Will Chrome takeover your desktop?

BANGALORE, INDIA: Continuation to our last week feature on Chrome, this week we will highlight on what made Google to enter to web browser domain.

Why Google entered this domain?

Common sense implies that this is a result of the Google-Microsoft rivalry, and when we questioned Google about it, they gracefully agreed, “We didn't think it was long term good for their users that a major competitor (Microsoft) effectively controlled access to our services.”

Google further said, “The browser landscape is highly competitive, and people want a browser that puts the services they want right at their fingertips, respects their personal choices about how they want to browse and puts them in control of their personal data online.

Though there are already browsers like Internet Explorer and Mozilla, etc which are doing their job well, but we strongly believe that with Chrome, we can add value for users and help drive innovation on the Web. We want to drive the Web browser to shift towards Web 2.0-that is where all future applications are heading to.”

Interesting hidden eggs

Chrome has a few hidden functions; to check them out, type the following in the address bar of Chrome.

1. about:memory-shows the memory usage vis-à-vis other open browsers of the system and also the break-up of all the tab windows.

2. about:stats-shows complete stats of various parameters that Chrome is dependent on.

3. about:internets-starts a screensaver of 3D Pipes (doesn't work in Vista as the Pipes screensaver was available in XP only)

4. about:dns-shows the DNS listing of sites visited and used for pre-fetching.

5. about:plugins-lists all the installed and supported plugins.

6. about:network-shows the network activity that is going on for I/O requests, etc.

Will Chrome takeover your desktop?

Many experts and analysts say that Google has hidden agenda behind Chrome. It will take over your desktop, encroach your personal browsing behavior, and will gather information about users' likes and preferences to serve right kind of ads on the page. We spoke to Google and they defended themselves.

They said, “At Google, we're committed to transparency and choice. Our mission is to make the Web better for our users through product innovation enabling users to access, share and create content quickly on a stable and safe platform.

Google does not collect additional personal information from users of Google Chrome. For those using Google Chrome, the information shared with Google when, say, you're using our search engine, is similar to the information that is shared when you're using a different browser and search on Google. Some features in Google Chrome, such as crash reporting, error pages and (Nav) Suggest do send some additional information to Google, but the information is not personal and those features can be easily turned off. ”

Is Chrome igniting the Web browser war?

Ever since Chrome came into existence, rumors of a Web browser war have been doing rounds. People have been thinking that Chrome might create a mess by fiddling around with the existing Web browser space, and these speculations became rife when Chrome surpassed Safari's market share in just two days after its official launch. After that people even went to the extent of saying that Chrome might become an IE killer in future.

But neither do we see any war in the making nor do we find Chrome capable enough of decimating the leadership of IE-at least not at the moment. Chrome lovers, don't get us wrong, but you can't deny that we really can't compare Chrome with stalwarts IE and Mozilla Firefox etc. at this stage. Agreed, with many features, fast processing, and its minimalistic appearance, Chrome looks good and performs well too. But it does not have add-on facilities that Firefox offers which provides users with an option of customizing the browser as per their needs.

With Chrome being open source, one can expect such extensions coming up for Chrome too, once the developer community starts backing the Google's open source browser initiative called Chromium. But for Chrome to reach at the top it surely need's loads of revamping and developer community's backing-this will take time, may be few months or years-we will have to wait for atleast another Chrome's Beta to get released to actually comment about its future.

If Chrome succeeds in near future, then this will be another testament of Google's leadership (other than the apps) in the Internet space, and even if its doesn't, users still have something to be happy about-it certainly has benefitted users by providing them with another option (browser) that they can look upto.

Want to pitch-in suggestions on Google Chrome? Join us at http://forums.pcquest.com, under the thread Web-based Solutions > Google introduces browser.