Google still has a sense of humor

Uncategorized 1 Minute

Not only did Google announce Chrome (its new browser that’s making a splash all over TechMeme) with a comic book but there’s a bit more funny history as well.

Several years ago Microsoft had a project code-named Chrome. It was supposed to be a multimedia browser. The project was killed a few weeks away from shipping.

There are even still some articles up about the Microsoft Chrome project. Here’s one about the project getting killed.

But, more seriously, and not so humorous: I wonder what will happen to funding for Mozilla’s Firefox now that Google is headed into the browser business?

UPDATE: John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, left a comment in this post saying that this won’t affect Mozilla. He also was interviewed by Om Malik where he said Mozilla isn’t worried.

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

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70 thoughts on “Google still has a sense of humor”

  1. Well I think Google want to keep fostering every browser apart from IE. They just extended there contract with Mozilla so I think that is a good sign.

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  2. Well I think Google want to keep fostering every browser apart from IE. They just extended there contract with Mozilla so I think that is a good sign.

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  3. Hi Robert — we just renewed our financial arrangement with Google through November 2011, and this will have no effect on that.

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  4. Hi Robert — we just renewed our financial arrangement with Google through November 2011, and this will have no effect on that.

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  9. I doubt Mozilla are too worried at the moment. Google have a fabulous history of launching products, and a horrible history of actually 1.0-ing them.

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  10. I doubt Mozilla are too worried at the moment. Google have a fabulous history of launching products, and a horrible history of actually 1.0-ing them.

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  15. We are starting to see some real traction with the extensions concept in Firefox.

    That may sound controversial (just starting?), so let me explain. Many of the extensions have been somewhat trivial UI orientated changes. In many cases they bring functions that exist already in other browsers or they implement flexibility that Firefox left out of the browser.

    However, there is a growing lists of apps that provide new functions or that are virtually new apps. These include AddBlock, Feed Managers such as Wizz/Sage and Feedly, Zotero the bibliography manager, Operator, and more that I am sure you can name.

    Its possible that the most successful browser will be the one that attracts the most active third party developer ecosystem. Specifically, if I want to run Zotero, then I must run it in the Firefox browser.

    It will be interesting to see how this competition turns out, and it will be especially interesting to see how third party developers choose sides in this race.

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  16. We are starting to see some real traction with the extensions concept in Firefox.

    That may sound controversial (just starting?), so let me explain. Many of the extensions have been somewhat trivial UI orientated changes. In many cases they bring functions that exist already in other browsers or they implement flexibility that Firefox left out of the browser.

    However, there is a growing lists of apps that provide new functions or that are virtually new apps. These include AddBlock, Feed Managers such as Wizz/Sage and Feedly, Zotero the bibliography manager, Operator, and more that I am sure you can name.

    Its possible that the most successful browser will be the one that attracts the most active third party developer ecosystem. Specifically, if I want to run Zotero, then I must run it in the Firefox browser.

    It will be interesting to see how this competition turns out, and it will be especially interesting to see how third party developers choose sides in this race.

    Like

  17. Google Chrome taking on Windows OS? Unfortunately we have seen that movie some years ago. Remember the web-surfing appliances of yesteryear like Sony eVilla or 3Com Audrey and Kerbango? How about Compaq iPaq or Netpliance I-opener? Didn’t think so:

    Why Google Chrome is not a “Windows Killer”
    http://counternotions.com/2008/09/02/chrome/

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  18. Google Chrome taking on Windows OS? Unfortunately we have seen that movie some years ago. Remember the web-surfing appliances of yesteryear like Sony eVilla or 3Com Audrey and Kerbango? How about Compaq iPaq or Netpliance I-opener? Didn’t think so:

    Why Google Chrome is not a “Windows Killer”
    http://counternotions.com/2008/09/02/chrome/

    Like

  19. What is so puzzling is that they chose to debut it the day after the Summer holiday.

    Also, just a three days ago, it was announced that Mozilla had renewed an agreement with Google Inc. that pays them for assigning Google’s search engine as Firefox’s default through November 2011.

    So did Mozilla have any idea this would happen mere days after the agreement.

    Also, was this a strategic launching by Google to prevent negotiations from breaking down.

    Interesting strategy – and they managed to keep it all secret.

    But unlike previous leaks, they leaked this to Blogoscoped instead of WSJ or Techcruch

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  20. What is so puzzling is that they chose to debut it the day after the Summer holiday.

