Chrome’s Critical Role In Google’s Vision of the Future

Do you want to know what Google is thinking about the future, the future of Chrome and the apps you run on it?

They talk about it all the time. It’s just a matter of putting all the pieces together. 

The very smart Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, shares his thoughts in a post to the official Google blog.

A summary of his thoughts on the future:

• In the next decade 70% of human race will have mobile or fixed Internet access at gigabyte speeds. 
   
• Our devices will automatically reach out and connect to other local devices, offering benefits and services which will seem almost like magic (my words not his).  He uses the example of asking your device (think your handy dandy gPhone) where your reading glasses are and having it reply with the last location where the RFID tag was seen. 
   
• Streaming content will become as interactive as static web pages are today. 
   
• Devices in our homes will connect with consumable products (your refrigerator knows the food in it, your washing machine knows the detergent on the shelf) and we’ll be able to measure and control aspects of our lives most important to use (power consumption for example). 
   

Of all of Vint’s observations, one stands out as a beacon of clarity for Google’s vision for the future.

He comments that we’ve learned that “the Internet is essentially a software artifact” and that “if it can be imagined, it can be programmed“. 

Imagine with me for a moment this future he’s outlined. 

Smart devices everywhere. Small compact smart devices. Appliances which have interfaces to display their content, their status, and allow us to interact with them in a smarter more complex way than we can imagine today. 

The software powering everything will have to be a small, tight, well written and fast performing.

This software has to be less about the features of “itself” and more about exposing the features of the machines, and devices using it. 

This software would need to effectively act like a “window into the functionality of the device”, and in the process, make sure that it doesn’t get in the way of your interaction with the device itself. 

If any of this is sounding familiar, here are a few quotes about Chrome from Sundar Pichai, Google’s Vice President of Product Management:

• “We think of the browser as the window to the web”.
   
• “it’s a tool for users to interact with the web sites and applications they care about, and it’s important that we don’t get in the way of that experience.”
   
• “we’re going to make you a great tool that’s very important to the things you do, but at the same time, we’re doing everything we can to be an invisible part of that process.”
   

Google’s Cyber Cafe Strategy With Chrome: All Out War Against Microsoft?

At times the public perception of Google’s strategy for Chrome feels like they are “releasing a balloon to the wind”, in other words, they put it out there, let if float and see where it goes.

Neeraj Saxena in the InfoTech section of “India Times” tells of a different and more calculated strategy described by Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice-president for product development and in charge of Chrome development.

India Times printed the following about Google’s strategy with Chrome:

“Google will now go all out in a war against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer by sewing up distribution agreements for its browser Chrome beta with cyber cafe owners in countries like India to take on Microsoft’s OEM bundling strength”.

Note: This statement was attributed to Sundar Pichai, but didn’t show it as a direct quote.

I added the “Note” above because while the strategy of sewing up distributions agreements by Google is a smart move, the term “all out in a war against Microsoft” isn’t phrasing you’d normally see attributed directly to a Google spokesperson.

Sundar was however quoted in this description of Google’s strategy:

“While it is true that many Internet users stick to the bundled browsers, we will be banking upon alternative distribution strategy. The fact that Chrome is really light at 7MB download, is clutter-free and loads up websites very fast is an advantage that Google would be banking upon”.

Alternative distribution strategies for the browser that is. Of course having an alternative browser also gives alternative distribution for ads too.

It continues to be true that Google has more in mind than most people realize.

Neeraj’s full article in the InfoTech section of the India Times is here.

Google’s Chrome – the “iPod” of browsers

Sometimes when you back and look at something you’ve read before, you see new things due to the passage of time.

I re-read the Google press release about Chrome.

In it, Sundar Pichai, Google’s Vice President of Product Management said “We think of the browser as the window to the web”.

That in itself is cool to see and think about, both simple and philosophical.

Next he says “it’s a tool for users to interact with the web sites and applications they care about, and it’s important that we don’t get in the way of that experience” and I see the passion he and the rest of the team have about creating a great product for customers.

In other words, “we’re going to make you a great tool that’s very important to the things you do, but at the same time, we’re doing everything we can to be an invisible part of that process”.

In the last part of the paragraph that I like, he says “Just like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome has a simple user interface with a sophisticated core to enable the modern web.”

Does the concept of a “use it every day” product made of sophisticated technology and wrapped with a simple interface remind you of anything?

If not, turn up your iPod, relax and see if anything comes to mind.

See the full press release from Google is here at Business Wire.

See the cool new iPod nano’s from Apple here.