Google is wrong: The browser is not always the winner

Google trends towards browser based solutions. That’s fine–especially in light of its primary competitor, Microsoft, which trends towards native or rich-client solutions. However, for all of the places I agree that browsers are great opportunities for apps, they are not the best solution across the board. In fact, I think the iPhone has demonstrated this well.

The engineering value of the browser is an important issue highlighted by recent decisions like Google to go forward with its Chrome OS or by statements like those from Google Engineering VP Vic Gundotra at the recent mobile phone conference, Mobilebeat, in terms of where Google is going to focus its energies and where it thinks others should too.

The point is that I think Google is boxing its ecosystem developers into a corner. Plain and simple, the browser is not the end all development platform and advocating for developers to focus on using it above all else is a mistake. Sure, some areas are fine to leverage the browser with–such as form or database driven apps. However, the browser experience is not always optimal. Just ask anyone that’s used FriendFeed in the browser on the iPhone versus let’s say Twitter via the native iPhone Tweetie app. Hands down Tweetie wins. And from what I can see, there’s very little that FriendFeed can do within the browser to bring its experience up to the value that let’s say Tweetie provides. So is FriendFeed in the browser good enough on the iPhone? Marginally. Painfully. What’s this mean? FriendFeed is a product that is vulnerable and ripe for competition on the iPhone platform. For companies that focus so heavily on the browser–above all else–despite all else–the future can be even more risky than it would be otherwise. That’s the lesson of the iPhone. That’s the lesson across the board.

I also disagree with Vic Gundotra that browsers will simply continue to improve making all browser-based solutions the better engineering choice down the road. Again, I agree for a significant class of apps, I’d agree. However, I think he’s wrong in terms of the broader value and adoption of browser-based apps over all else. Why? Because, fundamentally browsers as a platform are too weak. It’s a fundamental issue. It’s a subset issue–meaning the browser enables a great subset of solutions to shine. Not all.

Again, I think the iPhone demonstrates this. There are tens of thousands of iPhone apps because of the value. Are there as many browser pages customized to the iPhone? Doubt it.

Whether it comes to checking the weather, Twitter, restaurants, road conditions, and on and on, native wins. Browser is the backup.

For those developers that only develop for the browser, more power to you. I see the value. I get it. However, for let’s say the developer that wants to break out on their own and provide focused solutions that strongly engage users, my advice is to stay open to native solutions like those you could build for the iPhone or MID or Tablet PC or what have you. Be wary of people that tell you things like develop once for the browser or the browser platform will eventually trump all other platforms, and so on. It might be true for a subset, but you’d really need to think through whether what you want to do falls into that subset or not.