But in order to understand what Google is after, you have to read what they say about their own browser.

We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends — all using a browser.

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff — the pages, sites and applications that make up the web.

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today’s complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated “sandbox”, we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren’t even possible in today’s browsers.

Now Jason was right about one thing: Google is trying to compete with Microsoft. But he missed the application they are looking to compete against. Google isn’t out to compete with Microsoft’s IE, Google is going to compte with Microsoft’s Office, Microsoft’s Instant Messaging, and Microsoft’s product line in general. Google is looking to build the browser that is capable if utilizing a web site that publish all of those product lines from the Internet instead of the desktop.

Its a briliant move *if* they can quickly follow that up with that “killer app” online. Google already has Wrightly, but they need to have more of an online presence with a more robust interface if they expect to compete in the application wars, and that is precisely why they build Chrome, to give them that edge.

So Jason, I agree that their name could have used more time in a conference room at Google headquarters before being chosen, and I agree that Google is trying to “stick it” to Microsoft, but I think its about the online application market, not the Internet browser wars.