[m] What is Google Chrome aiming at?

Google released its Chrome web browser on Tuesday, September 2. Being a long-time Firefox user, I have downloaded and tried out Chrome. The browser is light weight. Its user interface, just as described in the release news conference, is "simple enough to make you forget the existence of the browser itself". Google claims that the release of Chrome is to contribute to the diversity of browser user's choice. Nothing wrong with this statement, but what's more?

Here are my two cents:

- A defensive attack at Microsoft to protect Google apps. To ensure a significant control of the platform where one's own applications runs on is a key factor for the success of internet giants. An analogy is that we never heard an Amazon statement claiming "powered by Microsoft SQL Server technology". Google has invested considerable effort in the new business of Google apps (docs, mail, calendar) that have both light local existence and tight integration with the service cloud. Putting the user experience of these applications in the hand of a well-know rival is a threat of today, and will be a disaster in the tomorrow.

- Make official endorsement to a non-IE platform. Isn't there Firefox, and it is backed up by Google already? The answer is both yes and no. OEMs can hardly bundle Firefox with a Windows PC, even if Microsoft does not offer incentive for such deeds. Simple reason: nothing offered by Mozilla foundation. On the other side, another open source browser endorsed by a money-making company as Google could potentially bring money-making opportunities to the OEMs too. The time-to-market cycle of business stimulated feature development, such as adding a security control for online shopping checkout, will be much more assured in this case.

- Think about Opera, think about the mobile markets. Opera makes its own share in the mobile browsing market largely due to it is so far the best candidate who achieved seamless user experience both on desktop and mobile devices. The light weight and concise user interface of Chrome makes its expansion to a mobile platform quite feasible. As for Google's future in the mobile OS field, I am optimistic. Remember Robert Love is on its side...

Well, with one of the players makeing a big move, let's wait and see how the whole chess game goes on.