That's basically the reaction of the blogosphere today reacting to Google's announcement that they have developed and will be releasing (in beta form, keeping to Google tradition) a new, freshly-designed, purpose-built Internet browser application called "Chrome."

The application is supposed to be available today, but the download site has been redirected back to the Google homepage at this point, quite possibly as a reaction to the sheer volume of interest, and there's no clear word on when exactly it will be back. Bizarrely, the introduction of the product comes by way of a web-based comic book, which is up and available for your reading pleasure while you wait.

Reactions veer from what, another browser? to this is the coolest thing in the history of the world.

More measured analysis comes from Larry Dignan at ZDNet, who basically tells CxOs not to get their panties in a bunch, and Nick Carr, who (I think correctly) evaluates the move in terms of addressing a significant roadblock to Google's expansion as an application and search provider.

My own take is that this is a great move for Google to make right now, and a positive step in the development of true cross-platform SaaS delivery. Browsers today, as many have pointed out, simply weren't designed to be doing the sorts of things that Web 2.0 and SaaS initiatives are asking of them. Internet Explorer, after all, started as a quick and dirty no-frills response to Netscape, turning into something that was just good enough to kill it off with the bundling advantage, and most people suffered with it until Firefox came along out of the ashes of Netscape... a much better browser which nonetheless represented only incremental improvement on the basic concept.

Chrome, at least so far as I can glean from the comic book, reinvents browsing from the ground up, with today's web environment and demands in mind. While Dignan is quite correct that one should wait a bit before jumping on the Chrome bandwagon (this is true of any newly released product, of course, especially on in beta) I think the implications are important for CIOs to evaluate in terms of their planning. As Carr points out, this is less about Chrome itself as it is about Google's attempt to push other browsers in the market to expand their capabilities to make browsing faster, safer, and more reliable. All these things are to the company's benefit in the philosophical war it is waging with traditional desktop-based application providers, and as one of those providers also happens to be the manufacturer of the world's most widespread browser, innovation in that direction was not likely to be forthcoming without a sharp jab. Chrome is that jab, and it's going to have effects well beyond its adopters.