web browse Firefox.  I’ll let you form your own opinions about the actual usage of the browser itself (especially since I’ve not actually used it myself yet).  You can find more resources here and here (Ars Technica and TUAW, respectively).  Follow us across the break for more about the player that’s inventing a new game.

Multi-process architecture means that even if one process gets sick, the other two are immune.

Multi-Process Architecture

The big buzz is over the multi-process functionality of Chrome.  Each tab is an individual process, meaning if one tab-webpage-craps out on you, the whole browser isn’t going down.  It’s similar to the stability of OS X-one app goes down, you don’t lose the whole system.  It also means you can isolate issues easily and either deal with them, or, if you’re a web-surfing speed demon, you can swap out to a tab that is working.  Taking the multi-process architecture a step further allows individual plug-ins to work independent of the other items on the page, meaning there’s no possibility for a weakest link: or at least, that weakest link doesn’t slow down the rest of the items.

Other Features

Other features include the minimalist UI, the Omnibar which supposedly enhances searching (I want to know if it supports keywords for bookmarks) such as typing in a phrase and having the pages you’ve recently visited searched for that phrase (and turning up results, obviously).  Google is also offering more functionality with tabs, which reads more like something that we’ll find in the next ‘Fox update rather than truly mind-blowing.  I, however, am looking forward to more tab functionality.  It’s especially useful when using multiple displays.  I like to leave a window open on one screen for watching videos or reading latest articles while I work on blog posts.  However, my MacBook Pro comes with me while I’m walking around, which means I occasionally have to reset the windows with my second display.  Being able to drag my video tabs (especially if I’m in the middle of watching one) to the other monitor would be very useful.  Also, if I need to add a tab to a separate window, I can do that with Chrome as well.

Still Just a Browser

There are two points I want to make here.  The first one is very clearly made in this xkcd comic:

(reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License)

Just substitute Chrome for Firefox.  Obviously those of us obsessing over Chrome need to step back and take it into perspective.  Chrome is just a browser.   What that does tell us, though, is that there’s a step up to be made-and it’s partially found in Google Gears, partially in Adobe Air, again with the Apple Dashboard app, iPhone apps, and even built in functionality with Vista.

I have a developer friend (aka ‘Codemonkey’) in San Francisco.  He mentioned in his article about Chrome that he was disappointed that it was still a browser.  As slick as it is with its new features, Google isn’t revolutionizing the way we use the web.  This is something that Codemonkey was saying: instead of using a bunch of linked pages displaying through our browsers, we could be using applications developed specifically to be utilized while attached to the web.  While I really like having everything centralized in a browser, there are some points where I don’t need all that, like, for instance, getting the weather.  I always use Dashboard for this: it’s an interface that doesn’t get a lot of attention, but it brings to you all the parts of the web that you really could want, at the touch of a button.

Similarily, the iPhone has become a great Web Application platform: take Now Playing (formerly Box Office) that allows you to look up movie showtimes, trailers, locations, ticket prices, etc.  This information is obviously taken from the internet, but it’s not being displayed in a browser.  And, in this case, it’s even better than using a browser, because you don’t have to be on one theatre’s website, you can just access Now Playing and find all that information.  This helps categorize your information and streamline your internet experience.

There are, of course, plusses to using the browser.  I myself am a fan because it makes it easy to access any other information without leaving my one window.  (Without tabbed browsing this would be impossible).  Any time I need information of any sort, want to watch a video, check my news feeds, etc, I can do all of that from the various applications on my iPod Touch, but if I’m going to be ‘browsing’ the internet for any prolonged period of time, I certainly perfer the browser experience.  It seems to me that there will always be a place for the browser, especially as a completely open portal.  When we need a more tailored or faster experience, we’ll turn to platforms like Dashboard, the iPhone OS, or Adobe Air, and use the intrnet as a desktop application.

Expecting Google Chrome to be anything other than a browser is not a bad thing.  Chrome makes it easy to access the web in a new way, in the words of Nick Mediati of PC World, “blurring the line between what’s online and what’s inside your PC”  The web as an integral part of the OS is really the innovative place where Google is heading.  Google has the freedom to do that, as their suite of applications are all already ‘in the cloud’.  MIcrosoft IE, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari are all fairly locked in as web browsers, they’re packaged as such, and their existence depends on their usefulness as portals.

Obviously with Firefox you’ve got the ability to use various add ons (and good news, Google plans to integrate plug-ins with Chrome at some point).  Which makes the browsing experience smoother, and allows for more functionality out of the browser.  For the future of computing, especially as it takes off into the clouds, I see desktop applications, Microsoft Office, for instance, integrating use of the internet right into the program.  Office could easily become a Google Docs type program, increasing the amount of functionality that business have.

Google has already demonstrated a certain amount of utility in applications of this type.  Moving them out of the browser and on to the desktop is essential.  Right now, the browser itself, and especially Chrome, is functioning as a surrogate operating system, with document editing, storage, photo retouching, email, chatting functionality, all media types, programming opportunities, and more.  This has been said, but Google isn’t going to control the browser wars with Chrome.  Google is going to take the operating system wars to the next level with an entirely new premise: Cloud OSes.

Chrome In and of Itself

Chrome by itself isn’t exactly an earth shattering innovation.  It has nice features, of course, but is lacking in other areas.  It’s definitely open source and definitely has a multi-process architecture, which means a) it’s lightening fast and b) it can only get faster as more people contribute to it.  It’s lacking in bookmark action, especially bookmark bars, but it tries to make up for it with it’s multi functional omnibar that will direct you to just about any page you could possibly be thinking about.  My issue with this is that many times I have very specific sites I’m visiting, and my Firefox keywords or Safari number bookmarks can get me there immediately.  However, if I’m just browsing, the omnibar seems like it would be optimal.

So, I suppose my main argument against Chrome is it’s lack of customization.  No skins, no add-ons, no bookmarks bar, minimal interface, etc.  And in terms of minimal interfaces, I’ve found Firefox 3.0 for Mac to have almost nothing to it: just my tabs, bookmarks bar, and URL/search bars.  I wouldn’t have thought it’d be possible to reduce that, but it appears so.

The real power of Chrome comes from what’s under the hood: speed and stability, as well as it’s possible future as a true web-based, Cloud Operating System.

Look out for Chrome being ported to Mac and Linux soon as well as a full review from us.  Also, take care to watch out for security issues that have been reported with Chrome.

Some computer users have always been old school: they prefer the keyboard to the mouse, terminal to a GUI, and Firefox to Chrome.

~ by joshuadlwilliams on September 8, 2008.