Description of Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser that does everything web browsers should do. In addition, it is an application platform that behaves like an operating system for computers or portable devices. The Chrome’s development followed the need to interact with websites according to the demands and capabilities of internet-based technologies that are available today (Goolge Chrome Team 1).
Unlike other web browsers, Chrome treats each website that a user visits as a separate application. Thus, in addition to having unique applications, it also views sites as application and puts them in sandboxes that could be manipulated and terminated independently. The walled structure implemented through sandboxing is a security feature that ensures different websites cannot interact with each other and exchange information that may lead to the breach of privacy or proliferation of unwanted applications that assume control of user behavior (Goolge Chrome Team 2).
Chrome’s underlying purpose is to serve as a vessel for Google users to run the company’s application. The browser software is available for free from the Google website dedicated to Chrome. It is also available from third-party software sites.
Chrome as a software project is a property of Google; however, its underlying technologies such as Chromium and Chromium OS are open source projects. Chromium is the web browser project that seeks to provide safe, fast, and stable ways for users to interact with the Internet. Meanwhile, the Chromium OS seeks to provide the same advantages of computing experience for persons who are usually spending time on the web, but at a more integrated level. Google remains as the main sponsor of the open-source projects, thus it has a significant input in the direction the projects take.
SWOT Analysis of Google Chrome
Strengths
Most of the Internet usage today no longer revolves around websites alone, but it is increasingly being based on applications. On one part, people are waiting and uploading videos as ways to communicate their brands, ideologies, interests, and intentions. They are chatting with each other through applications that run on web browsers and playing web-based games alone or in collaboration with others. The existence of a whole user experience and ecosystem around applications is testament to the way the Internet has changed and why web browsers are no longer what they used to be a decade ago (Wallen para. 2).
Chrome is not single-threaded, which enables users and developers to manipulate processes and events independently. This allows users to streamline their browsing or app usage experience or continue working on a page or application, even when other parts of the browser break down. Multi-threading ensures that the browser does not lock up and frustrate the user. For developers, the multi-thread abilities allow them to write applications that are asynchronous, such that they become truly interactive with user activities. Users also get access to a process manager, just like they do with their computer or device operating systems.
Weaknesses
Although there is an offline full installer available for Google Chrome, it is not easily availed to users. Instead, Google prefers to offer Chrome as a live installation, where users have to initiate the downloading program and then wait for the Chrome installer to pick the latest files from the online server. Similarly Chrome updates are automatic and happen in the background.
While this option helps to keep the software user friendly by not having too many user requests for updates, it can still be cumbersome when users restrict internet access privileges or when they shut down the program, yet it continues to run in the background. Although Chrome is swift to operate in its bare-bones elements, it quickly bulks up in terms of size when users install add-ons, applications, and other enhancement features of chrome. For users who have computers and mobile computing devices with low specifications, Chrome can become a nuisance when it uses too much system resources.
Opportunities
Consumers will continue looking for stable and reliable solutions to their web experience. Chrome is well poised to remain the number one choice for web users because it is available in both desktop and mobile platforms. It is also well-supported by a dedicated team of developers who ensure it remains stable, fast, and sufficient to run web-apps. Chrome is clean and simple to use. At the same time, it is powerful because it can incorporate a number of additions to make it suitable for specialized purposes.
Chrome is future-centric and can continue to gain new users by incorporating more capabilities presented by its open-source community because of its high customizability. Chrome can continue to appeal to power users who want to run several applications and open tabs at the same time. It can do this by further reducing the additional load of each marginal application to reduce overall memory bloat of Chrome (Firtman 83).
Threats
More people run apps through their browsers as web browsers become default gateways to the web. The popularity is also attracting the attention of fraudsters and other criminals, who seek to obtain user information or exploit machine vulnerabilities and use computers or portable devices as aids in a criminal network (Goolge Chrome Team 6-7).
Other browsers are also improving their user experiences and security features. They also have marketing partnerships that ensure they become preferred web browsers for those devices. In addition, the development of the Chrome OS is still in its infancy stages, thus it cannot compete with established operating systems (Wallen para. 4).
Works Cited
Firtman, Maximiliano. Programming the Mobile Web. Sebastopol: O’Reilly, 2013. Print.
Goolge Chrome Team. “Google Chrome.” Google, Inc., 2013. Web.
Wallen, Jack. “Is Chrome about to Swing the Knockout Punch at Firefox?” 2014. Tech Republic. Web.