I think they better watch out! The last time someone said this was Sun in regards to Java. Microsoft used every trick in the book to make sure it didn't happen, including marginalizing Java, packaging IE with the OS, hooking in "ActiveX" controls into IE, and other tactics. Note, in general, they lost these battles, but won the war.

What's curious to me is that this comes on the heels of the announcement of B!ng and on reports that it is picking up speed (but that report turned out to be a yawner -- the gains were statistically insignificant and likely related to the buzz).

I use Chrome (browser) on a daily basis, and while I like it, it is susceptible to crashing when there are lots of windows/tabs open. But on the whole, it's fast and clean.

However, the big plus is this: for developers, there will no longer be a distinction between writing software for the web and for the local computer, which is what Java and Microsoft have been trying to do for years, but have ultimately failed. It also means that there will be a greater emphasis on distinguishing between functionality and presentation, which I'm all very much in favor of.