Why has Google branched away from WebKit? It sounds like a move I would expect from Microsoft, as part of their typical "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" tactic for dealing with open source software and standards. It seems Google would rather you stopped using anything besides Chrome, but what does it gain them? Will they suddenly start integrating banner ads directly in Chrome?
Good question. I believe it was presented at the time as coming out of Google's frustration with the slow pace of evolution in Webkit and the difficulties of being a cross-platform framework. Google quickly rid their branch of Webkit of millions of lines of redundant code not needed by Chrome.
Of course, being more and more cynical about Google's motives over the last few years, I find myself wondering whether Google simply didn't want to invest development time in a framework used by Apple and partly guided by Apple to Apple's ends.
Google is now free to add innovations without fear that Apple could directly benefit.
I believe Apple and Google were the chief contributors to Webkit and so why would Google wish to invest time and money in a technology that Apple has cited on a number of occasions as the world's most popular browser engine? It just helps Apple promote a technology it largely founded.
Now Google can claim more "ownership" of its branch of Webkit and even where its version remains open source, there is still something proprietorial about Google's recent moves to claim its own branch.
The benefit for consumers is that there is more competition in the browser market, but actually I don't think that makes sense because people simply don't want to chop and change web browsers every five minutes. It's not like trying a different deli each week.
There's much more value in companies working together to innovate across open standards to ensure that everyone directly benefits from those innovations. This avoids fragmentation of approach in which no single browser engine includes all the innovations out there.
It can also mean a headache for designers and web app developers who must learn the differences between Chrome and Safari, which can only become more complicated as Google branches away from core Webkit.
Personally, I still use Safari, which is more native to me as a Mac user, remains pretty slick, and doesn't have that "heavy" feeling of Chrome that you get after intensive use. Having said that, Safari should be updated more often, needs to get really, really serious about performance and stability, and smarter memory management.
Mavericks seems to promise something along those lines.
