Google Chrome is a web browser that was developed by the people who took web searching to a whole new level and made a significant impact on our culture, without really contributing anything to speak of. In a sense, the entire Google phenomenon has been about nothing more than helping people to find something that already exists. Without too much surprise, when the Google folks went about creating something of their very own (namely, the Google Chrome web browser), their efforts fell a little bit flat. Now, the program does have some positive points about it, such as how easily you can search out all of the instances of a particular word or phrase on a web page, and have them pointed out to you on the right side’s vertical scroll bar. But on the other hand, this is also kind of a bad browser, because it is relying very heavily on the formation of a sort of Chrome community.
See, Google Chrome is an open source program. This means that anybody can make changes to it, if they have the programming skills to do so. If you want to break open the program, take out a feature or two and add a dozen or so features to it, you are more than free to do so. If you want to create some kind of a plugin which does pretty much anything, you can do so, post it somewhere, and millions of people out there might end up using your plugin. Even if you don’t make any money on a deal like that, it has got to be pretty cool.
But of course, the down side to this whole deal is that there is not that much of a Chrome community. After all, its basic form lacks a few of the features that older browsers like Firefox already have, without anyone having to develop any plugins for it. While you are always free to make Chrome as great as it can be, some people have wondered why you would even bother to do that. You can just download something better.