The browser is the new O/S

The browser is currently only an application, but in the near future the browser will become the new O/S. I think Google's new web browser is a step into that direction and it's design is inspired by modern operative systems, e.g.

• A process model is used to prevent one site from taking the whole browser down
• JIT (and other kinds of optimizations) are used to improve the performance vastly (20x times improvement can be expected)
• Google Gears will add native features
• Jail's are used to improve security

How does the future look like with such improvements? One thing is certain, it's much more advanced web-applications and web-applications that resemble native applications. Looking a bit further the web is going to be even more connected and Google will eventually make their super computer even smarter by for example adding AI into it. So imagine browsing the web with native performance and native applications and some real AI to help you (and probably suggest some ads along the way :)).

The negative part about this is that Google may become the new Microsoft. Sure Google's Chrome browser is open-source, but their super computer and user data isn't. Once you get into the Google cloud, it will be hard to go back, especially if they add AI, super performance, have all your data and know everything about you.

One thing is for sure: It's very exciting that both Google, Mozilla, Opera, Microsoft and Apple try to improve the browser experience. It's a very exciting times ahead for the web and this kind of development will redefine what's possible inside a browser. I welcome this development and hope to see more of it in the future.