So what does Chrome mean for Mozilla, and for me?

As a post-script to my post on Google’s newly launched browser, Chrome, I just wanted to add some thoughts on what this means for Mozilla. Their browser, Firefox, is currently the best browser out there. It’s open source, its robust, its standards-compliant and it’s packed with features. And the thing that’s causing some raised eyebrows around the web is that Google is in quite serious partnership with Mozilla: their input in return for setting Google as the default search engine in Firefox amounts to a hefty percentage of the company’s revenue. So what do the folks at Mozilla think of Google stepping on their toes?

Well, they have been pretty quick to state that they’re not upset . Both the CEO John Lily and European President Tristan Nitot have commented fairly extensively and reading between the lines, the message seems to be ‘yes, we did get a bit sideswiped, but we’re big boys and we can all get along’. Whilst they seem to be a little on the back foot with this one, they also seem relatively confident that both companies have the best interests of the web at heart and that they can co-exist supportively. And although they're hardly likely to stamp their feet and scowl in public, I would like to believe them.

Read More » September 5th, 2008 / Tags: chrome, firefox, mozilla / Trackback

Welcome to the world, Google Chrome

You might have to be living under a rock to have missed the launch of Google’s brand new, open source browser Chrome earlier this week; but you might be wondering what all the fuss is about.

So what’s new?
A new open source browser, you say? What’s wrong with Firefox? Well, Firefox is an excellent browser. But unlike both Mozilla and Internet Explorer which have both recently released new versions of their browsers (IE8 and FF3), without many obvious improvements on the previous version, Google, as is their way, have gone out of their way to innovate.

They claim that they wanted to create a browser which was truly equal to the current and growing demands on web browsers: for example video, gaming, and javascript heavy web applications. Perhaps the most exciting factor is the multi-process approach to the tabs, where each tab is allocatied its own processing power… which if it really works as they promise should improve the browsing experience hugely. Whereas in existing browsers a jam in one tab jams up the whole browser – with Chrome each tab works independently of the others, so that even if something has gone wrong somewhere, you can carry on with what you were doing instead of staring at an unresponsive browser in growing frustration.

Read More » September 4th, 2008 / Tags: chrome, google chrome / Trackback