Boy, am I ever glad I held back from posting about the new browser from Google.
It’s been an interesting couple of days though, starting with the comic book style introduction which I kinda like. This raised several flags in my professional circle, both amongst the geeks (ohh we re-use the Javascript engine..) and the technical writers (a comic? but there is no navigation or structure!), but was interesting enough to hold my attention so, hey, it worked for me.
Then the download was made available and, gosh, isn’t it BLUE. And looky at the clever things it does, and all the new shiny stuff. Wow, it’s .. a browser. OK OK, it is fast, and there are some really smart ideas in the background but, for most people, it’s just another browser. Seriously, my Mum (who is now officially another year wiser! Happy Birthday Mum!) doesn’t care that all the processes and objects are held on a per tab basis, she just wants to read her email and forward me crap jokes.
It’s also hard to criticise something that isn’t even at version 1.0.
[insert joke about Google products that remain in BETA indefinitely]
And then the EULA police descended. Oh my god!, they said, Google want to own your content, they want to invade your country and, shit on a brick, they are gonna EAT YOUR BABIES!!!!!!!
Or something like that.
Now I do understand that the terms in their EULA were, frankly, ludicrous, and the outcry was fairly justifiable. But here’s the thing.
Most of the people (all?) that downloaded, install and ran the Chrome browser are geeks. This is simply because we are the type of people that do such things. We are also the type of people who routinely click through an installation wizard as fast as possible, ignoring such things as EULA statements (not even apparently, but still the majority I’d warrant).
Furthermore I’d suggest that a fair number of the people who downloaded and installed Chrome also work in the software industry, and when it comes to the ‘legal’ stuff? Yeah we just take whatever file we are told to use and bung it in where it should go, right?
Is it possible that the EULA that was released with Google Chrome was just a file that was lying around? Or do people really think that Google would try such a thing? Remember, Google do know how the internet works, probably better than you or I, they know that such things get found out, and found out quickly.
So, all in all, it’s good that they’ve changed their EULA.
Now, if they could just give me a way to make the Chrome windows look like the rest of my deskop windows, that’d be great!
It used to bug me that Apple applications ignored the Windows XP look and feel. However, even Microsoft itself doesn’t seem to care about operating system interface consistency any more – certainly not on the evidence of Windows Media Player 11, anyway. Google’s just following the trend.
I’m interested in seeing this pretty XP skin you’re using. Got a screengrab anywhere?
And you’re right. Things like the Chrome comic, are totally aimed at the geeks like us who understand things like processes and javascript etc. But it’s we, geeks that usually assume (or have foisted upon them) the role of ‘family IT boffin’. It is us who set-up, fix, restore and advise when it comes to computers and the net. It is us who defrag, debug and de-virus(?) their crappy Windows machines, pulling Aunties, Unlces, Mums and Dads from the brink of malware hell.
Thus, if Chrome meets our picky standards then it is also us who will install it as their default browser and say ‘when you want on the internet, just click on Google Chrome from now on’.
I’ve drank the kool-aid and find it fruity and delicious. I bloody love Google Chrome.