

Ask YC: Isn't the Chrome hype a little too much? - jyothi

Its day 2 and i still see 3/10 posts on HN are someway related to Chrome.<p>With Chrome Google follows suit with Apple. Awe everyone even before the launch such that for a long time even after the launch people think twice to put a negative comment or point at a limitation. These ones just feel out of the place and are outcast too!<p>No one comments even though logically thinking iPhone is marginally superior to high end Nokia phones except for the cool UI and a lot less robust and way too pricey.<p><i>A cult following</i>. I wonder what happens long term ? Does this break wisdom of crowds because the crowd leaves in the hype and their vision is blurred ?
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ericwaller
I would've agreed with you before the launch, but after actually using the
browser, I'm extremely impressed.

It's difficult to deliver on hype (cuil), and few companies can do it well
(apple), but I think google got it right with chrome.

~~~
pchristensen
Exactly. I was wondering what the big deal was over the weekend (I didn't get
a chance to read anything about it until Tue), but now that I've used it, I
think it's going to be amazing. Either a) other browsers will speed up and
clean up to match it (unlikely due to backwards compatibility with extensions)
or about 6-12 months from now it will be my only browser (it is already my
primary browser). Same thing happened with Google search, Google Maps, and
Gmail. I'm not an uncritical fanboy but I've been here before.

~~~
pg
Back in the mid 90s, before IE, Netscape was the "only" browser in the sense
that every release was a new de facto standard for HTML. That was actually a
good time; the web evolved very fast.

It would be cool if Google did that with Chrome. I prefer de facto standards
to the type slowly and tediously produced by committees, unless they're
overtly evil (i.e. create lock-in for one company), which this clearly isn't.

I've always wished we could go back to the time when someone just made more
and more powerful clients, and everyone else had to follow or be left behind.

~~~
psyklic
De facto standards _always_ create lock-in to a product, at least initially.
Nowadays, committees are necessary because no one wants to let their
competitor set any standards, "de facto" or not!

~~~
Herring
How do you do lock in with a FOSS product?

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mileszs
I have seen, I believe, 4 different articles concerning Chrome and privacy
concerns, as well as an article about a Chrome-related security vulnerability.
All of these are, in my opinion, negative -- not hype.

In contrast to the iPhone, I have seen a lot of "it is cool and fast, but I'm
not leaving FF/Safari/Opera just yet." When the iPhone launched, it went a
little something like, "ZOMG! I will totally be in line for this at 5am even
though I hate AT&T and mornings!"

Google Chrome is kind of a big deal. It's not surprising that everyone is
talking about it. If everyone is talking about it, it's not surprising that
the fact is reflected on the HN main page.

------
umangjaipuria
A bit too soon for "wisdom of crowds" to kick in? I'd say give it a few weeks
and we'd know.

Agree about the hype. But we're a generation of sub-second attention spans and
instant gratification.We're hype-prone. And come on - one of the world's
largest technology companies has launched their version of the most used tool
in these days - it's bound to generate excitement. I'm guessing it'll simmer
down in a few days.

And everything (of any note) will have a cult following as well as a cult
anti-following!

~~~
froo
Agreed about people being hype prone, look at the comments system on Digg. It
doesn't particularly matter if your comment on any submitted story is as
insightful as the rest, just as long as your among the first to comment your
almost guaranteed to get boosted high and to reap the associated benefits with
it.

It doesn't seem to be limited to any particular "group" of people either.

The same thing happens here on HN aswell to a smaller extent & I fully expect
to get modded down to all heck because of this comparison.

To me, wisdom of the crowds is abit of a misnomer, as once there is an
original "acceptance" by a small group of people, the web 2.0 echo chamber
kicks in.

This kind of effect is not just limited to social news sites either, the exact
same thing happens with blogs aswell - eg, a story might appear on Techcrunch,
and then 1000 "me too" posts will pop up around the place.

~~~
stcredzero
It's not only blogs. The traditional media suffers from it as well. If there
is significant hype with traction, everyone wants to hitch their wagon to it.

