Chrome

A few days ago google launched Chrome.

this very event has sparkled a ton of attention from all over the blogosphere and beyond.

As I let my genuine curiosity settle in I started pondering about the implications of this not only to Microsoft, Yahoo! and the 100s of other internet companies out there but most importantly to the web, the ecosystem and us consumers.

Google has a vested interest in moving apps, audiences and developers to leveraging open source chrome.

Chrome might be dubbed a defensive move but if G convince enough of their very loyal customer base to start using their browser in the next 1-2 year time frame they’ll have enough audience to convince apps providers to cater for chrome and the audience that comes with it.

I have only used chrome for a day at home and I can already see how folks would easily adjust their habits to take advantage of their omnibox and start page. 1) I have installed yahoo as my default search engine so I now can use either the chrome starting page (with most recent history, including yahoo.com) or just type what I am looking for in their Omnibox – no need to have a search box if you can just type in the main browser window 2) If my mail is there in the browser I will use it – use ymail or whatever best fits but I don’t need to open another piece of software 3) If I can store my docs on the cloud and have the browser link to that I don’t need to have them on my machine (I still do given that I don’t have a broadband connection key but if I did I wouldn’t store them on my machine) 4) If I can access my social graph from the browser (desktop or mobile) I will do just that – I don’t need to store my contact anywhere but the cloud and find them anytime, anywhere 5) Google’s Brand is at the very top of the curve, consumer will trust it and install chrome just because their “friends will tell them to”.

Bottom line: Yahoo/MSFT or Google  want to all be the *starting point* of the consumer journey because that’s how they can all add value to the consumer and to the advertising ecosystem.

All of them needs to kick ass in either/or 1) turning themselves into the OS of the web (desktop and mobile) 2) developing apps & services that are relevant to users regardless of the browser and OSs.

Even if chrome does not become the OS of the web and even if a web OS doesn’t materialize in this form there are clearly wins to the consumer from using open source code.

there are a few folks that have talked about this:

Dana Blankenhorne at ZDNet

Stephen Shankland at CNET

…to be continued