Google Chrome: Browser or Stealth App?

I’ve had a little over a week now to play with the new Web enabled application from Google, known as Chrome. Some, including Google, call it a Web browser. I respectfully disagree.

As a browser, Chrome leaves a lot to be desired.  Despite promised improvements (like the basic ability to organize your bookmarks), this stripped down interface would have a long way to go to compete with the feature sets of Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer. But, then, it may not be Google’s goal to create an application for browsing the Web.

Consider it’s name: Chrome. In the world of user interface design, the presentation layer (the buttons, backgrounds, and icons and other graphic bits of the interface) is called the “chrome.” And that’s exactly what Google’s Chrome is: it is the chrome ( lower case “c”) for Google’s current and future Web based applications.

And I’m not the only one who thinks so. I remember just ten years ago when Marc Andreesen had the same idea and threw down the gauntlet, stating that Netscape would replace the operating system as the vector for users interacting with applications. It didn’t quite turn out that way, but maybe Google will be able to pull it off.

Maybe.