The connection is pretty tenuous though - Linux may've eaten Sun's lunch anyway. But it would've been a little harder if we had to port all our #ifdef'd C++ software from Sun servers to commodity Linux Dell boxes, instead of just moving a few JAR files over.
It seems to have worked fairly well, at least up until the recent economic downturn.
Dunkin Donuts as well. In my town, there are 3 Dunkin Donuts within a 500 foot triangle. One is standalone, one's in a supermarket, one's in a gas station.
Build whichever browser components remove barriers to entry for users (ad block, compatibility with many existing web apps, better performance/stability/ease of use, etc.) => build widespread adoption => commoditize desktop operating systems.
It's been a while since I last had cause to use the google toolbar but didn't that have a adblocker?
This news doesn't seem all that surprising.
[edit]Just realised I'm mixing pop-up blockers and adblockers. I don't think this makes the parent comment any less valid.
Seems like a smart move to me -- getting Chrome out is strategically important -- browser diversification mitigates bigger risks, such as MS pushing a default ad blocker through ie; and helps them raise the bar on all browsers (esp. js rendering) to make their web apps run better.
Right now it's important for them to get Chrome on more computers. It will be interesting to see if this strategy changes when Chrome starts getting more traction.
If you want portability, write a user script (greasemonkey), not an extension.
Finally... how would they block ad blockers, even if they wanted to? Ad-blocking proxies are just as feasible as ever. And Chrome is supposed to be open source.
Conclusion: Instead of fighting what you can't fight, roll with it, get the leading edge people on your side, then cash in on the marketshare of the masses who don't block ads.
It's not really that mysterious... unless you're trapped in first-order thinking.
This is some of the worst writing I've read in a while. Good work. (What exactly is funny about this story? Employee does something, boss says no, employee complies. I guess the funny part is that the employee is wiling to work for a micro-manager like this "CEO"?)
Anyway, I used to work for an ad company. We all blocked ads. Ads are annoying and ugly, and we were not our company's revenue source, so it didn't matter.
I am looking forward to an IE release that blocks Google ads, and a Chrome release the blocks non-Google ads. That will be very fun to watch.
I don't think Google has anything to worry about, only the geeky are going to block ads (and invite all the headaches involved in doing so)
As a web designer, I need to see the web as my customer does, which means I don't use AdBlock or Greasemonkey etc.
