Pemaquid Communications

Last night I noticed John Resig twittering about a new Web browser from Google, called Chrome. It’s hitting the news in other places; here’s a piece from yesterday’s New York Times.

Reports say Google intends to release the browser for download from its site today at: google.com/chrome but so far nothing’s available.

I haven’t had time to immerse myself the details yet, but here are some of the important details:

• It will be open source
• It will offer a way for people to see how Web sites are consuming system resources
• It will handle tabbed browsing in a slightly different way

This could have a major impact on both Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser as well as the Mozilla Project’s Firefox.

You can find out more about the Google Chrome features at Google Blogscoped, a blog which follows the company; learn more about some of the technical implications of Google Chrome from John Resig on his blog.

As far as the impact on front end Web designers? It remains to be seen, but if you assume that Chrome adheres to Web standards and standard CSS implementations, it shouldn’t change the game all that much. Stay tuned….

Way back at the dawn of time – you know, 1998 – people gave lip service to something called the “New Economy”. Middlemen, it was forecast, would soon be “disintermediated” out of financial transactions as “commerce” became “e-commerce”.

Then the bubble popped, sock-puppet mascots became extinct, real estate companies continued to prosper, and everyone generally took their eyes off the business transformations underway. Recently, however, I was taking stock, and things are definitely changing, though perhaps in slow-mo. Let’s recap:

Encyclopedia salesmen? Gone. Wikipedia and Google rule. ‘Nuf said.

Newspapers? On life support. Readership is down sharply as consumers gain more comprehensive and convenient access to information online. Start writing the epitaph.

Record companies? Current business model is dying. When the cost of reproducing your product falls to zero, it’s hard to make money on album sales.

Real Estate agents? Their days are numbered. Their monopoly over home listings through the MLS Listing service, their key advantage – will end; it’s a matter of time (see Zillow).

You could even say that employers have less control over their employees – especially those who are tech-savvy. Workers who are wise in the ways of the Web can use their online connections to cobble together a decent living by utilizing their social network.

Last, but certainly not least, here’s the kicker I’ve been building up to: software. We’re all familiar with Open Source software these days. The idea is that when you open up your source code to a vast online array of collaborators – when you loosen control – you get better apps.

It seems to me we’re moving towards an Open Source World. As traditional business categories yield to the Information Age, it seems like people will get better information, more conveniently, and at a lower cost. That seems like a good thing to me.

It also seems inevitable.

More than 8 million people downloaded Firefox 3 in a 24-hour period, setting a world record, and more than 28 million download have taken place since the browser was released June 17.

BBC News »