Logan Frederick

Google, the icon of Internet companies, recently released Chrome, an open source browser set to compete with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, as well as Firefox, for which Google is its largest customer.

The browser itself is still in beta, like GMail and every other Google service, and I expect it’ll stay that way for some time. The appearance is slick but goofy, something that Google has become increasingly good at designing for its products. Toolbars and menus are at a minimum; all screen space is efficiently compacted to provide room for more web page. Launching Chrome opens up a “Most Visited” pages dashboard.

Specific features aren’t really the story surrounding Chrome, as those, such as a noticeable absent Bookmark Manager, will be taken care of by the development community due to the free-to-download code. What’s more fascinating is this is the next move in the great Chess battle between Microsoft and Google, with Google putting the King in check.

“Think of Chrome as more than a simple Web browser,” Google declares. “It’s a platform for running Web applications.”

When Google says “platform”, they mean two things: A foundation to run their web applications and a place to display their advertisements. Microsoft’s online tools are lacking in polish and popularity compared to Google’s, which means more and more web users will be viewing Google ads. It’s no longer a matter of Microsoft being unable to crack the online advertising market; now Google is invading Microsoft’s oldest and most secure businesses. Someone in Redmond has to be worried.

Every time I open Google Chrome I might be adding money to its already bulging $12 billion pocketbook. But heck, their code sure does load Youtube videos faster than Firefox.

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