Google to release it's own web browser; Chrome

[sheryar]

where is your God now?

source: BBC NEWS | Technology | Google launches internet browser

[Kursed]

How shall it fair against Firefox?

Are Internet Explorer and Firefox ready to do battle with Chrome?

Google announced Monday that it has been hard at work on an open-source browser known as Chrome, a beta version of which will be released in 100 countries on Tuesday.

New features will included "isolated" tabs designed to prevent browser crashes and a more powerful JavaScript engine.

"Why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web," Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, Google engineering director, wrote in a blog post.

Google was apparently looking to keep news of Chrome under wraps until after the holiday weekend. A 38-page, online comic book that provided details about Chrome hit the blogosphere Monday morning, but Pichai and Upson said in their blog post that Google had "hit 'send' a bit early" on the web comic.

The comic depicts various Google engineers describing Chrome's features, including the isolated tab idea.

"By keeping each tab in an isolated 'sandbox', we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites," Pichai and Upson wrote.

Having a number of tabs open in a single browser eats up memory. If a browser is running slow, a user's natural inclination is to close a few tabs? In some cases, however, little bits of the closed tabs remain, which eats up space and requires the operating system to grow the browser's address space, according to Google. With Chrome, there will be a different tab for each process, including plug-ins.

"When a tab is closed in Google Chrome, you're ending the whole process," according to the comic. "You can look under the hood with Google Chrome's task mananger to see what sites are using the most memory, downloading the most bytes and abusing your CPU" so you can place "blame where blame belongs."

Google also promised "improved speed and responsiveness across the board."

"We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers," Pichai and Upson wrote.

Like OpenSocial and Android, Chrome will be an open source initiative.

"We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we're committed to continuing on their path," they wrote. "We've used components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox, among others -- and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward."

The team selected Webkit because it uses memory efficiently, was easily adapated to embedded devices, and it was easy for new browser developers to learn to make the code base work, according to the web comic. "Webkit keeps it simple."

Google recently extended its financial deal with Mozilla until 2011, according to a blog post from Mitchell Baker, chair of the Mozilla Foundation.

Tuesday's beta release will be available for Windows users. "We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust," Pichai and Upson wrote.

"This is just the beginning -- Google Chrome is far from done," they wrote. "Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the web even better."

Last week, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 beta 2, which includes improved security and new browsing aids.

PC Mag

[sheryar]

hey nooblet

repost


learn to search before you make a thread

[sliptear]

So is it already launched??

[Kursed]

By tonight (according to Pakistan Standard Time).

[crippler]

It will be launched today.. US time... which means our time will be around noon

[atifoxon]

I have decided to break the news but it has already been broken

anyhow check this link

Google Books

Just an update regarding screen shots

Chrome Screenshots

More Screenshot

Chrome Screenies

[muhuee]

Could the logo BE any gay-er?

[SubZero]

i just hope its faster than fuckey firefox.

[Bheegi Billi]

Originally Posted by SubZero

i just hope its faster than fuckey firefox.

Shut the fuxk up!

[adroitinside]

The full lowdown on Google's browser


Google took the unusual step of announcing its new browser via an online comic. We've had a read through and pulled out the things you need to know about Google's new browser.

1. Google Chrome is built using WebKit, which also powers Apple's Safari and Google's Android.

2. Google Chrome is beta, and currently only available for Windows. Mac and Linux versions are being produced.

3. Google Chrome promises to be more stable - each browser tab will run in its own process so a buggy web page won't take down the entire browser.

4. The tabs will be the key part of the interface - tabs will be located at the top of the window rather than under the address bar.

5. When you open a new tab, you'll see thumbnails of your nine most visited pages and search boxes for the sites you search most on.

6. You'll be able to 'tear off' tabbed windows and move them elsewhere onto the desktop, creating separate windows or adding them to existing windows.

7. When a tab crashes you'll get a sad face icon in the tab - called a 'sad tab'.

8. Each tab will have its own controls and its own URL bar, which Google's developers are calling the 'Omnibox'.

9. The Omnibox isn't just somewhere to type web addresses - it will also suggest pages you've visited before, and popular pages you haven't visited, based on the keywords you type into the box.

10. You'll be able to search your browser history from the Omnibox to return to pages you visited previously but didn't bookmark.

11. Autocomplete will only autocomplete to an address you have manually typed before - Google's example is that typing C and hitting return might take you to cnn.com but never to a previously clicked link such as cnn.com/2008/politics/07/27/campaign.wrap/index.html.

12. Once you've performed a search on sites such as Wikipedia or Google, you'll then be able to search those sites later straight from your address bar by typing the site's name and then pressing the Tab key.

13. Google Chrome has a private browsing mode - if you create what it calls an "incognito window" then pages won't be saved in your history and when you close the window, any related cookies will be deleted.

14. Google Chrome promises to be faster - because each tab runs in a separate process, that process is killed when a tab is closed, and so your PC gets the memory back.

15. Google Chrome will feature a new JavaScript virtual machine. Google says this will be more efficient at running JavaScript-heavy apps such as Gmail, and allow smoother drag-and-drops.

16. Google Chrome comes with a Task Manager that lets you see which sites are using the most memory on your PC - and just like with the Windows Task manager, you'll be able end processes that are sucking up memory.

17. Google Chrome promises to be more secure - processes won't be able to write to your hard drive or read documents, for example.

18. Google Chrome will be constantly updated with information on phishing and malware sites and warn you if you attempt to visit one.

19. Google Chrome is being tested against millions of web pages - and Google is using its Page Rank system to ensure the browser is first tested against the web's most popular pages.

20. Google Chrome will be fully open source, so everyone will be able to contribute - and examine the code, which should allay any privacy fears.

Source: www.techradar.com

[M.Farooq]

Interestingly another browser to choose from and this one is from Google Inc. and let's see what unique features does it bring to the fore.

[Captain Oblivious]

I'm in no hurry to switch browsers, it'll be ages before Chrome can offer the same kind of customization that Firefox offers. What I'll be looking for in Chrome is a better bookmarks manager than firefox, perhaps an integrated bookmarks synchronizer.

[M.Farooq]

Downloaded it and have it installed now and seems to be pretty fast while opening websites and it's startup time is very minimal as compared to Firefox 3 and I have opened nearly a dozen of websites with a lot of flash content and its not crashed.Seems to be a decent build for a beta release.

[Ice Man]

i'd like to know what the acid3 score on it is, i've installed the browser but unfortunately the test website is down