The Googlization of Everything

csmonitor.com:

One month later, has Chrome’s polish lasted?

Google has attracted few converts with its Web browser but it's thinking long term.
By Jeremy Kutner| Contributor for The Christian Science Monitor/ October 2, 2008 edition

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Paul Sakuma/AP

To judge from the thousands of articles that followed Google’s release of its Web browser, Chrome, one thing was clear: A browser war is on. But now that a month has passed, average users could be excused for wondering what all this buzz was about, and whether switching to a new browser is actually worth the effort.

So what does Chrome actually mean for the everyday Web surfer? Right now, not much – but a few years out, Google’s browser could mean a whole lot more.

The reason: Chrome was built to be the browser of the future, or, more specifically, the browser for a Google future. The search-engine giant expects a global shift toward Web-based applications – services that are nearly identical to Microsoft Word and Excel, but that tap into the concept of “cloud computing,” where programs operate exclusively on the Internet. ...