Bing Chrome and See What You Get
Remember the old days of browser wars? AOL (America Online), Netscape, Opera, Mozilla, and (once Bill Gates figured out the web was important) Internet Explorer? (Oh, and of course, late-entrant but strong contender, Firefox.)
And how about all those search engines we used to use, like Hotbot, AltaVista, and Ask.com? They were all obliterated when simple, amazing accurate Google launched.
While I'm a big fan of competition, because ideally, it keeps quality up and prices down, in the case of Bing and Chrome, you have to ask: why?
When the above-named wars ended and the smoke cleared, we were left with IE, Firefox, and Safari (for Macs) as the browsers of choice for the vast majority of internet-users worldwide. (AOL, which eventually acquired Netscape, is also still in play, though to a vastly lesser degree than in the early 90s, when "everybody" used AOL.)
On the search engine side, Google simply destroyed the competition. Yes, some people still use Yahoo!, but the one thing that the advent of Bing (Microsoft's entry into the search engine world) has done is deplete Yahoo's market share.
So let me back up... Bing, as I mentioned, is Microsoft's run at Google. It's being heavily promoted - the ads and links are inescapable. It's had former incarnations, under the names Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search.
Bing attempts to work with the notion of "semantic web," that is, the ways in which words can having different meanings in context. So "cat" can refer to a domestic tabby, a lion or tiger, a snow machine, a whip, or even a person of loose morals. The semantic web, and Bing, try to assist the user by offering different search results for a given term or string - offering those context-based options that can more quickly zero in on what the user is looking for. Bing offers a left panel called the "Explorer Panel" that provides these related searches.
It was also announced that Bing will power Yahoo! Search, which in a way obviates the loss of market share (Yahoo! now stands at 10.15%, versus Bing's 12.9%).
While a couple of my geekier friends have tried Bing, it has made nowhere near the must-have splash that Google did when it launched, nor are we likely to be "binging" something anytime soon.
Chrome, on the other hand, is Google's attempt to out-IE IE. Not gonna happen.
The funny thing is, IE was not the better browser back at the time it was crushing Netscape. Netscape was clearly a better product, and fans struggled to stay with it, even as Microsoft "bundled" IE into its operating system, and - as it appears to be attempting to do with Bing - made it so ubiquitous it was impossible to avoid.
"Chrome was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on 2 September 2008, and the public stable release was on 11 December 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or "chrome," of web browsers. In August 2009, Chrome was the fourth most widely used browser, with 2.59% of worldwide usage share of web browsers." (Wikipedia)
Granted, Chrome is interesting. Most visited pages are shown - graphically, as thumbnails - in the main portion of the app desktop. Recent bookmarks are shown as a list of links. Recently closed sites are shown, again as thumbnails.
As you might expect from Google, Chrome is minimalist in its approach - simple, clean, and straight forward. Chrome says it offers speed, security and stability, which it does, though not in such marked contrast to other services that it is hands-down the best choice, the way Google was (is) compared to other search engines.
It seems, though, that what both giant companies would ideally like to do is control all your web interface - both your browser and your search engine. And granted, there are some reasons to think that might be ultimately to your advantage.
The real problem is whether people, creatures of habit, are likely to change from a more-than-good-enough option to a what-might-be-a-slightly-better one.
When Google took on all comers, it was truly different, and truly better. The other search engines had long since sold out to paid search, so users had to wade through reams of bought'n'paid for results before getting to what they were really looking for. Google offered a clean, clear, honest set of results, and we loved it. Google was so good, it spread word of mouth - they didn't even have to market it.
The question is, what do Bing and Chrome have to offer that so out-shines what we're now using that people will literally be sending one another emails, or discussing it at the proverbial water cooler?
Nothing I can see yet. But I'll give it a little time, and get back to you.
And how about all those search engines we used to use, like Hotbot, AltaVista, and Ask.com? They were all obliterated when simple, amazing accurate Google launched.
While I'm a big fan of competition, because ideally, it keeps quality up and prices down, in the case of Bing and Chrome, you have to ask: why?
When the above-named wars ended and the smoke cleared, we were left with IE, Firefox, and Safari (for Macs) as the browsers of choice for the vast majority of internet-users worldwide. (AOL, which eventually acquired Netscape, is also still in play, though to a vastly lesser degree than in the early 90s, when "everybody" used AOL.)
On the search engine side, Google simply destroyed the competition. Yes, some people still use Yahoo!, but the one thing that the advent of Bing (Microsoft's entry into the search engine world) has done is deplete Yahoo's market share.
So let me back up... Bing, as I mentioned, is Microsoft's run at Google. It's being heavily promoted - the ads and links are inescapable. It's had former incarnations, under the names Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search.
Bing attempts to work with the notion of "semantic web," that is, the ways in which words can having different meanings in context. So "cat" can refer to a domestic tabby, a lion or tiger, a snow machine, a whip, or even a person of loose morals. The semantic web, and Bing, try to assist the user by offering different search results for a given term or string - offering those context-based options that can more quickly zero in on what the user is looking for. Bing offers a left panel called the "Explorer Panel" that provides these related searches.
It was also announced that Bing will power Yahoo! Search, which in a way obviates the loss of market share (Yahoo! now stands at 10.15%, versus Bing's 12.9%).
While a couple of my geekier friends have tried Bing, it has made nowhere near the must-have splash that Google did when it launched, nor are we likely to be "binging" something anytime soon.
Chrome, on the other hand, is Google's attempt to out-IE IE. Not gonna happen.
The funny thing is, IE was not the better browser back at the time it was crushing Netscape. Netscape was clearly a better product, and fans struggled to stay with it, even as Microsoft "bundled" IE into its operating system, and - as it appears to be attempting to do with Bing - made it so ubiquitous it was impossible to avoid.
"Chrome was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on 2 September 2008, and the public stable release was on 11 December 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or "chrome," of web browsers. In August 2009, Chrome was the fourth most widely used browser, with 2.59% of worldwide usage share of web browsers." (Wikipedia)
Granted, Chrome is interesting. Most visited pages are shown - graphically, as thumbnails - in the main portion of the app desktop. Recent bookmarks are shown as a list of links. Recently closed sites are shown, again as thumbnails.
As you might expect from Google, Chrome is minimalist in its approach - simple, clean, and straight forward. Chrome says it offers speed, security and stability, which it does, though not in such marked contrast to other services that it is hands-down the best choice, the way Google was (is) compared to other search engines.
It seems, though, that what both giant companies would ideally like to do is control all your web interface - both your browser and your search engine. And granted, there are some reasons to think that might be ultimately to your advantage.
The real problem is whether people, creatures of habit, are likely to change from a more-than-good-enough option to a what-might-be-a-slightly-better one.
When Google took on all comers, it was truly different, and truly better. The other search engines had long since sold out to paid search, so users had to wade through reams of bought'n'paid for results before getting to what they were really looking for. Google offered a clean, clear, honest set of results, and we loved it. Google was so good, it spread word of mouth - they didn't even have to market it.
The question is, what do Bing and Chrome have to offer that so out-shines what we're now using that people will literally be sending one another emails, or discussing it at the proverbial water cooler?
Nothing I can see yet. But I'll give it a little time, and get back to you.
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