Google Chrome – Didn’t Try the Browser but Read the Comic Book

Earlier this week, Google released a new browser, Chrome and an official Google Chrome Blog. There will be much debate and many articles written about its significance and place in the browser marketplace, its innovations, its security issues, the information it collects from users, and its interoperability as well as Google’s business strategy. I have yet to sit down and test it out myself. Personally, I’m not married to any particular browser and I don’t have the time to be an active beta tester. I’ll defer the testing to our tech team.

But one thing I really liked is the Google Comic Book (drawn by Scott McCloud) which introduced and explained the browser. Taking some very technical information that could put many people including me to sleep and being able to visually tell the story of how the browser works in comic book form makes it accessible to more people. Some folks are saying the book is long – which it is – but I actually read the whole thing.

It got me thinking that perhaps we may want to produce our own comic book to visualize how we offer hosting as there are many ways to do web hosting which on the surface may look the same  but is very different under the covers… maybe someday…

Releasing the comic book also creates a viral buzz. A quick Google search on Google chrome comic book will already result in over 200k results. I’ve also read that Google mailed out limited edition physical copies of the comic book to various people in the industry too. For you collectors, you may find copies being sold on eBay.

So well done Google on the marketing part. As for the browser – sorry Google – I’m not going to be one of the early adopter beta testers.

Takeshi Eto
VP Marketing and Business Development
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