Browser Wars

So Google has introduced a new Browser of their own making called Chrome as a beta.  Quite out of the blue it appears on the main Google search/home page:

“New! Download Chrome (BETA) – the new browser from Google”

Many are wondering what evil things Google up to and reviewing Chrome’s terms of service and it’s function:

Be sure to read Chrome’s fine print

Google pulls a Microsoft on user privacy

Does Google Have Rights to Everything You Send Through Chrome?

Review: Google’s Chrome needs more polish

Personally, I don’t think Firefox has anything to be too worried about, but it’s funny that Mozilla CEO, John Lilly, was just interviewed by Wired Magazine and discussing Mozilla’s relationship with Google:

Wired: Roughly 85 percent of your revenue comes from Google. What happens if Google decides to build its own browser?

Lilly: It’s kind of a sucker’s game to speculate about what Google’s going to do. That said, it was the Google guys who approached us — not the other way around — because Firefox was a good browser. Our relationship will be just fine, as long as we build something that people give a damn about.

Though I don’t think it’ll replace Firefox, I’m enjoying trying out Flock right now. Flock is Mozilla’s newest browser and its moniker is “the social web browser.”  It says it’s for Social Animals, for Shutterbugs, for Bloggers, for Media Junkies, and for News Hounds.  It brings in your news feeds, just like a good RSS reader should.  It also brings in new and popular media feeds from popular destinations like Flickr and YouTube, but presents results in a very dynamic display.  Where Flock really excels is with the Friend Activity Widget.  Once you activate (or configure) a service such as Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Pownce, Twitter, or YouTube, you’ll receive feeds and updates from your friends using those services right in your browser.  It also makes it easy to post or share your content with your friends or the world via these social network services that are integrated into the browser.  There are add-ons or plug-ins for Flock as there are with Firefox, but I wasn’t able to locate one for Del.icio.us at this time (though there was one available for Zotero). Nevertheless, I think it’s definitely worth a try, especially if you’re very social ;)