COMMENTS
This browser concept actually could lead to a fundamental shift in the way people interact with the web. Likely driven by promotion of their own suite of web applications (Gmail, Google docs, etc), Google seems to be creating a new platform in order to make rich Internet applications feel and run more like standalone desktop applications. For instance, you can bookmark certain web pages and save them to your desktop or quick launch bar. When you open them again, they appear in a web browser, but in a way that looks more like a standalone application. Their new browser architecture also supports this as well, with each tab running in its own process.
With Google Gears integration (the project that allows web applications to be run locally without an Internet connection), this could be a *very* powerful model for Google and other application builders and may change the face of the web and the way consumers interact with web applications.
As I see it, rich Internet applications are becoming more common, more resource-heavy, and less sustainable as people push the limits of the current browsers. This may be just the shift we need in order to make an even richer online AND offline experience.