Google has pushed web harder than any other company. They popularized the very concept of a web app, back when the public didn't have that notion. They pushed the concept of progressive web apps. They tried to push web components. They tried to throw Dart into the browser. Under their guidance JS has advanced very quickly as a language.
PWA's can do background sync, there's push notifications, badge icons, the kinds of things that allow websites to feel more like apps — on Android and not iOS.
The AJAX approach was pioneered by the Outlook web team ~1998 and semi-standardized as XMLHTTP in IE 5 (1999).
So a decade before Chrome was released.
Admittedly, Chrome did a lot to push forward web apps, but that was 100% in Google's self-interest given they were competing against thick client MS Office.
PWA's can do background sync, there's push notifications, badge icons, the kinds of things that allow websites to feel more like apps — on Android and not iOS.