I saw a documentary about Charlie Chaplin. This was happening to him back in
his day. This has probably been going on since we've had _culture_.

~~~
froo
_This has probably been going on since we've had culture._

You know, I just had a weird connection when you mentioned that - I'm reminded
of one of the early scenes to 2001: A Space Odyssey... The "dawn of man"
scene. Link posted below for reference.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2XcPNSeUMQ>

One ape wakes up and notices the monolith, starts to make a little noise. This
in turn wakes up the rest of the apes and they start to make more noise, their
tribe is running quite wild.

Eventually one starts to try and interact with the object, soon more follow
and learn from it.

If you think about it, this is pretty much the essence of web 2.0

~~~
Herring
It's even affecting delicious though to a lesser extent. The links there are
much higher quality & something that caliber probably would show up anyway.

<http://delicious.com/> (half the links were chrome related)

~~~
froo
I'd be curious to see if there was a way to measure this effect with any kind
of certainty. Must ponder this some.

------
DaniFong
Chrome is, practically, a brilliant new operating system. It has a new
permissions structure, built in malware protection, a compiler, a javascript
virtual machine, a task manager, a rendering engine, a new process management
system, local storage, and is wicked fast. This is the biggest technical jump
in browser tech since mosaic.

You'd hear this much about a new windows or mac os, but it would mean far
less. Chrome will open the way for web apps that are as good, as robust, and
as beautiful as desktop apps. It's more than just hype.

~~~
MaysonL
You're right.

It is also "merely" a brilliant combination of a number of technologies which
have been maturing for quite a while. See for instance: "Open Standards Beyond
Java: On the Future of Mobile Code for the Internet" by Michalel Franz at UC
Irvine. (1998)
[http://www.jucs.org/jucs_4_5/open_standards_beyond_java/Fran...](http://www.jucs.org/jucs_4_5/open_standards_beyond_java/Franz_M.html)

------
ashu
There is a lot of discussion for two reasons: (1) the browser is really really
good, and as some others have pointed out, it has the potential to really
bring in a new era of computing. (2) anything to do with Google / Apple /
Facebook is a HUGE link bait, and so news sites / bloggers want to milk it to
the maximum.

Edit: also, the iPhone is right to be hyped despite all its flaws. Apple has
shown us another way of creating an extremely elegant (albeit sometimes less
than usable) user interface with little screen space. In the next few years,
you will see everybody copying it and taking it to the next level. The iPhone
is good not because what it is right now, but because of all the future
potential it has unleashed. Also, a jailbroken iPhone is a hacker's dream
despite the closedness of the platform.

------
kilowatt
Delivering a basically feature-complete browser after near complete radio
silence is pretty impressive if you ask me.

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krishna2
I was curious about the same thing and my keyword count script prints this :

chrome : 39 google : 37 startup : 12 web : 11 ask : 11 new : 11 yc : 8 browser
: 8 code : 7 chromes : 7 javascript : 7 y : 5 windows : 5 best : 5 game : 5
chromium : 5 v8 : 5 link : 4 combinator : 4 talk : 4 write : 4 language : 4 hn
: 4 python : 4 history : 4 technology : 4 programming : 4 twitter : 4 facebook
: 4 live : 4 chrome? : 3 project : 3 erlang : 3 market : 3 whats : 3 source :
3 good : 3 friendfeed : 3 things : 3 adds : 3 company : 3 googles : 3 make : 3
job : 3 does : 3 engine : 3 inside : 3 application : 3 business : 3

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smakz
The magic of chrome is basically it's javascript engine, which is the first
major implementation (from scratch) of a js engine since the advent of
ajex/client side heavy web applications.

Your analogy with Apple is fitting I think, Apple's iPhone raised the bar on
customer expectations for smart phones, hopefully Google' Chrome will raise
the bar on Javascript performance in browsers to move the web forward.

They just need to release a damned linux version!

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vithlani
Normally my friend, I would agree with you.

But with 90 tabs open, 25% of them with heavy JS and the system still stable,
Chrome itself very responsive, no mis-rendering of sites so far, flawless
import of bookmarks and settings, bookmarklets working out of the box, etc....
I think this one is worth the hype.

To think what Safari or Firefox would be like under such a load, not to
mention how it would bring the rest of the OS down with it.....

