Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers!

Yesterday, while looking at the business news, I found a most intriguing bit of news.  It seems that Google is launching a Web browser of its own, called Chrome.  Chrome is Google’s attempt to capture the browser market, still largely dominated by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, though Firefox has made significant inroads in recent years.

You can download a beta version of Chrome, if you want to try it out. (I plan on doing so myself, to see what it can do.)  At present, it only works on Windows machines with XP and Vista, though apparently Mac and Linux versions will be available in the near future.

After downloading Chrome and trying it out, I must say that I’m not that impressed with it.  Having the search box and address bar in the same place is a nice feature, but you really can’t do very much else with the browser at present.  There are no plugins, from what I see, like those you can add to Firefox.  And, it doesn’t appear to be open source, like Firefox.  My thought is that this will become a specialty browser, useful for certain things, in its present form.  Otherwise, it’s so bare-bones and stripped down that you can’t do very much with it at present.

Taking a broader perspective Google seems determined to capture as many facets of the online market as possible, from search engines to software to online encyclopedias (i.e., the Knol) to browsers.  They appear to being moving very aggressively to become deeply embedded in the online lives of many, which will bear interesting repercussions for online searchers.

Thoughts on Chrome?

Update: Here’s a review from CNN.com/technology, which echoes many of my comments, above, and adds a good deal more insight.

Update 2, 9/4/2008: A more positive review, from Tech Crunch.

Update 3, 9/5/2008: An article from Time on Chrome, and a review from CNNMoney.com/Fortune.  Also,  here’s a link to The Googlization of Everything, a book in progress on the rise, power, and ubiquity of Google, with possible implications and worries.