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"I don't think there's anything better than a totally chrome-free browsing experience." This from Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft's Windows division president, during the Day 1 keynote session here at Build 2011 in Anaheim. Technically Sinofsky was referring to the omission of the window gadgets along the frames and sides of Internet Explorer 10 in Metro, the new apps environment in Windows 8.

But everyone here knew what he really meant. Microsoft is promoting the ideal of a Web that is propagated by apps, not by sites. Search in such a Web is much more a function of the operating system, and only partly outsourced to the Internet. In this model, it's easier not to imagine anything resembling Google.