------
maw
Having an important piece of software that won't crash all the time is a big
deal.

Various people tell me that they never experience firefox crashes. Good for
them. I do, frequently. And, due to its very design, many bugs in its c++ core
are potential crashers.

------
streety
I was expecting this to be a poll.

There has been a lot of commentary on Chrome. I do think it has been too much.
I wouldn't say too much hype though. Quite a lot of the commentary has been on
the problems with the EULA and questioning the benchmarks.

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iamah
I don't get the hype, it's a cool browser, but this new era thing, defining
moment, I'm not sold yet...

one thing I'm still looking forward is local integration, it seems far away a
smooth integration between web applications and local machine

------
truebosko
why the hype? Because it's living up to it. Today while at work, I've been
using Chrome. Not because I'm curious about it, but because Firefox 3 is SLOW
compared to it. At work I was a lot of JS-heavy websites and apps and I'm just
loving it. Reading from Google Reader while having 2 Gmail's open is ... so
fast in Chrome

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iamdave
Honestly, I'm still confused how the screenshots on google.com/chrome are KDE
screenshots (or at least a Windows skin that looks just like KDE), but there's
still no Linux distro.

------
13ren
next: Google netbook?

It's perfect for Google's client-server model. The only reason they wouldn't
do it is if they are happy with what others are doing in the space - such as
the eee PC. But Google wants it to be _cheaper_ , because that means more
users, which grows the internet market for google.

But as soon as google others aren't doing what would benefit google, out will
come the google netbook - it's surely in development already, just as Google
Chrome was.

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rms
It's big, highly relevant news until there is other, more interesting news.
It'll calm down in another day, until the Mac/Linux versions come out.

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braindead_in
the idea of having separeate processes for tabs is awesome. makes you go duh.
javascript performance is simply great. bodes well for web apps. but only two
gripes. no adblock plugin yet. and a non standard installer (installs in your
documents and settings!)

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webwright
It's a big improvement. If they gave me Firebug in Chrome, I'd put a bullet in
Firefox. :-P

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jsdalton
Count your blessings. I think there would have been twice the hype had they
released it for Linux and Mac. Most of the hypemakers are on Macs these days,
aren't they...

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compay
Cool and interesting but yes... overhyped.

~~~
DougBTX
I've not seen Google doing much hyping, just lots of people excited. To an
impartial observer, perhaps overexcited, but that's a far cry from over hyped.
The whole project has just been rumours for the past x years, and not even
very loud ones. Hardly "hype".

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volida
what's the problem?

at least Google delivered a very nice product

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cookiecaper
Ugh, I definitely think that it's very "overhyped". It can be seen even in
these comments, and I thought that HN would get me away from this kind of
"Wow, something shiny, it's a new age for computing!" hyperbole.

Google Chrome is certainly a very respectable browser, but it's not
revolutionary; it does have some iterative advances, like tabs as processes,
but it's by no means some coup d'etat of the current powerhouses.

First of all, V8 and TraceMonkey are competitive and both have barely begun to
achieve their potential; Fx 3.1 will be at least as fast as Chrome is today,
I'm sure.

Google might be able to whisk away a few snobby/brand-obsessed IE users, or IE
users who never gave anything else a chance for whatever reason, but the
majority of IE's marketshare (people too afraid to install software, and
people who freak out when they have to learn something to use their computer)
is going to stick with IE. Anything respectable that steals IE marketshare is
great, don't get me wrong, I'm just a bit skeptical that Chrome will see more
than 5% stable marketshare anytime soon.

Chrome is missing a lot of Firefox's features. It has a couple that were cut
from Fx 3, but overall, I think it provides a worse user experience. You get
no extensions, there are few real-world sites where you'd notice the speed
increase over Fx 3 (and 3.1 will be on par, and if I understand correctly,
betas aren't more than a couple of months off) (you would notice the increase
over IE; as my computer illiterate IE-using friend stated, "WOOOOO IT'S SOOO
FAST"), and very lacking in terms of extensibility and customization, compared
to Fx.

Chrome is a great technical asset, and it's exciting to see Google throw their
hat in the ring, because it provides a lot to the community and will be for
the benefit of all browser developers. It will push innovation forward, and
that's definitely a great thing. Mozilla will graft the best parts into
Firefox, Google will do the same, and things will continue on happily, finally
with healthy competition again. It's undoubtedly an exciting time in browser
development, and frankly, this innovation in JavaScript engines and browsers
as a whole is long overdue.

Chrome is a nice thing, but it's not "a new age in computing", or any other
such ridiculous hyperbolic statement. Have some perspective, people.

------
drhowarddrfine
As a web developer, I consider Chrome to be the beginning of a new era of
online computing. We'll look back at this day and say this was the defining
moment. Not that it takes anything away from Firefox at all, but having Google
put its stamp on a browser is highly significant.

