ActiveX was also the first thing that popped into my mind. However, the whole ActiveX-lesson learnt everyone, not just Microsoft, how bad things can go if the security issues isn't solved when releasing new technology and I think Google has spent a lot of resources on it.
My main concern is how this is going to affect us developers in, let say, next five years. Are we going to need to write even more browser specific code when other browsers also will start to support these native clients?
what you just said basically:
if ms implemented it, its wrong etc we all know that
if google does the same, it must have been done better and therefore its ok
the point tho: the design is broken security wise. google, ms, apple, whoever else implements it, its going to be exploited, heavily specially as soon as chrome becomes n#1 browser (which will happen no matter what - certainly the no-opt-out install with a zillion of popular apps helps with that)
One has to remember that when ActiveX was introduced in Internet Explorer 3.0 the focus on security was a lot lower than in today's browser development.
