Google is going to release in the coming hours what looks like a revolutionary new entry in the browser arena: Google Chrome. The GUI design and engineering effort behind Google Chrome looks impressive. What is more, Chrome is going to be released under an open source license.
In spite of the sugary rhetoric (“it’s in our interest to make the internet better”– yeah, thanks Google), is this going to be the ultimate Firefox killer? And how will this affect the landscape of open source development altogether?
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Jose, are you worried about people being worried about their privacy? I know your feelings about this issue, but like it or not, I think this is a legitimate concern in the case of Google (whose own CEO Eric Schmidt once candidly declared that what he envisions as the future of the company is a service that people will use to learn what job they should apply for, what products they should buy etc.).
The fact that Chrome is open source, however, should be to some extent a guarantee that the browser is not playing tricks behind your back, or is it?
Sorry, I just realized that the LH post was not about extracting usage stats (what my previous comment was referring to) but about ownership of rights on content accessed via Chrome, which sounds to me like a ridiculous (and really secondary) issue, compared to the other one.
Still, the guy you cite is onto something when he says that “using any google service is crime against humanity”
[edited]
Here’s the coverage of the EULA issue by The Register and ZDnet.
I’m using it now and it looks great.
Note that there seems to be a lot of talk about the EULA:
For example:
“I do not use any Google services. And I recommend everyone to start doing the same thing. Google has become a massive data mining company. It is not a search service company anymore.
We are living in “digital dark ages” where people have no rights to their privacy and personal information. Only thing that is left out to us is to stop using internet.”
(from http://lifehacker.com/5044803/chrome-probably-doesnt-hijack-your-data#viewcomments)
I’m a bit worried about this.
Ars Technica – Google on Chrome EULA controversy: our bad, we’ll change it
The interesting bit is the following:
Yep; note that google has retracted that license, will fix it with retroactive effects.
I think I’m sticking with Opera though, for other reasons.
They effectively say that anything that you post through them, they own. That will never work.
Why do you like Opera?
Well, that license is not enforceable, anyway.
Many reasons I like Opera. M2, the mail client, is fast; better than gmail, and integrated in the browser. Memory consumption is good; smooth scroll, keyboard shortcuts, etc make Opera a great browser.
It sucks as soon as you enter the web 2.0 realm; since people test their sites against IE and FF, not Opera, they normally don’t work well in Opera. Opera is the most standards compliant browser, but the web is not made for it
. So your bank, google sites, and that fancy AJAX sites would all be broken in subtle ways, from non-working to missing functionality.
And Opera is legendary at not listening to their users when they ask for fixes
I have a love-hate relationship with Opera.
Well wait and see.
At first glance it doesn’t offer anything new.
Maybe the thing with a separate Windows process for each tab, but I’m not sure if people really care about such technical details.
Add-ons are FireFox’s main advantage. Chrome will have to develop really fast to beat them.