Is Google’s web browser a Microsoft killer, set for world domination?

Let’s tally up the hits and misses.

HIT – Winning hearts and minds: When Microsoft released the beta (test) version of its Internet Explorer 8 browser a couple of weeks ago, few outside the hardcore geek world noticed.

By contrast, Google’s Chrome has got more mainstream media coverage than any tech product since Apple’s 3G iPhone.

The Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox (an open source browser built on the bones of Netscape, which ruled the web in the mid 90s; kids, ask your parents), is now in serious danger of losing its status as the hippest browser on the block.

Microsoft already had a tussle on its hands with Firefox, which has grown to hold 20 to 40 per cent market share in most countries. Now, all bets are off.

HIT – Blistering speed: Geeky commentators around the net are split on exactly how fast Chrome can download web pages. But you don’t need a stop watch to immediately notice that it’s much, much faster than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 (or its successor, just released to beta, IE 8). In most cases, it also handily outpaces Apple’s Safari 3 and Mozilla’s Firefox 3. It’ll knock your socks off. But whether the searing speed will be maintained once third-party software developers start releasing plug-ins, and Google starts loading Chrome with more Gears and Apps options (below) is an open question.

HIT - Nice presentation: No major websites have been optimised for Chrome yet (which should take things up another gear on the speed front). But even at this point, I’ve found a wide selection of sites – including the multimedia-heavy – display fine in Chrome. That’s a stark contrast to Firefox’s early days. Some people have reported some problems with online video on a few sites, but I’ve found it works fine.

Also, it was fast to download, despite the millions hitting Google’s servers for a copy (by contrast, Microsoft’s IE 8 page has repeatedly cut out on me). And it hasn’t frozen or crashed on me yet.

HIT - Separate lives: One secret to Chrome’s speed and stability  is that while each website you load has its own tab within the same browser window, in computing terms each website is allocated its own virtual environment. So, while a slow loading Javascript advertisement on one website will freeze or slow every website you’ve got open in IE, Firefox or Safari, Chrome isolates the offender.

MISS – Unpolished Chrome: Google’s browser is not called a beta (test) version for nothing. A number features are missing, including a bar to tell you how much of a page has downloaded or any ability to organise bookmarks. All should be filled in for the second beta.

MISS - Locked down: IE, Firefox and Safari let you customise which icons, toolbars and buttons are displayed. Google brokers no rebellion against its minimalist interface, with no look-and-feel customisation options.

MISS – Minimalist interface: Moving to Firefox or Safari is easy. Both are sleeker than Microsoft’s IE, but at the end of the day adopt most of its conventions (as Microsoft has also taken some from Firefox, such as tabs). It’s easy to switch between them. Chrome’s minimalist look, by contrast, is a more radical departure, and, like Gmail, takes some getting used to. There’s no menu bar,  title bar; rather you have to hit icons to see menus of features, and it’s not always intuitive (want to see your History? Click the wrench icon). A single “Omnibar” serves as both Search and Address bar, further cutting the clutter.

MISS – No sugar: Once I acclimatise, I’m guessing I’ll probably shift the interface into the Hit column. But given Chrome has no hook like Gmail’s near-unlimited email storage, I’m not sure how many others will persist. 

It does help that Chrome automatically imports all your IE, Firefox or Safari bookmarks, passwords and other settings. Note that’s only Safari for Windows. As yet, Chrome is snubbing the Apple (note to Al Gore, who sits on Apple’s board and is a special advisor to Google’s board: get your people talking to each other).

HIT – Droppable tabs: The Chrome way of doing things does make up for some of the interface minimalism. For example, if you don’t set your own home page, Chrome displays thumb nails of your most recently visited sites.

Its tab set-up is all-round more flexible. Tabs can be dragged and dropped to create a new window. And you can also set Chrome to open a custom set of tabs at start-up – something IE, Firefox and Safari need a third-party plug-in to achieve.

HIT - Stealth surfing: Turn on Chrome’s Incognito feature, and it won’t record where you go on the web. For someone like me who would hate the world to know he sometimes looks at pictures of Poppy Montgomery naked, that’s a lot more convenient that deleting your browser’s history and cleaning its cache after every session (IE 8 has as similar feature called InPrivate).

MISS – Google looking over your shoulder: Although Incognito will stop partners, employers or nosey website owners from sifting through your history, by some accounts as Google's house browser it will give Google’s ad tracking division, DoubleClick, unprecedented ability to track your web surfing habits (even if the data, shared with advertisers, does not reveal your identity).

HIT – Free software: Google created Chrome from the ground up to be the fastest browser for running JavaScript – which also happens to be the technology underpinning Google Gears.

Very broadly speaking, Google Gears takes the Google Apps – like Google’s freebie equivalents to Microsoft’s Word, Excel and PowerPoint – but provides them in a version that can be used offline as well as online (Google Apps requires you to be connected to the net). Gears is also about “application shortcuts”. Click on an application hosted inside a web page, such as Google Maps, and Chrome melts away to leave an even more minimal browser interface. You barely even know you’re on a website.

That’s intentional. Chrome’s aggressive support for Gears is all about blurring the lines between online and offline, and standalone PCs and the web.

As such, Google’s browser represents the most potent threat, ever, to Microsoft’s livelihood. Chrome is positioned not just a browser, but a platform for running software over the internet, just as you use Windows to run software on a PC.

Chrome popularising Gears and Apps would be Steve Ballmer’s worst nightmare. In any given quarter, Microsoft typically makes buckets of cash from Windows and Office, but loses money, or just scrapes by, on its entertainment and internet divisions. If Google starts pushing the freebie (but advertising-supported) Google Apps and Gears hard through Chrome, that could be bad, bad news for Microsoft’s most bottom line.

MISS - Security fears: Or maybe not. I’ve used Google Spreadsheets and Google Docs (both still in beta) and found neither are quite ready for business. For example, Google Spreadsheets is fine if you’re starting a worksheet from scratch, and don’t have industrial-strength accounting needs. But I’ve found it doesn’t always import Excel spreadsheets as advertised, with formulas getting lost in translation. Google says there are still “known issues”.

And big-league business people are more dubious. At a recent lunch event, I asked two tables of CIOs (chief information officers) for large New Zealand companies if they would use Google Apps, either in its free version or its $US50 a year “corporate” incarnation. To a man, they were implacably opposed to the Google Apps philosophy of storing data “in the cloud” (on the internet) rather than their own servers, citing security concerns.

That’s seven hits, and seven misses. Chrome’s assault on IE hangs in the balance.

Pictured below: Google Chrome's adaptive home page provides thumbnails of recently visited sites.