
The second browser war  - prakash
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12070730
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webwright
I read this morning that 50% of salesforce.com users are using IE6. Which, as
we all recall, was released in 2001.

This isn't a war-- it's a tiny little skirmish in the island nation of
EarlyAdopteropolis.

Let's hope it escalates.

~~~
apexauk
I think the biggest way this is escalating is the telling "download google's
new browser" link that tellingly found it's way onto the (famously
traditionally sparse) google homepage.

For many non-tech-savvy people, Google _is_ the internet. Just like people
type URLs into the google search box, if they see a message saying "download
new browser from Google" they're likely to interpret it as "download the new
internet"..!

Fair to say that never before have so many "mainstream"/consumer computer
users been exposed to such a simple call to switch browser..?

------
__
_As Arnaud Weber, a Google engineer and one of the characters in the comic
book, says in a speech bubble: "We're applying the same kind of process
isolation you find in modern operating systems." It is a geek's way of saying
that developers and consumers may soon stop caring about the operating system
on their own hard drive altogether._

Maybe they will stop caring, but I don't think that's what Weber was saying.
(I'm not even sure it was a subtext.) I understood Weber's line in a totally
literal sense.

~~~
maw
No, it wasn't what he was saying. The Economist took an implementation detail
to mean something entirely different.

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jessewmc
I think the most insightful part of this article is the conclusion:

'Ingeniously, Chrome itself need not take a lot of market share to fulfil
Google’s objectives. Google does not expect to sell or otherwise turn Chrome
directly into money. Like Firefox’s, Chrome’s source code is free for anybody
to change and improve, and even for rival browser-makers to incorporate. That
could even include Microsoft. As Mr Brin says, “we would consider it a
success” if the next version of IE were “built on Chrome, or even if it were
just a lot better as a result of Chrome.”'

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zain
I think the second browser war started when Firefox was released.

~~~
rudyfink
In that sense, this might really be a third browser war. I think Google is
pushing Chrome largely to support performance and standards.

I think Google would like to make browsers into commodity pieces of software.
Browsers might have different looks and perhaps different features, but when
it comes down to core rendering and performance they are exactly
interchangeable.

I don't see Chrome so much as a vehicle to compete for browser share as much
as I see it as an attempt to eliminate browser control as a point of
competition.

~~~
felipe
> I think Google would like to make browsers into commodity pieces of software

But isn't what Mozilla is already doing? I honestly don't see the point of
putting all this effort in creating something new to support performance and
standards, when there is already something else in place achieving those very
same goals.

Also, mind you that Mozilla is a foundation, while MS and Google are
monopolies.

~~~
rudyfink
I'd say that Mozilla and Google doing it are effectually different. Yes, the
end products are both open source and browsers.

Practically, especially from the perspective of the business community, I
think these are very different things. One is a product from a foundation
which may or may not decide to keep operating. The other is from a very heavy
weight company perceived to be a dominant up and comer.

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mojuba
Unfortunately Chrome can only grow at the expense of Mozilla loosing its
market share. The IE userbase won't move, because it's comprised of those who
for various reasons are loyal to Microsoft, and those who are ignorant about
browsers in general. Both groups don't care about Chrome same way as they
don't care about Firefox.

~~~
natrius
"The IE userbase won't move, because it's comprised of those who for various
reasons are loyal to Microsoft, and those who are ignorant about browsers in
general."

Google has a popular website with which to inform people of Chrome when they
choose to do so, and their brand is stronger than Firefox and Mozilla, so
those who stick with IE due to brand loyalty are more likely to switch to
Chrome than Firefox. Outside of corporate installations, Chrome has the
potential to convert many IE users.

~~~
wildwood
Even within corporate installations, actually. Chrome installs entirely in
user space on a XP machine, and doesn't need admin permissions to install.
That should allow it to be installed on all but the most locked-down corporate
boxes.

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rokhayakebe
There is no war. This is a takeover. Did you see that link on Google's
Homepage?

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ars
Is it possible to write an ActiveX app that runs chrome inside IE6?

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jasonkester
Firefox served a useful purpose. It forced Microsoft to develop and release
IE7.

Unfortunately, it didn't go away when that purpose was fulfilled. Hopefully
now that Google has put out a browser that can actually hang with Internet
Explorer, Firefox will finally pack it in.

~~~
shimi
I'll take it further.

What google are trying to do is to impose standardisation.Now days web
developers need to test a web site on IE and firefox.

What google are doing is testing it only on Chrome and forcing IE and FF to
yield and render web pages in the same way as Chrome.

If a user browse to a google app and it won't work he'll go: Bloody MS can't
release decent software I'll use Google's they can't do no evil!

