Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.
Google’s new web browser deliciously named Google Chrome launches in a 100 countries on 2nd September 2008. Although it is the beta version that releases today, it is destined to cause a major shakedown in the world wide web. Google’s baby, Chrome is based on WebKit renderer, the open source which is used in Apple's Safari browser and also by Symbian's S60 browser. Webkit is also used by the Android mobile phone OS from Google.
And what goodies
does Google Chrome offer? Many, but the top three are:
1) Google’s has integrated it’s spectacular V8 JavaScript virtual machine into its Chrome browser and it turned out to be significantly faster than current implementations in any competing web browser.
2) Google Chrome’s uses multiple-process design, which means that each tab you open gets its own process – vis a vis, you no longer have to worry about a dodgy website or malfunctioning code crashing your entire browser, only the one tab would crash.
3) Google has laced it’s baby with a task manager that allows you to monitor both web pages and plug-ins - this helps you see which ones are really bad memory hogs hence allowing you to close them down.
Three other biggies in Google Chrome include the delicious ‘Icognito feature’ which is a privacy mode… ‘Omnibox’, the address bar which offers auto-completion… and the integration of ‘Gears’ into the browser which is a caching utility which helps speed up things like website admin pages etc.
As Google walk’s into the bar, slings its gun and says to Microsoft ‘This town ain’t big enough for the both of us’ … and as James Dean (Mozilla Firefox) chuckles sipping his beer quietly in the corner, Google promises to offer the fastest and the most stable browser in the galaxy. You can test ride it today from Google’s website.
The browser has been viewed as a strategic weapon in high-tech circles since the mid-1990s, after Netscape Communications turned its browser into a fixture on many personal computers. Microsoft viewed that product as a threat that could set a new standard for software development, setting in motion a series of tactics that triggered the Justice Department's high-profile antitrust investigation of Microsoft.
In recent years, the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser -- a descendent of Netscape's Communicator product -- has gained popularity as an alternative to Internet Explorer. Firefox holds nearly 20% of the market, compared with about 72% for Explorer, according to Net Applications, a company that tracks the sector.
More recently, the browser has been seen as a lever in the battle over Internet search. Browsers include windows, or toolbars, that can be used to directly access a search engine, a program for finding information or sites on the Internet. Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser comes preset with a toolbar for Microsoft's search engine, though it can be reset to link to Google, Yahoo or other search engines.
That default setting, and how to change it, has been a contentious issue between Google and Microsoft in recent years. Google has claimed to regulators that Microsoft's domination of the browser market could give it an undue influence over search-engine use. Microsoft, meanwhile, has reworked its browser to make it easier for people to reset to competing search engines.
Google has been working on the product for about two years, according to one person familiar with the matter. The introduction of Internet Explorer 7 in October 2006 added more urgency to the effort, as Google grew concerned that the new version would make it easier for Microsoft to route users to Microsoft's own search service, this person said.
If people use the Google browser, the company could glean more information about what consumers are doing online, analysts say. Google could find that information useful, they say, in better targeting ads to individual users and conceiving new products. Google already knows a lot about online habits thanks to its domination of the search-engine market and Internet advertising.
Problems for Mozilla
Chrome could create problems for the Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit organization that builds Firefox. Google has been a key partner for Mozilla, at times providing engineering expertise and paying for a spot as the default search service embedded in Firefox. Google and Mozilla last week renewed their agreement, which was set to expire in November, extending it until 2011.
John Lilly, Mozilla's chief executive, conceded that Chrome will increase competition in browsers, which also include Apple Inc.'s Safari software and a program called Opera from Opera Software ASA. But he added it remains unclear just how big an impact Google can have. "We have long years of testing and years of learning about how to make browsers," Mr. Lilly said. "Chrome is new."
