Insight into the New Web Browser- Google Chrome	Visited: 1561 4.3/5.0 (7 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Roger Janik September 18, 2008

Roger Janik

Roger Janik is the President and Founder of ServerSideDesign.com – The Web Marketers. ServerSideDesign was founded in 2004 and over the years has grown to a staff of well-rounded professionals that handle tasks such as SEO copywriting, SEO programming, link building, social networking, pay per click management, web design, and reporting. ServerSideDesign is a proud member of the BBB, SEMPO and many other prestigious organizations. They were named as a top 10 company in 2007 for both Organic SEO and Link Popularity by Promotion World.

Roger Janik has written 7 articles for PromotionWorld.

View all articles by Roger Janik...

On September 2, 2008, Google released their beta version of their new open source web browser Chrome.  Practically, everything Google releases is received with much fanfare and Chrome was no different.  Many SEO’s, programmers and web specialists immediately downloaded Chrome to see just what it offered, what its intentions are and how will it affect the surfing community at large.  After a couple of weeks, some reviews are just starting to trickle in, here are just some of the things you should know about Chrome.

The Features of Google Chrome Browser

Overall, as a Beta version, Google Chrome looks to be a very fast, convenient and stable way to browse the web.  While it offers great features including security features that target malware & spyware and an interesting feature called incognito mode (more on that later), there isn’t any single item that makes this browser an instant winner or loser in the market.  The main interface for the user includes all the regular controls one would find on Internet Explorer or Firefox making it intuitive for practically everyone already surfing the web.

Google Chrome includes the feature called Omnibox.  This is the URL box at the top portion of the screen that offers both search functions and the typical URL box.  Omnibox is said to be heavily influenced by Google Suggest.  It offers an auto-complete functionality, which in theory has the ability to save everything you type in this box (Google can collect data you enter into this box even before you hit the enter button) and send it to Google’s databases stored for better search results, however many in the SEO community and the web community at large, see this as a possible “Pandora’s box”.  The Omnibox currently only auto suggests any URL that is manually inputted- however, most searches are done through manual input.

Omnibox Can Have an Impact on Search as We Know it

As stated above, the Omnibox feature offers to auto-complete a manual input of a URL, this can have a huge effect on those web surfers that use keywords to search for URLs.  Using Google Chrome, I observed the Omnibox deliver both the #1 ranking URL for a keyword I inputted (for instance: the keyword “flowers”- FTD.com appeared in the Omnibox) along with other keywords related to my initial search (for instance: “flower” other keywords that may appear include “wedding, Valentine, etc”).  So what are some of the ways that the Omnibox can affect search- here are just a few:

• The #1 ranking can be more important than ever to have since the Omnibox may be automatically suggesting it with any manual keyword input.

• Brand related marketing instead of generic keywords may be able to give some businesses an edge since it is easier to show up as #1 in the rankings for your name, rather than a keyword.  (For instance:  urging web surfers to search for the term “Ford” instead of car).

• It’s possible that the more times the user’s web browser comes in contact with any content on a page that is related to your product or company, the more relevant your product or company becomes to Google Chrome.  This might spur a new strategy of raising awareness of your products or company name on a wide variety of sites, forums, blogs, etc.

• With the middleman gone (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox), Google Chrome will be able to do a much better job at knowing who their customers are, what they are looking for and how to serve advertising and services to them.  This can hugely affect Google’s bottom line, as well as making the advertising they sell much more effective at targeting the right individuals.

Google Chrome and Cloud Computing

Besides having ramifications for those individuals surfing the net, Google Chrome seems like it is positioning itself in the market to gain market share from businesses.  It does seem that Google’s main thrust for launching Chrome was to gain market share against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.  Google has been pushing cloud computing (which is tech speak for web based applications) rather than what Microsoft has been selling- an operating system on every computer.

However, with Google Chrome, main features are geared toward making it easier for offices to use web based applications such as Google Calendar, Docs and Spreadsheets.  In essence, many of the chatter going on in the forums, blogs and new sites is revolving around a belief that Google is trying to create an operating system for cloud computing, where a computer, dumb terminal (or computer type device) can access the web using Google Chrome and instantly offer the user a wide range of web based applications without having to have large computing abilities, memory or storage at the unit’s end.   According to many offering their opinions, it seems as though Google is again firing across Microsoft’s bow.

Incognito Mode

One interesting feature that has raised a lot of eyebrows is the incognito mode.  Incognito mode offers a relatively covert way to browse the internet.  For instance, when Google Chrome is in incognito mode, Chrome will not log any web pages you visit or files you download.  In addition, all cookies that are new will be deleted after you close your incognito session. Incognito works by opening a new browser window with this feature enabled.  A cool fact about using this feature is that with two Chrome browser windows open (one with incognito enabled and the other disabled) you can surf the web both ways simultaneously.  It should be noted that while Google Chrome won’t log info, the sites that you visit can and probably will still do so.

While incognito mode is a great feature, Firefox, Internet Explorer 8, Safari, etc all have or in the near future will add some sort of private surfing feature to their browsers giving little or no advantage to Chrome.

Immediate Implications of Google Chrome

Let’s face it; Google has released a wide variety of web based applications that have fizzled out after an initial interest.  It is of course, way too early to tell if this is one of them.  While initial response has been good, there has also been a backlash on Chrome due to security and privacy concerns.  It seems it will take much more effort than their initial rollout of Chromes’ Beta version to have any effect in the browser wars. It looks like the public at large is usually more than content using Internet Explorer (which is bundled nicely with the MS operating system) and not that many users go out of their way to change it (Firefox currently has a drop less than 20% market share compared with 72% for Internet Explorer).

Whether you are an SEO, internet marketer or web user, it will definitely be some time before the effects of Google Chrome pans out.   This is one article where we have to say, we’ll keep you updated.