September 04, 2008, 10:09 AM — When my neighbor came over last night to borrow a screwdriver, we went into my garage where I keep my tools, and realized that my collection of screwdrivers is probably far too big. After all, there are only so many different ways to make a screwdriver, and for the most part, there's not a whole lot of difference between them. Kind of like Web browsers.
Google's new Chrome Web browser is about as exciting as buying a new screwdriver. But for Google, that's not really the point. Google wants to be the undisputed king of online applications and software-as-a-service, and for that, they should have their own browser. Not because it will be any better than Internet Explorer, for example, but because they will be able to more easily integrate their own online offerings into it.
Having their own browser will go a long way towards shaking up not only the browser market, but the SaaS market as well, especially with Microsoft moving into this area. Chrome may be just another ordinary browser, but its presence may well take away some of Microsoft's market share. And if users turn to Chrome and away from IE, there will be less market for Microsoft's new SaaS offerings.
