Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Google chrome - The Application Browser

So the news is out and google has released it's first browser.  After seeing some of my colleagues comments about chrome I thought I should weigh in on the latest from google.

Have you used it yet? I downloaded it today and it took about 2 minutes to download and it works! So is this just another browser or is there a future in google browsing?  As many of you might remember in some of my early posts on linkedin, the real next waves in computing will be the browser or the evolution of the browser.  The notion of a desktop or operating system is changing or evolving into a browser, an application browser.  As SaaS applications begin to build a larger footprint, users will want more functionality and they will want that functionality richness to enhance their user experience without system degragation.  Just like the SaaS apps that work in a multitenant hosted enviroment, leaving the heavy lifting to the hosted environement, application browsers will forge the way in new computing methods.

The real challenge today is to see what developers can do with this new application browser and see how they can enhance their current apps with google chrome.  What if you could turn your computer on and connect to google without ever loading windows...  

So what do I already miss, spell check! Firefox was great at spell checking and I already miss that basic functionality. Next on my list is my google toolbar, with the new tab feature, I guess I may not need a traditional bookmark / favorites / toolbar because google chrome incorporates some of that basic functionality out of the box.  My home page is google, now I can just type what I am looking for in the browser line and if its a website, it will go to it and if its something I am seraching for, it will search and send me my results. Nice.

Interesting side note, my sound stopped working with flash when I did a Microsoft update several weeks ago and now it works again after installing google chrome.  I have spent the last several weeks going to blogs about this flash sound issue and tried several things including a hack to registry with no avail... Now, after a 2 min download/installation, flash sound works again!

As a friend often says, Life isnt about waiting for the storm to pass; It's about learning how to dance in the rain.