Don’t fall for the Chrome hype

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There’s sound advice for potential users considering leaping into Google’s new web browser, Chrome, which in an advanced beta version emerged Sept 2. “Don’t fall for the hype,” suggests research company Ovum. “Google Chrome still has everything to prove.”

The advice seems sound. On Tuesday September 2, Google launched the beta version of its open source Chrome web browser, as part of its strategy to move from search to applications. The clear target, says Ovum, “is not just Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) but also the Windows desktop. The web browser market, no longer limited to the cosy IE/Firefox duopoly, has just got a lot more interesting,” said Laurent Lachal, senior analyst at Ovum.

But be cautious in what might only be an experiment, suggests Ovum. The research company remind us that Chrome’s built-from-scratch JavaScript VM provides OS/hardware platform independence (and runs applications faster by running machine code rather than interpreted code, among other tricks). Its multi-process (rather than multi-threaded) design provides the same isolation capabilities found in OSs. It turns each tab into an independent application environment with its own controls and URL box. This design prevents tabs from crashing the whole browser and enables them to move not just within the browser but also out to their own window. Chrome also features Google Gears technology to make online applications available offline.

“Chrome is much less of a challenge to Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox browser. Its release comes a few days after Google renewed its partnership deal with the foundation, effectively funding it for another three years until November 2011. Mozilla’s main challenge (to grow independent from Google’s funding) remains unchanged. The foundation now has more time to get its act together in a market that, owing to Chrome, could become not just more competitive but also more open source browser friendly. Eventually Chrome and Firefox could converge, but at the moment two strong players (Chrome with Google’s mindshare as well as marketing and financial muscle, and Firefox with its market share lead and ecosystem) have more chance against Microsoft than one.”

“Chrome is only an experiment,” says Ovum, “in line with Google’s usual approach to try various offerings and see which ones stick. Many became resounding successes; others remain complete fiascos. It is too early to see which category Chrome will eventually find itself in. We expect success but it will be much more gradual and slow than most suppose and more likely in the mobile browser space than in the desktop one.”


Source:RapidTVNews