From a web developer point of view, what changes are expected in the development arena when Google Chrome is released?
Are the developments powerful enough to make another revolution in the web? Will the way we see web programming change?
Or is it just another web browser?
I think this is just another web browser. The most impact I expect to be improved Javascript performance, and the usability perspective. The first will benefit developers, especially when using Google Gears. I think the users will benefit the most from an enhanced user experience, the safety features, and ease of use.
I can only hope other browser vendors (MS) will follow Mozilla and Google to create a faster Javascript implementation, since this is the only thing that can truly impact web development.
This is just a natural for Google. This way they can control how well their apps work in a container on & off line. Expect more tools, potentially GUI designer type tools and an IDE for use with their cloud offerings as well as a mobile version of this for Android. It's most likely a lead in to Visual Google.
If they are smart they will have this container/browser perform other tasks like parsing content for a fresher Google cache and search results.
I think the whole purpose or at least the emphasis of the release, as Kamiel said, is to provide better javascript performance. So many of Google's services rely on heavy javascript usage that this is a smart move by them. This should be good for everyone as IE and Firefox work to compete against Google every browser should get better at javascript.
As always, it depends on their implementation. If they decide to mess with the rendering engine, we could be looking at a whole new list of browser "quirks" which will mean WebDev's will be uber-pissed.
If they stay standards-compliant (which TBH, I expect they will) it could be a really good thing to heat up the competition.
Be interesting to see how the sandbox mode affects plugin compat, and of course, the tight Gears integration..
That fact that its OSS is a really good thing.. Since any of the above issues could easily be fixed with a patch as soon as the dev community get on to it. :)
Considering most develops want to reach the larger audience, it just means one more place to test. Since it uses Webkit, hopefully it will render almost identical to Safari.
Integrated Gears may mean a solid place for apps to be developed though. If you have an internal system it may be nicer to just put Chrome on all the machines than building an app that runs locally.
Hopefully it will be standards compliant and erase a little midget of Internet Explorer's market share - Firefox has ease of use and plugins going for it, but "security" is something non-technical people can understand... which one could hope would make development easier.
That's assuming it stays standards compliant and innovates well, of course.
As long as there are the other web browsers (and I don't believe that they will die - which is good, because I don't want to see the internet in the hands of Google) it's just another web browser that you need to check compatibility with.
This is long-term positioning for Google; they are clearly trying to build a more stable application platform for web-based development. All of their changes (security, sandboxing, process isolation) are clearly intended to make the browser a better application for hosting complex apps.
This is what Microsoft was worried about with netscape, and why they broke antitrust rules to "cut off their air supply". It's going to be interesting to see how MS responds.
It's also interesting to see how the mozilla / firefox team deals with this- Google is pretty much funding firefox now, so it's going to be a potential conflict of interest for these folks down the road.
In a nutshell, things are going to get more complex, require more testing, and will (hopefully) force recalcitrant vendors like Microsoft to become more standards-compliant.
It's just another web browser that very few people are going to use because there are already 4 major browsers out there that work just fine for most people. It doesn't have the extensions like Firefox,
Actually, it is pretty clear that it has a plugin architecture
it doesn't have browser sync with an iPhone like Safari, it doesn't come with your computer like IE, and it doesn't... well I don't know what Opera does that makes it stand out but I don't think Chrome has it.
"I don't know what Opera has, but this piece of software that I've never touched clearly doesn't have it"... what??
Another reason why I don't see it taking off - since it's not on OS X a lot of tech people aren't going to be using it.
Did you miss the part where the Linux and OS X distros are coming right behind Windows?
Personally, I'm hoping it has less of an impact on web developers and more of an impact on browser developers. Some of the features are really nice, and while the process-oriented approach to separation of tabs will probably make it hefty compared to other browsers, I like the ideas behind it.
My guess is it's going to have to spend a year or longer post-beta to make the kind of impact that Firefox has on web development.
Google Chrome looks promising. It is of course in an early beta so it's missing a lot of the things people would need or at least feel they need, like plugins, cross-machine synchronization of data (could be done with plugins), cross-platform support (ie. Linux and Mac versions).
So far it renders Gmail like a bat out of hell, so I'm going to pay very close attention to it.
Edit: In fact, these posts are done using it, and except for some minor issues like smaller font in input fields, it works as I expect it to. Fast, stable (already tested it with a javascript killer-page I have for some test applications).
It's not good. More platforms leads to more testing, leads to more time fixing bugs, leads to less time having fun implementing new features, leads to anger, hate, suffering, etc.
I'd say that I see the improved Javascript engine being the major contribution as far as web applications go. And hopefully will cause a new look for the other browsers and possibly make Javascript implementations a bit more standardized.
I wonder whether plugins/addons will ever be a big focus for Chrome. It seems to be very much focused on providing a fast, clean environment that puts the focus on the web rather than the browser. I suspect that in order to keep it nimble and stable, they may keep the extension capabilities fairly limited (plus, they wouldn't want Adblock for Chrome, would they :-)
I wonder also, given Google's existing relationships with OEMs to include things like the Google Desktop on PCs sold, whether we might start to see Chrome pre-installed on computers. If that were the case, it might become more prevalent than other competitors to IE.
Chiming in on this topic. If you have used Chrome, you'll notice a significant speed upgrade, especially on sites using js. I have found that it renders things almost EXACTLY the same as Safari (as you would assume), so I think this drastically minimizes the issue of having to develop on yet another browser.
I think the main thing Chrome does is to offer another (and even perhaps the best to date) alternative to IE. If people start using these, 'advanced' web browsers (man it's sad I have to say that), Microsoft will almost certainly have to step things up with IE9. IE8 seems to me to be more of the same from Microsoft who just can't seem to grasp the UI goodness and overall speed of Safari, Firefox and now Chrome. IE8 is freaking 360MB for godsakes. I think FF3 is like 90MB.
On a side note, has anyone checked out how fast Chrome opens? I found that very impressive.
@Lassevek - The first thing I did was check the js speeds on gmail and "bat out of hell" is precisely how I would describe it.
I just hope Chrome, Firefox and Safari can be temporary friends so they can overthrow IE. After that, it's fair game!
To be quite honest I've always hated Google, with a passion. But, I love their web browser Chrome. It just works. No need to download updates every 5 minutes, No stupid security bars that pop up every time you visit a website, and when I'm writing webpages - I don't even have to test my code anymore because it is standards-compliant, and it just works properly. My current website that I'm building now is about half-done, and it works and looks perfect in Google Chrome. Looks and works perfect in Opera, but as for Internet Explorer, it looks terrible, and it looks fairly good in Firefox.
I don't know. People should stop using Internet Explorer (in my opinion) because it just doesn't work the way it should. Have YOU ever noticed after downloading Internet Explorer 8 on WindwosXP that once you start visiting a few websites, the more sites you visit the longer it takes IE to open a new tab. Sometimes I'm left frustrated, almost sending me into a murderous-rage waiting for a new empty tab to open up! Blah!