September 3rd, 2008
Who wins with Google Chrome
The question of who wins with Google Chrome is wrong. The real question should be what wins.
Javascript wins.
If Google Chrome wins wide adoption, or the technologies within it win wide adoption, Javascript becomes a bigger technology. Technologies which compete with it lose.
Web applications win.
If Google Chrome wins wide adoption, making software-heavy pages easier to run (with multiple tabs), then anyone building a Web application wins, and things which compete with them lose.
Good code wins.
If Google Chrome wins wide adoption, and users can see which windows are hosing them (without losing all their tabs in the process) then sites running good code win, and those which don’t lose.
Webkit wins.
If Google Chrome, based on a Webkit rendering engine, wins wide adoption, rendering engines that compete with Webkit are losers.
That also means the mobile Internet wins. The iPhone renders with Webkit. So will Android phones. If their rendering engine is compatible with what desktop browsers are using they win, and alternatives lose.
Malware writers are losers with Google Chrome because it uses sandboxing to isolate malware to individual tabs. Anyone who uses or writes to Google Gears can win because that API is included in Chrome.
This is your takeaway. The winners and losers in Google Chrome are technologies. Not companies. Not sites. Technologies.
And those which are open source are naturally advantaged. It’s the open source process itself that is the biggest winner with Google Chrome.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
