XSG - 1 G 2 Many (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} xsg) wrote,@ 2009-07-13 08:39:00 |
|
Speed
Okay, first off, I need to be clear here. I'm a Google employee, however I'm writing this entry, this analysis, from the perspective of an observer. These are not Google's words, they are mine. The information I've used to come to these conclusions is all public. If you're looking for some special, secret knowledge about Google, you're not ever going to find it here. That being said...
About a year ago, I excitedly read the releases about Google's new open-source browser, Chrome, and downloaded a copy for myself. Most importantly, I read report after report about how Google was doomed to failure in a head-to-head battle with Microsoft. How foolish it was to be developing a browser when the market was already entrenched.
Now, I'm seeing the same sorts of reports. Google is taking Microsoft on head-to-head with a new Operating System. Chrome OS is destined for failure. Google is overreaching.
I call bullshit. I call bullshit on the Chrome naysayers, and I call bullshit on the Chrome OS naysayers. I am not a frequent Chrome user (primarily because I use a Mac), however I can tell you, simply by using the latest version of my preferred browser, Firefox (3.5), that Chrome (and Google) has already won. Shortly after the release of Chrome, Microsoft, Apple, and Mozilla all came out with new browser updates which all focused on improvements in performance. It's my theory that this was Google's primary intention: browser development was too slow and in the "wrong" areas, so by developing a browser that was nothing if not fast and then opening up the source code so that everyone could see how it was made to be so fast, it forced the hands of all other browser manufacturers to hasten their Javascript engines and their HTML rendering. In less than six months, it was clear that Chrome had already reshaped browser development across the boards, and in doing so, Chrome won whether it gained market share or not.
So here's a prediction and a speculation. The speculation: Google doesn't necessarily care about capturing market share on netbooks with its new Chrome OS; it just wants netbook performance across the boards to be fast. I've read reports from some people using very early versions of Chrome OS, and the one thing they all have to say is that it's fast. I speculate that Google wants this because the faster the net is, the more the net is used, and the more the net is used, the more information gets placed out there, and the more content that is placed on the internet, the more people are going to need to _search_ for that content. And finally, when people search, they are indirectly looking for advertising which is Google's bread and butter. The prediction: by pre-announcing their desire to enter the netbook Operating System fray with yet another open-source software release, Google is automatically a winner, because all it really wants is to help guide and shape the development of this technology, setting a minimum bar in netbook performance. If Intel and Apple and Microsoft all react to Google by focusing on making their own netbook Operating Systems more customer friendly, more usable, and faster, Google wins even before their open source SDK is released.
What's more, the winner isn't really Google. From my perspective, Google is just increasing the competition in markets that seem to be slow to respond to users' desires. Ultimately, the winner will be all of us.
Okay, first off, I need to be clear here. I'm a Google employee, however I'm writing this entry, this analysis, from the perspective of an observer. These are not Google's words, they are mine. The information I've used to come to these conclusions is all public. If you're looking for some special, secret knowledge about Google, you're not ever going to find it here. That being said...
About a year ago, I excitedly read the releases about Google's new open-source browser, Chrome, and downloaded a copy for myself. Most importantly, I read report after report about how Google was doomed to failure in a head-to-head battle with Microsoft. How foolish it was to be developing a browser when the market was already entrenched.
Now, I'm seeing the same sorts of reports. Google is taking Microsoft on head-to-head with a new Operating System. Chrome OS is destined for failure. Google is overreaching.
I call bullshit. I call bullshit on the Chrome naysayers, and I call bullshit on the Chrome OS naysayers. I am not a frequent Chrome user (primarily because I use a Mac), however I can tell you, simply by using the latest version of my preferred browser, Firefox (3.5), that Chrome (and Google) has already won. Shortly after the release of Chrome, Microsoft, Apple, and Mozilla all came out with new browser updates which all focused on improvements in performance. It's my theory that this was Google's primary intention: browser development was too slow and in the "wrong" areas, so by developing a browser that was nothing if not fast and then opening up the source code so that everyone could see how it was made to be so fast, it forced the hands of all other browser manufacturers to hasten their Javascript engines and their HTML rendering. In less than six months, it was clear that Chrome had already reshaped browser development across the boards, and in doing so, Chrome won whether it gained market share or not.
So here's a prediction and a speculation. The speculation: Google doesn't necessarily care about capturing market share on netbooks with its new Chrome OS; it just wants netbook performance across the boards to be fast. I've read reports from some people using very early versions of Chrome OS, and the one thing they all have to say is that it's fast. I speculate that Google wants this because the faster the net is, the more the net is used, and the more the net is used, the more information gets placed out there, and the more content that is placed on the internet, the more people are going to need to _search_ for that content. And finally, when people search, they are indirectly looking for advertising which is Google's bread and butter. The prediction: by pre-announcing their desire to enter the netbook Operating System fray with yet another open-source software release, Google is automatically a winner, because all it really wants is to help guide and shape the development of this technology, setting a minimum bar in netbook performance. If Intel and Apple and Microsoft all react to Google by focusing on making their own netbook Operating Systems more customer friendly, more usable, and faster, Google wins even before their open source SDK is released.
What's more, the winner isn't really Google. From my perspective, Google is just increasing the competition in markets that seem to be slow to respond to users' desires. Ultimately, the winner will be all of us.
