Oooohh...Chrome is shiny....so?

OK...so here is the obligatory link to the cool comic drawn by Scott McCloud about Google browser. Of course I downloaded it and played around with for a bit but <yawn> this is going to take some work to get me more fired up about it. Two things I do like though -

One, is the use of a visual artist like Scott McCloud (but not Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod - who, as we all know, was born in 1518 in the village of Glenfinnan on the shores of Loch Shiel and who is immortal) - to craft a compelling explanation of a rather technical topic. When you couple this to the reception and success that such efforts like Common Craft, Michael Wesch and the Did You Know videosare getting - not to mention a long time pioneer in this field like Eileen Clegg, then I think it becomes pretty apparent that we hunger for visual explanations.  ..and since we're on this topic, you should all go to VizThink - that's a gimme. So the question then is why do we continue to bias text over images? We don't think twice about using a stock photo but we'd be aghast if someone suggested using stock text. How long did humans roam the earth and survive prior to the introduction of written language - yet we all act like the written word and not the visual image is the be all end all. I love Dion Hinchcliffe's images because they actually explain something - I swear if I see one more stock photo of the perfectly diverse, overly cheerful board meeting - I'm just going to scream - so what was my point? - Oh yeah, good job Google for using the visual medium. 

And the second thing I like about Chrome? I think that enough "C" level people have heard of Google that it may further crack the stranglehold that IE has on the enterprise and people may acutally start to consider their choice of browsers with a more critical eye.

Comments

[Eric Wilbanks]

I too downloaded Chrome and gave it a spin...can't say that I was overly impressed. Comic was clever, but I think Scott Adams would have been the better choice. Oh, and everyone knows that Duncan is much more artistic-minded than Conner (thanks to Tessa).

[mark oehlert]

Dan - okey dokey - 38 pages later...did I miss something?

[Dan Bliton]

Huge Scott McCloud fan, but let me know when you get to the end of the comic.

[John Zurovchak]

There can be only one.....(Just had to do it!)