{"id":11355,"date":"2008-09-03T00:34:46","date_gmt":"2008-09-02T21:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=11355"},"modified":"2008-09-03T00:34:46","modified_gmt":"2008-09-02T21:34:46","slug":"google-chrome-a-new-punch-in-the-browser-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/03\/google-chrome-a-new-punch-in-the-browser-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Chrome – a new punch in the browser fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the last few days, the biggest thing in the technical news is Google Chrome browser<\/a> (check the comics book<\/a>, introducing the browser, download beta<\/a>).\u00a0 Sure, we had our share of browser wars, and we still do, but this is something completely different.\u00a0 Most of today’s browsers started back in the days when the Web was totally different.\u00a0 Since then, some browsers changed more than others.\u00a0 Some new ones appeared.\u00a0 But there was no a big break through.\u00a0 It was mostly an evolutionary approach.<\/p>\n

I’m glad to see these big news from Google, that they decided to create a new browser from scratch.\u00a0 They built it with solutions to many of the today’s problems.\u00a0 They’ve put some flexbility for the future.\u00a0 And it seems like they’ve thought a lot about it.<\/p>\n

I absolutely support their choice of open source in this matter.\u00a0 Nobody, not even Google can build a browser that will satisfy everyone and everything, and then keep developing and maintaining it.\u00a0 That’s not possible with the current state of the Web affairs.\u00a0 The only way to pull it off is to open source it, so that the Web itself could help them with this mega task.\u00a0 Also, it’s nice to see that they don’t want to reinvent the wheel either – taking both WebKit (open source web rendering engine) and V8 (open source JavaScript implementation) is smart decision.<\/p>\n

It’s nice to see some real competition in the browser world.\u00a0 Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has changed a lot in the last few years, and the biggest reason for those changes was Mozilla’s Firefox.\u00a0 Firefox changed a lot too, but it sure could use a push from another open source product.\u00a0 Google’s Chrome could be exactly that product.<\/p>\n

Also, for once it would be nice to see a browser built by someone who knows the Web, and not how to build software.\u00a0 Yes, browser is a software, but it’s not on its own.\u00a0 You need to know more and have access to a lot more data to build a good browser.\u00a0 In particular, what, who, and how uses the Web.\u00a0 Neither Microsoft, nor Mozilla, nor Opera Software have these information.\u00a0 Or at least not on the scale that Google has.<\/p>\n

And, of course, there always will be downsides to any good initiative.\u00a0 In the case with Google Chrome, my biggest concern is the situation with themes and extensions.\u00a0 Firefox has an excellent community in this regard.\u00a0 This community has built all possible and impossible thems and extensions for practically anyone anywhere.\u00a0 And it still continues to do so.\u00a0 Google Chrome starts from scratch, so there won’t be anything for some time.\u00a0 And since the whole browser thing is new, it’ll need to start with a new set of developers, testers, users, and so on.\u00a0 And so it will take them some time build that all up.<\/p>\n

As with anything, there are a billion of other ways to look at Google Chrome, the way the Web is going, the way Google is going, the way software development in general and IT as a whole is going.\u00a0 But I’ll leave that up to you.\u00a0 Here are, however, a few links to get you started.<\/p>\n