A Pre-History of the Google Browser

Today, in a surprisingly botched announcement, Google announced Chrome, their upcoming open source web browser. The subject of a Google browser is something I've opined on a few times over the years, but Jason Kottke's compiled an even more comprehensive overview of the conversations a few of us have been having for almost seven years.

If that's up your alley, you might want to check out:

• Stories and Tools, which at six years old is a little dated, but offered up some thoughts on the presentation of web applications that I thought connected nicely with the Google Chrome comic book.
• Google and Theory of Mind, about Google's great weakness in the insularity of the company's culture.
• Google Web History - Good and Scary, which at the launch of Google's Web History feature examined some of the implications of the new tracking system.
• The Circle of (Web) Life, which described a cycle of web businesses supporting each other, based on Google's support for Mozilla.
• How Matt Haughey Beat Google, challenging the inevitability of Google's domination of markets by pointing out how they weren't able to compete with a self-funded, passionate person and his community.
• Google Office: Google Apps for Your Domain, which put the launch of Google Apps in the context of both the office suite competition and Google's other offerings.
• The Microcontent Client, an outline of ideas about the evolution of browsers and information management applications from 2002.
• Finally, Google's First Mistake, my rumination on Google's acquisition of Pyra Labs, a post whose accuracy has both increased and decreased in the years since I wrote it.