So its solutions tend to be smaller, lighter, faster, and simpler.īut the web is an open platform, of course. And where Microsoft is busy porting its legacy software to the web, Google has the opportunity to start fresh, right on the web. To the average Luddite, the notion of only using web apps, of storing or at least syncing private, important data with the cloud, well, well. (Google of course has a separate Android OS for mobile devices as well, and a separate-and terrible-Android Market, but one has to wonder if these two systems will one day merge or at least come more closely together.) Why web apps? In Google's world, web apps are native apps, because Google's OS is Chrome OS, which is based on the Chrome web browser. It highlights free and paid web apps-that is, applications that run in the browser-and it does so in a way that is both familiar and friendly. Google's new app store, called the Chrome Web Store, is such a store. And it amounts to this: In an age of hugely popular app stores on a variety of platforms, why isn't Microsoft championing Windows- and web-based app stores of its own? Today's topic represents an even direr message for the software giant.

the World, Part 1: The Chrome Web Browser, I discussed how Google's inroads with the Chrome web browser pose a considerable threat to Microsoft. In my previous article in this series, Google Chrome vs.

Google chrome web store weakness