Googleand its matrix alphabet, is today what it is thanks to good decisions made at the best time. To start, offer a minimalist search engine with useful results. Then, take advantage of that search engine to sell advertising. And over time, it expanded its catalog of products and services, many of them free. Today we are used to seeing mobile phones pixeldevices Chromecast for the TV or Chromebooks. But to get there, many decisions had to be made and internal impediments had to be fought. Precisely, the birth of Google Chrome gives rise to what Google is today as a software provider such as Android, Chrome either chrome OS that we find in millions of devices from dozens of manufacturers.
Thanks to Google Chrome, the Google search engine reached the computers of millions of people who did not use it before. Due to lack of interest or ignorance. His strategy was similar to the one used by Microsoft with Internet Explorer. Microsoft used the popularity of windows to take over the browser market by offering Internet Explorer by default. And Google used its search engine to advertise google chrome. And vice versa. History has proved him right, since he ousted Firefox and today it is on millions of mobile and desktop devices. In part, too, because your android system It’s on most phones. Basically all the non-Apple ones. And Android’s default browser is Google Chrome.
Chrome became a winning brand. A ubiquitous browser. Not surprisingly, later served as the basis for Chrome OS, the operating system that Google created for cheap computers based on applications and cloud services. All from Google, of course. And with the spread of the Chrome engine, chromium, Google made sure that other browsers were based on Chrome. Over time, Microsoft gave up and introduced Chromium to Edge, its successor to Internet Explorer. something he also did Opera. And for now, just Manzana Y Mozilla hold up in the browser wars. But, let us start at the beginning.
Why does Google need a browser?
This question had been asked many times in the Google offices. It’s more. Google’s CEO Eric Schmidtfrom 2001 to 2011, always he had resisted to spend resources, time and employees to develop a web browser. So if it were up to him, the birth of Google Chrome would never have happened. Google was already popular with the general public and the browsers of the time already included their search engine as a default option. They already made sure of that themselves. It is known that Google finances Mozilla Firefox for years to include Google as the default search engine. Even today, being, in appearance, rivals.
When Schmidt started as CEO at Google, the most popular browser was internet explorer. I already explained one of the causes before. And thereafter, Mozilla Firefox It was eating up ground until it took first place in 2010. In 2001, the most popular search engine was Yahoo! followed by msn (from Microsoft) and aol. That more than search engines were portals full of sections, categories and various contents. Google It was also there, among the big four, dividing the market equally. But by 2002 the competition began to decline and Google he was crowned first seeker. So back to the same question: what does Google need its own browser for? If, in addition, you already had one search bar which worked on internet explorer Y Firefox.
An ambitious idea that would change everything
With everything, sergey brin Y Larry Page they decided to develop Chrome on their own thanks to the hiring of several developers. Initially they were going to be in charge of helping to improve Mozilla Firefox. An open source project in which Google participated selflessly. Or rather not. And it is that behind this work of improvements in Firefox, a new browser was developedwhich would be the embryo of Chrome.
Precisely, one of those responsible for the birth of Google Chrome was a certain sundar pichai. Since 2015 he is the CEO of Google and its womb, alphabet. Born in 1972 in India, he studied metallurgical engineering in his native country and later studied at the Stanford University on materials science and engineering. There was nothing to suggest that his academic training would lead him to a technology company like Google. But after his MBA for the University of Pennsylvaniaworked briefly as a consultant and eventually began his career at Google in 2004 as product manager.
First with the Google search bar. Then in other products from the past such as google gears either Google Pack. And when the project that would give rise to Chrome, Pichai was assigned to direct it. And although the CEO at the time did not agree, in principle, the first prototypes what did they teach you Brin Y page They made him change his mind.
However, they did not have it easy. And it is that from the beginning, since 2004 approximately, rumors began to emerge about the project. Google was already a hot company, and any new product it launched received media attention. Which added pressure and responsibility to the team sundar pichai. However, the development of Chrome it was not launched until 2006. By then, Pichai was already Vice President of Product and had been involved in projects such as Google Drive, Gmail either google maps.
The birth of Google Chrome
Maybe sundar pichai Be the most visible face from the project that created Google Chrome. But there are many lesser-known names that made Google’s browser possible. For example, Linus Upson. former employee of NeXT (1993-1995) or Netscape (1996-1997), he was Vice President of Engineering at Google between 2005 and 2014. And, subsequently, from 2017 to the present. Another important name is darin fisherone of those responsible for Chrome’s multithreaded architecture and who became Vice President of Google Chrome.
In charge of the interface design participated Arnaud Weber, Glen Murphy, Brian Rakowski Y Ben Goodger, among others. The latter was Principal User Interface Engineer for Chrome and Chrome OS. To this list we must add many other names that participated in the project directly or indirectly, since Google Chrome it incorporated free code from its beginnings. Hence the Chrome code was made available to other developers.
The point is that in september 2008, two years after starting the development of Chrome after several attempts and approximations, the brand new Google browser was presented to the public. Then, sundar pichai it already was Vice President of Product Development. The launch was a complete success. On the one hand, the specialized press was eager to see Google’s new product. On the other, Google made sure the launch went smoothly. Provided a trial version earlier and spread a comic explaining the operation and benefits of Google Chrome.
The best cover letter
As we saw before, when Google Chrome became available to the general public, the most popular browsers were internet explorer Y Mozilla Firefox. The first dragged the popularity forced by being the default browser Windows and for having become, de facto, the standard for many websites that only worked with Internet Explorer. But for 2008, Firefox it was already one alternative to consider. All in all, Chrome made a name for itself thanks to its good design.
Chrome started from a minimalist interface according to its operation. It was fast and compatible with the web standards that were already prevailing thanks to the efforts of w3c and other associations. Thus, from its first versions, Chrome already passed the tests Acid. To make this possible, the responsible team had built their browser from their own parts and many external ones: SQLite, DOM, NPAPI, JavaScript, HTML5…
Taking over the market at full speed
the adoption of Google Chrome by users since birth started with 1% of the market in the first year. At that first moment, there was only a version for Windows. We would have to wait until 2010 to have the stable versions of Windows, OS X Y linux. In 2011 it would already have 16% of the market. And until 2012 the first versions would not arrive for Android. In parallel, Google began to suggest that you download your web browser as soon as you open your browser. A way to gain followers just as Microsoft had done at the time.
The last big boost came from Android. As soon as Android became the default operating system for most mobile manufacturers, Google set your browser as standard replacing previous browser with generic name. Today, Chrome is the first big choice on desktop, smartphones, and other connected devices. And it has experienced controversy and criticism. As their exaggerated memory consumption or their recent plans to control third-party extensions.
In short, the birth of Google Chrome was a turnaround in Google. A great commitment to developing software and, at the same time, a way to gain followers and expand your market. Through the search engine they could advertise your browser. And with both they introduced the user to other services such as Gmail, Maps, Drive either Youtube. With Android Y chrome OS perfected the technique generating their own ecosystem at the level of the already mature ecosystems of Microsoft either Manzana.