Behind Google Chrome

Talk about war in the previous posting, the real war started now is the 'good old' browser war. How many Web browsers are available out there now? IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari... now came another one -- Google Chrome.

I always share with my friends and colleagues that the smartest thing Google has done is its strategy of trying not to go head-to-head with Microsoft; hence they can avoid the mistake made by Netscape many years ago when it tried to go into the servers market which Microsoft had a strong presence. What happened to Netscape later has already been part of the Internet history and indeed Netscape is already a history.

So, Google launched an online office tool, Google Apps, which is not another OpenOffice.org, Google launched Android when Windows Mobile is not a main player in the mobile OS landscape, Google OS is still a rumor...and finally Google released Google Chrome.

Why Google has to develop its own browser while its main business is mainly relied on online services? There was blog mentioning that Google can save more than 100 million dollars every year if they don't need to pay Firefox for its start page with Google Search box...I think this could be one of the reasons but it's only a small part of the whole picture. BTW what are 100 million dollars to a 200 billion dollars worth company?

I think Google Chrome is important to Google because:

• Having its own browser is no longer a market share fight. It's an ownership of the Web platform. As Microsoft has been dominating the OS market and transforming it as an unprecedented platform, the Web is the next platform that Google is capable to fight for. This was the reason why Google launched its offline Web application initiative, Google Gears, which has been renamed as Gears to show its 'neutrality'. Obviously, Google surely hope Chrome can help to drive Gears and help it to own the Web as a platform like Windows to Microsoft
  
• Notice the combination of the address bar and the search box? This will bring more revenues to Google as more searches can be conducted potentially
• Google can collect more data about online user behaviors
• The list is continually developed in the minds of the Google trio...