Google Chrome v Firefox - Extensions to the frontline of battle
An entry on the Google Chrome blog could well signal a major change ahead for the choice of browser for web designers in particular. Google have announced that Chrome extensions will soon be available and have opened up the process for developers to upload their offerings to a Chrome extension gallery. So, what does it mean for Firefox?
The early notification for developers means that by the time Google comes to release extensions they'll have an arsenal of weapons to fire in the direction of some of Firefoxs biggest fans - website designers. The Mozilla browser has been a long-time application of choice for web designers and much of that is down to the collosal choice of extensions available for it.
Tools such as Firebug, MeasureIt, GreaseMonkey, FirePHP and one of our own favourites, CSS Viewer, have amassed a huge following because of the facilities they bring to an already capable browser.
Chrome has started to make ground on Firefox of late though and the extensions gallery is almost certain to expedite what could be a very unpleasant fate for Firefox. In it's latest variant Chrome offers a very stable platform from which Google can undoubtedly mount a challenge to the Firefox empire among the web design industry.
The Firefox community simply won't be able to plough the furrows of doom it did for Internet Explorer where Chrome is concerned. Google are far too sharp to make the same mistakes and the extensions availability, or complete lack of it to date, has been the primary reason for a lot of Firefox users not moving to Chrome.
Full developer documentation is now available and the Chromium extensions group is positively buzzing with feedback and excitement.
We've doubted Google on many fronts in the past and still reserve judgement on what the Google OS will do - but where Chrome as a browser is concerned we fully expect Firefox to begin a slow, but inevitable, slide into the familiar holes into which it forced release after release of Internet Explorer. It'll take a long time, but make no mistake, Googles announcement marks the beginning of the end in our opinion.
What can Mozilla do?
The community that has made Firefox what it is won't sit back and watch its lovechild die. However, it is becoming increasingly obvious to anyone in the technology sector that the tidal wave of Google development is not going to subside.
The height of the wave (no Google Wave pun intended!) shouldn't be a surprise to anyone but the pace at which Google is now delivering them is the biggest factor.
We weren't too impressed with the latest incarnation of Firefox, some features of which we found a little too buggy and ironic when you consider the success of Firefox was founded on the instability and inadequacies of Internet Explorer.
It'll take a long time for Google to build a library to compete with Firefox but the shift is likely to come when all the popular web designer extensions make their migration to Chrome - and you can bet your life savings on them being some of the first to be ready.
