On Sep 2, 2008, at 12:32 PM, David Malouf wrote:
I need to learn more about all this and the way it is used. On the
one hand RIAs have taken the AIR perspective whereby the rendering
engine has no required wrapper and the applications run like they
were standard desktop applications. In some ways this model is really
interesting. In this way I would see a suite of cloud apps that I want
to have integrated would create their own container ala acrobat.com
where they container can house status messaging which is where Google
puts status today in their apps' tabs.
If this (being a platform for their own cloud apps) was the explicit
direction of Chrome, then I can see the value. But if Google wants to
keep blending the "browser" and the "web app" as it is today, then I
don't know.
Having read up a little more this morning, I can see the value of a
new engine under the hood, but how does that help in the end user
experience if the way you use the browser doesn't explicitly change?
In other words, I have no idea where the threshold has to be for end
users to make a switch to a new browser simply because the engine is
"better." And end users have no means with which to measure that
themselves. All they have is the resulting interface and how they wind
up using it. In fact, the technology sector is littered with companies
who made better tech but not better enough on the final product so as
to cause a massive switch. Be/OS anyone?
So where's the threshold? Anyone want to make some guesses?
If Google used Chrome as a means to finally split the "browser" --
where people consume effectively passive or even dead content
(wikipedia, dictionary.com, CNN, blogs, etc) with a small amount of
interaction -- from the people who need to use "web apps" and all that
rich interaction entails, with performance and security being way up
there as well, then I can see how Chrome would interesting.
As such, right now, it feels like just another browser, and while I
can now get the benefits of the new engine, even a guy like me, thick
in the weeds if you will, is kind of bored with the potential of yet
another new browser. I think Google needs to make the hard choice of
going one way or the other.
Why do we need another browser? I don't think we do, quite frankly. We
need is a platform for robust, rich apps that finally goes beyond the
browser and gives us back what was lost from the world of desktop
application design. I know AIR is going that route, so I would think
Google wants to compete with that, not with Safari or Firefox.
--
Andrei Herasimchuk
Principal, Involution Studios
innovating the digital world
e. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
c. +1 408 306 6422
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