Everyone seems to be very excited about Google Chrome so I thought I'd add some cynicism.
Yet another browser. Woohoo! Just what everyone building web sites needs. Because the test matrix of all the Operating Systems and Browsers multiplied by the different versions wasn't enough already! It works in Firefox 2 but not Chrome 1 or Safari... But of course adhering to all the standards will make that pain go away, just as history has repeatedly shown us. An alternative outcome is that Chrome completely kills some of the others off and in turn making life simpler...
Everyone seems to be focused on how snappy it is to render pages. It is important - no doubt. But no one seems to be seeing how easy each browser is to deploy across several thousand desktops in an enterprise. Or perhaps to control configurations through group policy and deploy patches. What about application compatibility with other desktop applications? In fact, why would an enterprise actually invest the money in bothering to roll out a new browser? What would that business case look like? There will always be periods of arbitrage - rolling out the very latest browser will improve the performance of some key web applications (perhaps even breaking some)... and then it will be leap-frogged by another that is not only a bit faster but also includes a nice feature too. Gotta have that. If performance is always going to be at or around parity, where is the real value that will drive enterprise adoption. Google captures mind share through personal use which escalates into enterprise adoption; they had better start planning enterprise features. Perhaps it will just magically work better with Google Office? That wouldn't sound fair and following the open standards philosophy though, but then why bother with developing a browser and not just contribute to Mozilla? What is the agenda here?
No one seems to be using code analysis tools and the code architecture to see how good each is at being exploitable by malicious sites. I know some cool fruity companies who have released some cool software which have significant vulnerabilities identified on the very day they were released.
How good are the browsers at supporting all the different languages in the world? Maybe that is important to some people. There are so many criteria to assess a browser. Does it suit the web developer, the IT manager, Grandma, your kids, the knowledge worker, the visually impaired...
If all next generation applications are going to be delivered in the cloud we'll be needing a new host for those applications. Because we need yet another super fat layer on top of the operating systems and yet another virtual machine. We haven't tried that before? And all applications will be in the cloud. Of course! One architecture fits all. I wish the commentators would just be a little bit more balanced and realise that there is just too much variety in a world that is constantly changing. There isn't a "best language" or a "best system of government". Supermarkets are very dominant, but by no means the only forms of retail - if you see what I mean.
My cynicism alarms go off when I read the marketing hype about what a wonderful open source citizen Chrome will be - it is all magnanimous and altruistic . Very large American company driving for great profits. We already have a great open source browser in Mozilla - clearly an "agenda" couldn't be progressed through this channel... Is it features like this built in key logger? Does your enterprise want all your private intranet browsing captured? This can be turned off, but you had better be able to enforce that through enterprise policy.
Anyway, apparently, its snappy and I'd better go try it out...