    Also, just a three days ago, it was announced that Mozilla had renewed an agreement with Google Inc. that pays them for assigning Google’s search engine as Firefox’s default through November 2011.

    So did Mozilla have any idea this would happen mere days after the agreement.

    Also, was this a strategic launching by Google to prevent negotiations from breaking down.

    Interesting strategy – and they managed to keep it all secret.

    But unlike previous leaks, they leaked this to Blogoscoped instead of WSJ or Techcruch

    Like

  21. “now that Google is headed into the browser business”

    Robert, it should read ‘heading’ not ‘headed’.

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  22. “now that Google is headed into the browser business”

    Robert, it should read ‘heading’ not ‘headed’.

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  25. I think it’s an over-exaggeration that chrome will replace Windows.
    See,finally,it’s running on Windows platform only hence it’s rather dependent on Windows for its own access.I think,it will rather turn IE to the path of extinction(coz mozilla is already on their side and now chrome will simply crush all IE hopes)…BTW,launching their browser with a comic book isn’t a bad idea..

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  26. I think it’s an over-exaggeration that chrome will replace Windows.
    See,finally,it’s running on Windows platform only hence it’s rather dependent on Windows for its own access.I think,it will rather turn IE to the path of extinction(coz mozilla is already on their side and now chrome will simply crush all IE hopes)…BTW,launching their browser with a comic book isn’t a bad idea..

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  29. A dawn of a new era? — There’s definitely not a soul who doesn’t know about the decade long microsoft and google rivalry. Both of these huge goliaths having been constanly pushing themselves to their limits to totally conquer the computer and internet industry. I think I’ll stick with firefox till Chrome moves in and out of beta.

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  30. A dawn of a new era? — There’s definitely not a soul who doesn’t know about the decade long microsoft and google rivalry. Both of these huge goliaths having been constanly pushing themselves to their limits to totally conquer the computer and internet industry. I think I’ll stick with firefox till Chrome moves in and out of beta.

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  35. Chrome, now with the Google-tracking spyware built-in. And Google can’t create software, taken this long for Opera and Firefox to even chink IE. A Google browser is more a pipe dream than anything real. But expect the press to eternally kick up the whole “new OS to take on Microsoft” lucid-dreaming-fantasy made-for-bad-TV plots.

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  36. Chrome, now with the Google-tracking spyware built-in. And Google can’t create software, taken this long for Opera and Firefox to even chink IE. A Google browser is more a pipe dream than anything real. But expect the press to eternally kick up the whole “new OS to take on Microsoft” lucid-dreaming-fantasy made-for-bad-TV plots.

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  37. mm interesting a browser you control none of that pesky pay for play that you have to do with FF /safari.

    Writing high quality software for a range of OS’s running on a very wide range of hardware is not the same as running a app with tightly controlled functionality on custom built hardware that you control it is a whole new ball game.

    you can see down the line “oh sorry but that ad blocking plug-in you developed violates our “guidelines” – hear is the writ from our corporate lawyers “sue grabit and run”

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  38. mm interesting a browser you control none of that pesky pay for play that you have to do with FF /safari.

    Writing high quality software for a range of OS’s running on a very wide range of hardware is not the same as running a app with tightly controlled functionality on custom built hardware that you control it is a whole new ball game.

    you can see down the line “oh sorry but that ad blocking plug-in you developed violates our “guidelines” – hear is the writ from our corporate lawyers “sue grabit and run”

    Like

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  49. Chrome alone won’t kill Windows – but it will help… basically Google are kicking Windows ass when it comes to cloud computing, which is where Windows should have expanded to, but didn’t, and won’t… they fucked up by trying to own every thing they possibly could, and they dropped the ball… Unfortunately for them, people aren’t that stupid… Meanwhile they’re getting owned in all other areas of their business, and seem to have little response, apart from releasing an albeit impressive toy that merges photos together, (but alas for them, it’s still only a toy), and a few other minor achievements (like silverlight) that will only run on windows systems – they still haven’t accepted the fact that most tech savvy people don’t use their systems, and therefore, their products won’t take off among ‘early adopters’, and as a result will never be commonplace among the ‘non-passionates’ (to use a Robert Scoble term)…

