Google Chrome: that shiny & new?

Lots of chatter about Google Chrome lately. My first response was, another browser? Great! Us Mac-heads have been spoilt for choice for a while now. My second response was, oh, another Google toy. That's great, but since Google censored itself - for George Bush at the APEC conference in Sydney (technical issues my eye) - I've been a little uneasy about Google's reach. Anyone who gives Microsft a kick can't be all bad, but we sure don't want another Microsoft!

My third thought was, hey, I've seen all the new features in Opera! the sophisticated tabs -hello Microsoft!- and the thumbnail pages. Opera was even blogging before Google too. But you weren't American, Mr www.opera.no

The Web always was interactive...

The Phrase Web 2.0 is rubbish. It was invented as a promotional gimmick, trying to sound advanced, mysterious, "in". But the concepts behind it (interactivity, community, ease of sharing, etc.) are as old as the Internet. The Internet was invented in order to share information, remember?

The difference now is, we can share so much more easily, and share more things. And that IS exciting, and worth a new name. Hence: The Read/Write Web.

Sounds a bit like World-Wide Web? That's OK; we understand the global village now, we know deep down we're in it. And when we know deep down we're in the Read/Write Web, we won't need the phrase so much.

And by then the spin-doctors will have come up with a totally new (improved!) gimmick...

You read it here first!