Google’s Chrome browser drops today. They’ve created a handy comic strip outlining its features so clearly that even a technology journalist can understand them. I hear Jon Favreau has already acquired the movie rights. Some screenshots are here.
Obvs I’m going to give it a spin. Google people are smart, which makes me curious what they’ve come up with. You can’t expect it to have the maturity of a generations-old browser right off the bat, but there’s got to be some cool stuff in there. If there’s a weak spot I expect it’ll have to do with the UI, since design is not what Googlers do best. Though they do make a helluva comic strip.
Whenever anybody releases a browser I always find myself asking, why the hell did they bother? No one’s ever convincingly monetized a browser. But it’s more obvious in Google’s case than most. Since they’re investing so heavily in online apps, why not create an environment for said apps that they can control?
(By the way I hear the Chrome comic was drawn by Scott McCloud, the artist who also produced Zot, which was recently released in collected form. I have a special fondness for Zot because it takes place at a suburban high school that looks exactly like my high school. I always wondered why that was, till I found out that McCloud actually went to my high school.)