Next Step in Global Takeover: Google to Launch Browser 'Chrome'

[xtop]

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-01-n47.html

In a nut-shell, here’s what the comic announces Google Chrome to be:

Google Chrome is Google’s open source browser project. As rumored before under the name of “Google Browser”, this will be based on the existing rendering engine Webkit. Furthermore, it will include Google’s Gears project.

The browser will include a JavaScript Virtual Machine called V8, built from scratch by a team in Denmark, and open-sourced as well so other browsers could include it. One aim of V8 was to speed up JavaScript performance in the browser, as it’s such an important component on the web today. Google also say they’re using a “multi-process design” which they say means “a bit more memory up front” but over time also “less memory bloat.” When web pages or plug-ins do use a lot of memory, you can spot them in Chrome’s task manager, “placing blame where blame belongs.”

Google Chrome will use special tabs. Instead of traditional tabs like those seen in Firefox, Chrome puts the tab buttons on the upper side of the window, not below the address bar.


The browser has an address bar with auto-completion features. Called ’omnibox’, Google says it offers search suggestions, top pages you’ve visited, pages you didn’t visit but which are popular amd more. The omnibox (“omni” is a prefix meaning “all”, as in “omniscient” – “all-knowing”) also lets you enter e.g. “digital camera” if the title of the page you visited was “Canon Digital Camera”. Additionally, the omnibox lets you search a website of which it captured the search box; you need to type the site’s name into the address bar, like “amazon”, and then hit the tab key and enter your search keywords.

As a default homepage Chrome presents you with a kind of “speed dial” feature, similar to the one of Opera. On that page you will see your most visited webpages as 9 screenshot thumbnails. To the side, you will also see a couple of your recent searches and your recently bookmarked pages, as well as recently closed tabs.


Chrome has a privacy mode; Google says you can create an “incognito” window “and nothing that occurs in that window is ever logged on your computer.” The latest version of Internet Explorer calls this InPrivate. Google’s use-case for when you might want to use the “incognito” feature is e.g. to keep a surprise gift a secret. As far as Microsoft’s InPrivate mode is concerned, people also speculated it was a “porn mode.”

Web apps can be launched in their own browser window without address bar and toolbar. Mozilla has a project called Prism that aims to do similar (though doing so may train users into accepting non-URL windows as safe or into ignoring the URL, which could increase the effectiveness of phishing attacks).

To fight malware and phishing attempts, Chrome is constantly downloading lists of harmful sites. Google also promises that whatever runs in a tab is sandboxed so that it won’t affect your machine and can be safely closed. Plugins the user installed may escape this security model, Google admits.

[Clark Kent]

Sounds interesting but I'm not sure we need another browser. I think Google is losing some of their touch that made them such an innovative company.

[swifty7]

nothing will ever replace the glorious FIREFOX.......NOTHING!!!!!!

If I was in charge of MS, I would have bought Firefox A.S.A.P. I wonder why they haven't.

[xtop]

i haven't used firefox in forever. got annoyed by the memory leak that they called a "feature"

[xtop]

http://blogoscoped.com/google-chrome/

oh..and theres the comic explaining what all they've done. i'll give it a try tomorrow tho

edit: start at page 5, thats where it gets funny and interesting lol.

i'm totally in for this browser if it actually performs like they want it to

[quexos]

Im happy with my Firefox web browser therefore I have no plans to try another one for the time being

[xtop]

Originally Posted by quexos

Im happy with my Firefox web browser therefore I have no plans to try another one for the time being

so if there's something better you won't try it because you're content? what good does that do you

[quexos]

Originally Posted by xtop

so if there's something better you won't try it because you're content? what good does that do you

I would say that Firefox is the "something better". Anyways I do try new stuff like the PS3, my Wii, an HDTV, my Ipod touch and so on but one has to draw the line somewhere. My browser having all the stuff I need I simply don't see what Chrome can do for me. But if I'm wrong I shall see over time as this new browser creates buzz or not

[Aaron]

Privacy mode is great for pr0n. Just sayin....

[xtop]

Originally Posted by quexos

I would say that Firefox is the "something better". Anyways I do try new stuff like the PS3, my Wii, an HDTV, my Ipod touch and so on but one has to draw the line somewhere. My browser having all the stuff I need I simply don't see what Chrome can do for me. But if I'm wrong I shall see over time as this new browser creates buzz or not

if you read the comic, the google browser looks better in every respect. plus its free, so i'm totally missing how you can brush it off because you think firefox is the be all and end all of the browser world what do you have to lose by trying it?

i just hope they release a mac client tomorrow. i'm tired of safari

[quexos]

Originally Posted by xtop

if you read the comic, the google browser looks better in every respect. plus its free, so i'm totally missing how you can brush it off because you think firefox is the be all and end all of the browser world what do you have to lose by trying it?

i just hope they release a mac client tomorrow. i'm tired of safari

I'd have to lose the possibility that you might be right and that I'd be wrong and I can't allow that

But okay I shall try it

[xtop]

Originally Posted by quexos

I'd have to lose the possibility that you might be right and that I'd be wrong and I can't allow that

But okay I shall try it

haha! thats more like it!

saw its only releasing on windows tomorrow, guess i'll have to fire up the pc tomorrow.

pics here..

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/01...google-chrome/

[toef]

Originally Posted by xtop

i just hope they release a mac client tomorrow. i'm tired of safari

Have you tried Camino? I switched to that from Firefox, and haven't gone back. Never really liked Safari.

http://caminobrowser.org/

[quexos]

huh with all the ado, comic explaining chrome and the whole shebang it seems the most important thing has been forgotten: the actual link to the download ? it's nowhere ! right now it's september 2 and well even if the browser is not yet out, what is the link where it will be out in a few hours ???

[Aaron]

Google.com/chrome has a different 404 than Google's usual error page.

[Wingman1977]

I'll probably check it out.

[swifty7]

I won't touch it, those pics of crome looks horrible, to me firefox is perfect in every sense of the word.

[red_5ive]

I still use Firefox, and even with that memory leak on the previous version I stuck with it - the NoScript! extension is priceless. My wife's laptop hasn't picked up any crap off the web 2 years running, whereas before I've had to perform regular maintenance on her previous machine.

Nevertheless... I'm always willing to try something new (so long as it isn't preceded with the letters "MS" in which case I'd be skeptical ). I'll definitely check out chrome. Thanks for the info.

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by swifty7

I won't touch it, those pics of crome looks horrible, to me firefox is perfect in every sense of the word.

Firefox > IE7
Firefox < Safari 3 (on osx)

[Aaron]

Official Google Blog says Google Chrome to launch tomorrow