Application support

A feature of the Google browser (in fact one of the main reasons it was created) is the Application Mode. This is a lot more than just hiding the omnibox (navigation bar). This allows web pages to break free of the restrictions of the current browser paradigm. The browser paradigm freely allows the user to reload a page, navigate away or close the window, which would be disastrous for an application that is editing sensitive content. Although this appears to be a minor change, the lack of this feature means that there is no mechanism to prevent the sudden loss of unsaved data (without a major investment in an far more complex AJAX architecture). Other features are still required such as desktop interaction, filetype support and database access. This limits the browser chrome so as not to "interrupt anything the user is trying to do", allowing web applications to run alongside local software (similar to Mozilla Prism and Fluid).