Sounds logical that the old browsers were created at a time when the web world was so much different than what it is right now. But how logical is it as a reason for creating a new Browser from scratch so that it could fit the new web of today? Think again, is it really needed? I mean really?
I feel at the end of the day this is all about business and 'my' applications ruling the world! And everything else is just to get the dam'n thing in right place.
People spending their hundreds of hours together to get the existing browsers like Mozilla FireFox, Safari, IE in the right shape, never thought about writing everything from scratch? Or may be they thought but didn't find it worth, because there is already a platform available which can be reused to build the right thing. May be some people did think about it and so we have the FireFox. (?) But when it came to Google, it had to create "it's own browser", no other way than to start from scratch, so what could be a better reason than to tell the people that it is the need of the hour!
If you are mistaking that everything is from scratch, nopes! that's not the case. The Chrome team declares - "We've used components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox, among others - and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well." (reference). Why could not Google contribute to the already existing open source browsers and make them Chrome? Firefox Chrome?
Further, Chrome team states "We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward." (reference). I would read this as "We hope to collaborate with the entire community (Orkut, YouTube, Picasa, Other Google Network Sites) to help drive the web forward (to us - Google)."
Not that I am Anti-Google or hate Chrome, the product looks promising and too good to hate. But, if I was Google, I would not have used the sugarcoated marketing strategy to lure the world, rather I would have taken courage to declare - I have a better browser for you, please try it once! - simple and straight. What I am not liking is the Googlistic way of positioning the product. (May be that's why I am not Google ;) )
Finally, I am worried about the Web Developers (read programmers and designers who sweat to build web and make it what it is and not just the brand Microsoft / Google / Yahoo) who would again spend hours to ensure everything works on one more browser now. If you are now thinking of writing-code-with-standards-solves-the-issue, please excuse me and ask the real developer how much it works, it still breaks!
Stop this war (of Money & Fame?) and get together to create a wonderful web which is what we really need!
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