A dash of speed, 3D and apps
Today, we're excited to bring several new features from Chrome's beta channel to the stable build, including WebGL, Chrome Instant, and the Chrome Web Store. — WebGL is a new technology which brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser.
Context & Ripple Effects
This release is the payoff of a two-year arc: Google has spent 2009 and 2010 iterating in the beta channel on raw speed — the August 2009 beta claimed over 30% gains on V8 and SunSpider benchmarks — while building the commercial layer separately. In December 2010, Google tied the Web Store directly to its Chrome OS plans, framing the store as the distribution mechanism for a browser-first operating system.
Promoting WebGL, Chrome Instant and the Web Store into the stable channel on 2011-02-03 moves all three from developer experiments to default features for every Chrome user, and the story traveled fast enough that Electronista picked it up the same day under a 'Chrome 9 final' headline. The strategic read: Chrome is no longer positioning itself as a faster page-renderer but as a platform with apps, payments, and hardware-accelerated 3D.
First-order effects
- Developers can now sell web apps through the Chrome Web Store to Chrome's entire stable-channel install base rather than just opt-in beta users, making the store a live marketplace overnight.
- Every Chrome user gets hardware-accelerated 3D via WebGL without plugins, so game and visualization developers gain a plugin-free 3D target at scale for the first time.
Second-order effects
- Firefox faces pressure on both fronts at once: Chrome's extension catalog had already reached roughly 10,000 extensions by December 2010, closing the gap with Firefox's add-on ecosystem, and the Web Store adds paid apps where Firefox has no equivalent storefront.
- Plugin vendors whose business rests on filling browser gaps — particularly those serving 3D content — now compete with capability built into the browser itself.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the browser consolidates the roles that previously required separate software layers — app distribution, payments, 3D rendering — shifting the competitive boundary from 'browser vs. browser' to 'browser platform vs. desktop operating system,' which is precisely the frame Google set up when it linked the Web Store to Chrome OS in late 2010.
- Hardware vendors and GPU makers become stakeholders in web standards in a way they were not before, since WebGL makes their silicon part of every browsing experience and gives them a seat in how the accelerated-web stack evolves.
The trend: Browsers are absorbing operating-system functions — app stores, payments, hardware acceleration — turning Chrome from a fast renderer into Google's application platform.