LONDON, UK: On Tuesday 2 September, 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 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. But don’t fall for the hype – Google Chrome still has everything to prove.

The launch of Chrome is surprising but in line with Google strategy

“Chrome underpins Google’s efforts to expand from search to applications, as part of a broader business diversification. This is a diversification that is both necessary and timely. The launch starts with the assertion that browsers need to become application platforms – with the implicit assumption that Chrome will be a particularly good platform for Google’s own applications and the starting point for a more integrated experience across these applications,” said Laurent Lachal, senior analyst at global advisory and consulting firm Ovum.

Google seeks to expand from search to applications by delivering a better platform for richer web applications, which is less dependent on the underlying operating system (OS). The current version only runs on Windows. Mac and Linux versions are to follow soon.

Chrome: Google's open source browser

“Until now Google has focused on delivering various applications (and/as services) rather than on integrating them. Chrome could herald a change in this strategy to deliver a better, more integrated user experience. Indeed, Google is very keen to improve users’ browsing experience with a focus on speed, simplicity (as with the Google homepage), stability (claiming that Chrome is ‘rock solid’) as well as security (based on lists of phishing and malware software/websites and on the ‘sandboxing’ capabilities of the JavaScript VM and multi-process design),” he added.

Google has been talking about creating its own browser for some time, but the release of the Chrome beta has come as a surprise. Instead of the usual press release, it announced it via a blog entry and a detailed, well-written (albeit a bit too technical) 38-page comic book – which was mistakenly released a day earlier than originally planned, on Monday 1 September.

Further he said: “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.”

The main target is Microsoft, not Mozilla Foundation

Chrome challenges not just Microsoft’s IE browser (especially in the mobile browser space – on the desktop space it simply makes the forthcoming IE version 8 look much less inspiring) but also its Windows desktop (by supporting richer web applications less dependent on standard OSs).

Microsoft loses 7pc of browser market

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, 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,” concluded Lachal.

(The author is senior analyst at global advisory and consulting firm Ovum, UK.)