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  50. Chrome alone won’t kill Windows – but it will help… basically Google are kicking Windows ass when it comes to cloud computing, which is where Windows should have expanded to, but didn’t, and won’t… they fucked up by trying to own every thing they possibly could, and they dropped the ball… Unfortunately for them, people aren’t that stupid… Meanwhile they’re getting owned in all other areas of their business, and seem to have little response, apart from releasing an albeit impressive toy that merges photos together, (but alas for them, it’s still only a toy), and a few other minor achievements (like silverlight) that will only run on windows systems – they still haven’t accepted the fact that most tech savvy people don’t use their systems, and therefore, their products won’t take off among ‘early adopters’, and as a result will never be commonplace among the ‘non-passionates’ (to use a Robert Scoble term)…

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  57. I don’t trust Google.
    And what’s up with the blatant copying from Microsoft (removing the menu bar; putting a “new tab” button, Tools droopdown menu, and Page dropdown menus to the right of the tabs; hiliting the domain name of the address bar’s URL, etc)? You’d think with all those PhDs, they could come up with their own UI.

    The thing i like about Chrome is the ability to mix and match tabs with each other in various windows. That’s very cool to play around with and can even be productive. Beyond that, not much to see here.

    Also, neither the mouse scroll wheel nor the scroll area of my laptop’s touchpad work properly. And when saving a web page, I get the old XP SaveAs dlg rather than the new Vista one. I know Chrome is in beta, but there’s some polishing that needs to be done.

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  58. I don’t trust Google.
    And what’s up with the blatant copying from Microsoft (removing the menu bar; putting a “new tab” button, Tools droopdown menu, and Page dropdown menus to the right of the tabs; hiliting the domain name of the address bar’s URL, etc)? You’d think with all those PhDs, they could come up with their own UI.

    The thing i like about Chrome is the ability to mix and match tabs with each other in various windows. That’s very cool to play around with and can even be productive. Beyond that, not much to see here.

    Also, neither the mouse scroll wheel nor the scroll area of my laptop’s touchpad work properly. And when saving a web page, I get the old XP SaveAs dlg rather than the new Vista one. I know Chrome is in beta, but there’s some polishing that needs to be done.

    Like

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  60. My point why Chrome (or any web browser for that matter) won’t ever kill windows is because the world is not like America. Not everyone all over the world is connected to the internet. Not everyone has a fast internet connection. Here in Asia alone, only 2 or 3 countries have blazing fast internet connections (japan, korea, china?). Windows will still exist no matter what Arrington and other web as os supporter say. And if they think that it will only kill windows, think again. Windows has a huge share in the OS market, what’s stopping Chrome from killing Linux and OSX, which are minority in terms of OS usage? These guys are just fanboys and losers like Michael Arrington.

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  61. My point why Chrome (or any web browser for that matter) won’t ever kill windows is because the world is not like America. Not everyone all over the world is connected to the internet. Not everyone has a fast internet connection. Here in Asia alone, only 2 or 3 countries have blazing fast internet connections (japan, korea, china?). Windows will still exist no matter what Arrington and other web as os supporter say. And if they think that it will only kill windows, think again. Windows has a huge share in the OS market, what’s stopping Chrome from killing Linux and OSX, which are minority in terms of OS usage? These guys are just fanboys and losers like Michael Arrington.

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  62. Google’s sense of humor goes on to their error messages too. My friend Kiruba had tweeted that he got an error message on chrome saying “Google Chrome has encountered a problem and needs to close. Please tell Microsoft about it” 🙂

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  63. Google’s sense of humor goes on to their error messages too. My friend Kiruba had tweeted that he got an error message on chrome saying “Google Chrome has encountered a problem and needs to close. Please tell Microsoft about it” 🙂

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  66. there are so many advantages and features with Chrome, such as it’s speed, for example; now if only they would take care it’s quirky cookie management…

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  67. there are so many advantages and features with Chrome, such as it’s speed, for example; now if only they would take care it’s quirky cookie management…

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  68. I love how Google always finds ways to add some humor to their products. It sure beats the send an error report messages we see in Windows constantly.

    As far Mozilla, I really don’t think they will be affected that much. Chrome is super fast but firefox has a lot of features that it doesn’t have.

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  69. I love how Google always finds ways to add some humor to their products. It sure beats the send an error report messages we see in Windows constantly.

    As far Mozilla, I really don’t think they will be affected that much. Chrome is super fast but firefox has a lot of features that it doesn’t have.

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