A new browser war is upon us — as Google’s Chrome running JavaScript, Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight all compete for different slices of the Internet pie.

Chrome’s JavaScript compiler vastly increases JS performance, meaning applications in JS can result in decent user experience, and developers can already do a lot with JS.

Flash is a notorious memory hog — and Viewstream developers are always looking at the implications of flash animations on processor performance. You will probably know what we are talking about if you have multiple browser windows open with youtube videos, flash animations, and other sites: your computer will crawl to a halt.

One of the big questions — when will JavaScript natively support video? And despite the performance issues inherent in Flash, Flash is 98% strong in the browser world. Silverlight is new — and getting more traction (how many people were annoyed at having to download Silverlight to watch the olympics coverage?). Of course, Silverlight can easily become an extension to Windows — and become instantly ubiquituous.

The party line at Viewstream is that we support all three technologies, depending on the client, and depending on the client’s requirements. Until Microsoft, Google or Adobe, invest millions in our development teams, we will be experts in all three — and continue to determine technology choices based on client needs. Isn’t that the way it ought to be?

Here’s a decent discussion:

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