Google Clearly Sees Chrome as the Cloud's Future
I think it is a very basic, fast engine [for running] Web apps and I think we'll see more and more Web apps of greater sophistication, all the kinds of things that today are pretty challenging to do on the Web because of browser performance, whether it's image manipulation or even video editing. We think that with Chrome, [apps] will be able to bridge that divide and you're going to be able to do more and more online.Yet in later questions about why Chrome was created, Brin basically admitted Google wanted to address the shift to using software from within a Web browser rather than as downloaded, on-premise applications running on Microsoft Windows or some other operating system. "I think operating systems are kind of an old way to think of the world," Brin said. "They have become kind of bulky, they have to do lots and lots of different [legacy] things. We want a lightweight, fast engine for running applications." Clearly, this is a dart at Microsoft's direction and indicates that Chrome as the "lightweight, fast engine," that requires only 7 megabytes to download, is Google's iteration of the Web operating system. That said, neither Brin nor his partner and Google co-founder Larry Page are blind to Microsoft's might at the browser level. "We're competing with a product that's given away by default on almost every computer," Page noted. But Page isn't willing to say how Chrome will be leveraged specifically to nibble away, let alone gobble, Microsoft's IE share: So we have a really great product and I think people will enjoy using it. I think it will be well worth downloading and it's very important to us given that everything we do is running on the Web platform. That Web platform is also known as the cloud, and author/celebrated tech blogger Nicholas Carr sees Chrome as the window into that. Carr published a great, high-level blog post yesterday in which he paints Chrome as the medium for SAAS apps: [Google] knows that its future, both as a business and as an idea (and Google's always been both), hinges on the continued rapid expansion of the usefulness of the Internet, which in turn hinges on the continued rapid expansion of the capabilities of Web apps, which in turn hinges on rapid improvements in the workings of Web browsers. Carr goes on to explain that while Google wouldn't mind competing in a browser war with Microsoft or Mozilla, the real goal is to create a platform best suited for running Web apps, including Google Apps and Google Search. Given enough time and proper support, Chrome could be the lever pull that topples Microsoft Windows. |
Comments (3)
We were banned from using it. See below. Certainly its current stance on privacy and confidentiality have a long long way to go. Definitely on the evil side right now.
I received this from a security officer of another organization, and I believe it to be worth consideration.
�The Google Chrome Browser has been put on the banned software list. If you have it installed please remove it from your system. Google has included some extremely harsh terminology in their user license that gives them ownership of content you view through the viewer. In our environment that could include source code, proprietary information stored in pdf�s viewed on line and other [companyName] property. Until we can research the impact, this browser will remain on the �do not install� list.�
The section of the license agreement in question is:
�"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services."
Posted by smist08 | September 3, 2008 4:17 PM
They've now changed their EULA to say:
11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.
so maybe they aren't that evil after all.
Posted by smist08 | September 3, 2008 7:34 PM
Your fears are misplaced. Your confidential business information, your tastes in pr0n and your DNA sequence are strictly between you and the Google marketing department. Remember, they're not evil!
Posted by David Gerard | September 4, 2008 6:14 PM