Forgive me for sounding less than enthusiastic after Google announced their long awaited browser called Chrome.  Google have released under the fabled beta tag and you can now download and use it.  It's a multi-platform (Windows, OSX & *Nix) open source browser (good for some), which has borrowed quite a bit from Apple's WebKit and unsurprisingly Mozilla's Firefox.

Initial use of the browser would indicate a similar speed to Firefox, and sometimes faster with JS, but some sites can be slower than you are used to.  Of course to differentiate themselves from other browsers, chrome have brought some new idea's to the table like process isolation per tab (surprised this doesn't already exist in others), and all in one search/address bar.

Will I switch? Probably not as I love all my extensions in Firefox like Adblock, mouse gestures, firebug that are just not available for chrome.   What it does however mean for me and other web developer is yet another browser that we have to support/test for.  I now make it 5 major ones with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera and now Chrome. And of course Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 as companies are so stubborn (and security lapsed) to bother upgrade it.

What does it mean for Firefox though?  Mozilla recently announced an extension of their deal with Google who pays Mozilla a substantial sum.  In 2006 alone the total amounted to around $57 million, around 85% of the company's total revenue. The deal was originally going to expire in 2006, but was later extended to 2008 and will now run through 2011.  Imagine if you will Chrome taking enough market share from Internet Explorer and Firefox, they could invariably sever their deal with Mozilla leaving them struggling for operating costs.

- Scott