Is Google Chrome a Web 3.0 Browser?

Earlier this year, I wrote about Google Chrome in an effort to describe the browser of Web 3.0. Of course, I didn't know that I was writing about Google Chrome at the time -- and perhaps it will turn out that I was writing about an offering from someone else completely -- but my Web 3.0 browser sure does sound a lot like Google Chrome.

In 1999, when I was managing the conversion of some software applications to the web, I got my first big taste of web programming and my initial thoughts were "What a mess!"

The fact is that web browsers were not designed to do what we want them to do. They were designed to open documents, and we want them to launch applications. It's like taking Microsoft Word and trying to use it as your word processor, spreadsheet, database and application development environment.

Thanks to AJAX, we've been able to get a lot accomplished in this environment. But AJAX is a hack. It wasn't designed to create the seamless transfer of any and all information from client to server in order to build sophisticated web applications -- we've just hijacked it for that purpose.

My words earlier this year reflect my thoughts when I got that initial taste of web programming: it's time to reinvent the wheel. Web browsers are meant to display documents, and we'll have our hands tied behind our back until we build a new browser with the express intent of running web applications.

And that's where Google Chrome comes into the picture. While I can't say whether or not Google Chrome will deliver on its lofty promise, the intent spelled out at its launch was to build a better web application platform.

It's a lofty task and one with many perils. The primary requirement is to build a way to seamlessly pass information form client to server without the need for human interaction. In other words, the server can tell the client something without us needing to do anything. This can be achieved -- in a very hackish way -- by AJAX right now. But creating a sophisticated means of passing information back and forth will open a lot of doors for web applications.

It will also open a lot of doors for malicious applications. The more sophisticated of an application platform our web browsers become and the easier it is to share information between client and server, the easier it will be for those functions to be hijacked for malicious purpose. Moreso than Internet Explorer or Firefox, that is what Google is up against -- a whole new breed of viruses.

After only two days, a big security flaw was found in Chrome. And no doubt it will be a long and bumpy road to come -- but we very well could be at the dawn of a new web era -- the much hyped Web 3.0.