Google is Bringing AR to the Web. Where’s Microsoft? (Premium)

Google has announced its attempt to be the first to offer pervasive augmented reality (AR) experiences on the web. This is somewhat astonishing given Microsoft's pioneering work in this area.

"To help bring this to as many users as possible, we've been exploring how to bring augmented reality to the web platform, so someday anyone with a browser can access this new technology," a new post to the Google AR and VR blog reads.

This announcement comes in the wake of recent platform announcements in which AR has been---or is being---added to both Android and iOS. As Google notes, this capability will allow hundreds of millions of users to "look at the world through your phone, and place digital objects wherever you look."

But the web is a bigger platform with more reach than either Android or iOS, and the true democratization of this technology can only occur when AR is available to anyone with a web browser. So Google's efforts here are particularly notable.

They are also very forward-leaning: Google isn't showing off a feature that is coming to its Chrome web browser anytime soon. Instead, the firm is demonstrating a "recent prototype" it built to explore how AR content could work across the web, from today’s mobile and desktop browsers to future AR-enabled browsers. It isn't just cross-platform, it's platform-agnostic.

The timing gives Microsoft, with Edge, and Apple, with Safari, a chance to duplicate this work in future versions of their own platforms. But when you consider that Microsoft was the first to launch a major AR platform with HoloLens, and it was the first to integrate VR into their OS with Windows Mixed Reality, it is a bit surprising that we've heard nothing about AR in Microsoft Edge. This is a web browser that has improved by leaps and bounds over the past few years. And adding AR capabilities seems like a logical step. Especially now that Edge is available on mobile too.

Anyway, it's worth checking out Google's examples of how AR might work on the web. The company has created a cross-platform 3D model viewer---yes, it works with "all browsers," Google says---that works similarly to apps like Paint 3D and Mixed Reality Viewer in Windows 10.

But it's not just 3D. This model viewer can also display AR on capable devices.

"Tapping on [the AR button] activates the device camera, and renders a reticle on the ground in front of the user," Google explains. "When the user taps the screen, the model sprouts from the reticle, fixed to the ground and rendered at its physical size. The user can walk around the object and get a sense of scale and immediacy that images and video alone cannot convey."

It's interesting to me that this idea meshes so well with my notion that traditional tech platforms are disappearing: This AR viewer will work with any web browser on any platform. It is exactly the type of thing I think we will see more of moving forward. And since it's web-based, you might argue that this i...