Chrome’s overinflated importance

So, Chrome, you know I’m glad it’s there – another entrant into the field is always good. I think, though, that people are attaching some real influence to the browser that I just don’t see as there at this point. Take, for example, Louis Gray’s post Safari 4’s Introduction A Clear Salvo In the New Chrome Wars.

Umm… Chrome Wars? Really? For a just introduced browser that
at best has maybe 1-2% of the market and no one, but outside of the tech obsessed knows about? It seems to me that this is a slap in the face of the real players in the browser wars who have made impressive strides in market shares over the past several years – Firefox and Safari.

Really, what has Chrome provided. Its most notable feature, I’d think – at least the one that made the most knews at its launch was its V8 javascript engine. Certainly they seem to be ok with the notion that they fired the first shot in the javascript engine shootout.

“When we started out the whole idea was to spark innovation into the field because as soon as we come out with v8 you could see other browsers coming out with their own version of faster JavaScript.”

TR: Do you feel that it was Chrome’s focus on JavaScript and your innovations that prompted other browsers to put more focus on it?

LB: “I hope that our innovation was what prompted that. It certainly looked like that within the timeline. It’s a reasonable explanation.

Now, I’m not on the inside track so maybe someone with insider news knows better, but from a public timeline – Chrome was announced in September ‘08. As far as I can tell, Squirrelfish (Safari’s next gen js engine) and Tracemonkey (Mozilla’s) were both announced in June ‘08 (or over that summer, at least)… So to my outsider eyes it certainly does not seem to fit the bill that Chrome started innovation on that front.

From Apple’s perspective, with a focus on dethroning flash (not having it on the iPhone, adopting and promoting Sproutcore – a javascript library hoping to be a flash alternative) it was obviously in their best interests to start focusing on Javascript performance for some time. Chrome influence? I sincerely doubt it.

As for the rest, sure Apple seems to have taken some design cues with the Top Sites business and those super annoying tabs in the title bar, but whatever, using the best ideas from other browsers is a good thing. Hey, Chrome’s using Webkit for it’s rendering engine, so you know. Its whole one process per tab is interesting, too, although IE’s been doing that for awhile. We’ll see if it pays off in stability.

Honestly, I think Chrome is important – or it could be important long term. Google seems to be very invested in the product (much more than I’ve seen them be in anything for awhile, except maybe Android), going so far as to swap it in Firefox’s place for their Google Pack and even advertising it for a bit on their homepage, even in Gmail! If it can continue to grow its share and innovate then hell yeah, welcome to the pack.

But thus far? Browser Wars III: Everyone Out Of the Pool has been a feature starring Firefox, Safari and Apple with Chrome getting a bit part with only one or two spoken lines. Is that too harsh? Has Chrome had an influence greater than what I attribute to it?

felix

Robin, I guess time will tell on this one. My prediction is that any gains Chrome finds will continue to be at the expense of Firefox. The bulk of folk will stick to the IE or Safari their computers come with. But I would love to see Chrome start eating IE's share directly!
Robin

Yeah - that's fair. I have been a safari user and for me 4.0 is
nothing but goodness. I was using chrome on windows machines but am
now using safari there too. Chrome did not stick for my fiancé
because she has FF extensions she likes, and everyone else I know
personally is either using FF or Safari.

I previously would have recommended chrome to people of my parents
generation who still have pcs, but would now go for safari because
it's easier to support what you use yourself.

So my anecdotal experience supports your view. However I am not yet
prepared to give up the idea that chrome changes the perception of the
browser wars in a way that tilts things more solidly against IE.
Perhaps more from a psychological standpoint than in terms of real
usage. Whilst you or I might not have believed someone saying there
wasn't true competition, it's the 65% of ie users who's opinions
really count here, and i'd bet that most of them make their choices
based on secondhand perceptions and not by making their own analyses.
felix

Louis, haha! I somehow completely missed the Clone Wars reference there. *slaps wrist*

But nevertheless, I disagree with the notion that Safari 4 was a reaction to Chrome in any significant way. That is, perhaps some window dressing like Top Sites and top tabs were hedged from Chrome, but as you mention in your piece, they aren't at all critical pieces to the browser pie. And I found it surprising to hear that you believed that since *netscape* there hasn't been any browser dialogue between the 2 then 3 competitors. One major example, look at Tabs, something introduced and then adopted across the board and easily more significant than Top Sites.

I think Safari 4's focus on standards, speed and robustness is part of their long term strategy to make it a real platform on desktops and mobile phones - it was an inevitability the moment they decided to make it the basis for the iPhone's browser. That it took some UI elements from Chrome was simply part of a long tradition of browsers doing just that - not out of any pre-conceived fear of losing market...
Louis Gray

The term "Chrome Wars" sounds much like "Clone Wars", so it was a play on words.

That said, it is clear that Safari's latest moves were in response to Chrome's pending debut on the Mac.
felix

Robin, it's an interesting take, but I don't agree. I think the browser wars were clearly causing innovation - pre-Chrome. While it's possible to say Safari was just the "mac browser", a) it still counts especially as they try to make their way onto windows and phones b) it's still a force to be reckoned with and competition - even if primarily competition for Firefox. Firefox, in that sense was fighting a two front war where IE and Safari were just fighting one. Sorta. :) And even with just FF and IE I would not believe anyone who said that they were not in true competition. Honestly, I don't think the war nor the browsers gained (nor needed) any legitimacy from Chrome.

While I like that Chrome is out and perhaps one day it will exert real influence in the ongoing battle - I honestly don't believe it has had much impact at this point. I'm curious to see if it will continue to increase its marketshare this year... G's pushing it which is good, but I'm not sure it'll stick. I'd love it to, though! Could just be me and my vast love of FF talking, though. :)
Robin

Irrespective of the history component, don't you think that the existence of Chrome and the fact that it is strong and competently executed, even thought it might not be to everyone's taste, gives legitimacy to the notion that there actually is real competition in the browser space? Safari could always have been sidelined as 'the mac browser', and FireFox although strong is far from perfect and was still perceived by many as "something to do with idealism". Chrome's very existence legitimizes the other two browsers.

Before Chrome, the battle was between the two flawed princes, and the old king who wasn't about to abdicate any time soon. Now the three princes are busy dividing the lands between them while the old king frets in his counting house.

#comments