~~~
DenisM
As a mobile developer I feel the same way about Apple - iPhone (with bugs and
all) is the dawn of new era, similar to how PC+modem was the dawn of the
connected world as we know it today.

These are the most exciting times in recent memory as three new platforms are
being born before our eyes: the mobile PC, the cloud and the "web browser
2.0".

~~~
froo
web browser 2.0?

There has easily been more than 2 major revisions in browser technology (I'm
not talking just version changes, I'm talking fundamental changes in ideas)

If I had to quickly disassemble it, it would have been something like.

\- Pre-mosaic times (the internet was a dark and lonely place) = browser 1.0

\- Mosaic, the browser that "popularised" the web = browser 2.0

\- The introduction of Netscape and Microsoft IE and the "browser wars" that
followed in which microsoft "won" = browser 3.0

\- Introduction of a major competitor to IE that championed open source
movement (Firefox) would have been 4.0

So if my rough timeline is correct, that would make Chrome browser generation
5.0 and to be honest, while it is a great browser so far - it is just too
early to call. Remember Active Desktop for IE4 and how revolutionary that was
for it's time? It introduced the idea that the web is more than just your
browser, It's not even around anymore that's how revolutionary it is.

One could even argue that Safari for iphone should be 5.0 because it took the
true web (not the mobile web, and I dont want to argue about flash) into the
palm of your hands.

At the end of the day, the market will decide; so while Google does have a
strong brand and lots of successes, it also has it's fair share of "failures".
This isn't Google hate, I love their stuff, it's just reality.

(EDIT - put in a few additional things)

~~~
johns
Browser 1.0 = designed to render web pages

Browser 2.0 = designed to run web applications

~~~
froo
Well then by that definition, Google chrome is still not the first "Browser
2.0" because other development teams have included technologies like
Javascript and especially ActiveX controls into their browsers, effectively
making them application platforms.

I just would like to reiterate that I'm not a Google hater, nor do I think
Google Chrome will fail. I think it's a great addition to the web.

I just don't like all this inane hype that's going around and believe me, tech
enthusiasts are about as bad as teenage girls when it comes to gossiping and
echo chambers.

Remember when Plurk was the Twitter killer because of Twitter always being
down? I think we're still waiting on that one.

EDIT - (fixing 5am grammar errors, I'm sure I missed some)

~~~
johns
I used the word "designed" intentionally. The 1.0s were not designed for web
apps. They work, but that wasn't their intent. This is the first browser
conceived for the purpose of running apps. It just happens to be backwards
compatible.

~~~
froo
I'm sorry but I can't drink the kool aid on that one, because it sounds like
your implying that other software implementations by other developers before
Google didn't "design" their software - which would be a complete fallacy.

Don't get me wrong, the multiple processing is fantastic, faster javascript is
great, along with all the other toys that Google have in their browser.

However, all this means is Google does it better than anyone else hands down
and that it's going to do fantastic things to further the web. It will push
other developers to be better, kind of like how iphone pushed other phone
manufacturers to be better... but in both cases that is more or less an
advantage of being late to market.

Anyway, the point is that I think you might have swallowed the hype a little
bit too much in believing that Google is the first generation of browsers that
was "designed" for web apps because it was designed to run them better than
the many generations before it.

That would be like saying Chuck Yeager was the first man to do powered flight
because he broke the sound barrier first.

The Wright brothers would not be amused.

------
sabat
The hype isn't that big. What Google is trying to do might be.

So: no. Reconsider your contrarian status.

