Google Chrome: Eyeballs, Data, and Money
November 25, 2008
More information about Google Chrome seems to be drizzling into my newsreader. You will want to read Matt Asay’s “Microsoft Meets Its Match in Google; Chrome to Go Retail.” You can read this CNet story here. What I liked about this story is that it used the word “retail” in the headline. Mr. Asay also includes a link to a good Ars Technica article as well. For me, the most interesting comment in the article was:
Google is apparently preparing to compete with Microsoft at its own game (i.e., bundling its browser on new PCs). Once installed, there’s a very good chance that consumers will end up using Chrome. Once it’s there, all it takes is one article talking about Firefox or Chrome as being superior to IE in security or some other feature and consumers may well ditch the IE icon.
In my little goose pond, I think this “Google installed” angle is important for three reasons.
- Google wants eyeballs. Since most people buying a PC or mobile device use what’s installed, Google wants those eyeballs. I anticipate an arms race between Google and Microsoft. Yep, cash will change hands, and the stakes will be high.
- Google wants data. Clicks are it at the GOOG. Some of the uninformed fraternity officers who end up in Google PR might not know exactly what Google counts. Nevertheless, Google gobbles clicks, converts them to data, and then squeezes actionable information from those data. Google assumes that when Chrome is installed, eyeballs become clicks. Clicks are good.
- Google wants money. Chrome is a part of a larger Google money machine. Just as Henry Ford envisioned River Rouge as a big system. Put iron ore from Duluth in one end and Fords roll out the other. In my research, I think River Rouge is too small for Google’s ambitions.
I will keep watching the GOOG and its interesting Chrome technology. I wondered what that patent documents were talking about when the notion of virtualization, janitors, and tokenization kept popping up in odd place. Now I think I know a bit more. A digital River Rouge for the 21st century. What do you think?
Stephen Arnold, November 25, 2008
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