September 2008 Articles
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Google and Microsoft go head to head again - Net.Matters - September 2008
Microsoft and Google have recently announced their new internet browser products, Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) and Google Chrome.
Key features of IE8 include improved search functioning and security. Web search is made easier by displaying potential results in real time, while the "smart address book" brings up recently visited sites when keywords and phrases are typed in. The media has made much of the new InPrivate feature - allowing users to hide which sites they have visited. This feature, analysts argue, is targeting Google's revenue stream head-on. By switching to InPrivate mode, users prohibit anyone from seeing what sites they have visited, and more importantly for Google, prohibits internet companies from collating data on users, their buying behaviour and therefore the means for targeting online advertising. With the global advertising market currently worth around £21 billion and experts predicting this figure will double by 2010, there is everything to play for.
The Times quote David Mitchell from Ovum, an information technology agency as saying: "If the hype around privacy gains more credibility, more people will hit the private button. There is a potential threat here to click-through advertising."
So what does Google Chrome have that IE8 doesn't? Cynics argue that the product has been rushed onto the market to combat IE8 and its privacy mode - Larry Page said at the press launch: "We started this two years ago. I think having a world in which the main sort of code that you're using is open-sourced and people can improve it and there's a healthy eco-system, I think, is very important."
Google claim to have developed the browser product to keep up to speed with internet developments, but has positioned Chrome to work with the next wave of rich web applications. With Google championing "cloud computing", whereby traditional desktop applications sit online, Chrome is seen as another means by which Google can chip away at Microsoft's dominance of the desktop market. Chrome may not be aiming to be the number one browser, but rather a stable, fast and flexible product that will support online applications users can access from desktops, palmtops and mobiles (Google are set to release Android, its mobile software system to the UK market in November).
Chrome has 3 key features - speed, security and stability. Chrome claims to be 3 times faster than Firefox and 12 times faster than Internet Explorer. The "omnibox" incorporates both the search and address box in the same place and when the user opens Chrome, the 9 most recent sites visited will be displayed. Similar to IE8's InPrivate feature, the "Incognito" key allows users to hide recently visited sites from the browser history and cookies won't be left behind. Google claim Chrome will constantly update their list of blacklisted sites known for phishing for users' personal data. Chrome is said to be more stable; less incidence of browser crashing since each search tab is set up as separate process - if one tab of several that are open fails, it is an isolated incident.
