Chrome fever
More on the gestation of Google Chrome. Okay, it’ll be awesome, that’s a given. The only — only — issue of real importance is, how the hell do they plan on getting it installed on people’s computers? Most jackholes won’t think twice about installing some untrustworthy wallpaper or animated cursor toy, but get them to install a better browser on the vague promise that “it’ll make your Internet better” and you might as well be trying to sell them a Lear jet.
I see three possibilities:
- Prominent mention (advertisement) on all Google properties; this is sure to happen, but I’m skeptical of the impact.
- New “chrome-only” features that will strong-arm IE users into switching. This would truly be declaring war on Microsoft. Also a lot of web developers consider “browser-exclusive” features to be “considered harmful.” (As long as it conforms to some variation of CSS3/HTML5/EMCAScript, I think it’s A-OK.)
- Contracts and handshakes with OEMs that will get Chrome pre-installed on new computers. MS would surely try to change their licensing to prevent this, but antitrust laws would probably prevent them from getting very far. Doesn’t seem like a very “Google-ish” thing to do.
