SlashGear Japan
Google have announced plans to take on Microsoft and Firefox with their own open-source browser, codenamed Chrome, by releasing a specially drawn comic by Scott McCloud explaining the app. Based on the existing Webkit rendering engine, Chrome will integrate not only tab-based browsing but Google Gears and a newly integrated search and address system called Omnibox.
Omnibox will replace the individual address and search boxes and offer search suggestions, popular pages and history pages. It will also automatically replicate a webpage’s own search box, allowing site and query strings to be entered simultaneously. An Amazon search, for instance, could be triggered by entering “amazon”, pressing tab and then the search term.
Chrome will also include some of the more popular features from existing rivals. It will have a homepage of nine instant-access shortcut thumbnails, as found in Opera 9, with a sidebar of recent searches and tabs. The tabs themselves will be switched to above the window, not below it as on Firefox, and there’ll be a privacy option similar to Internet Explorer’s recently announced InPrivate mode, in which no record of sites or searches will be stored. A malware and phishing protection system will be integrated and constantly updated, with Chrome automatically downloading a list of dangerous sites in the background.
A special team in Denmark have been working on an updated JavaScript Virtual Machine, called V8, will also be an integral part of Chrome. It promises to speed up JavaScript and reduce memory bloat, which will make a significant difference in webapps, together with highlighting any core offenders, whether webpages or plug-ins, that use up more memory than they should. Chrome will allow webapps to create their own, address and toolbar free windows, better replicating traditional desktop apps and continuing Google’s attempts to blur the difference between what’s online and what’s local.
Intended for release as an open-source project, the Google Chrome browser has no specific release date attached to it. The project webpage is http://www.google.com/chrome but it’s not active at time of writing. You can see Philipp Lenssen’s scans of the Chrome comic here.
[Google Blog via Blogoscoped]
12 Responses to “Google Chrome browser announced: integrated search, improved JavaScript”
z3r0c00l12 September 1, 2008
I get a 404 error when trying to browse to http://www.google.com/chrome
Neutralerick September 1, 2008
the post did mention “The project webpage is http://www.google.com/chrome but it’s not active at time of writing”
should be active tomorrow I guess
+2New Google Chrome September 2, 2008
Yeah there is still an error, seems like google took it down, it should be up soon.
NeutralChris Davies September 2, 2008
I don’t think the site was ever up – the official announcement is expected Tuesday 2nd.
+2New Google Chrome September 2, 2008
Yes you are right, but there are some screen shots of the site, i read somewere that it was released then closed again. If i find the link, ill post it.
+3Farhan September 2, 2008
Its very interesting that Google has decided to take on a project like this. They obviously have such an interest in how people access the web, it was only a matter of time before they took things into their own hands. It is going to be very interesting to see how this pans out.
Google Chrome browser Screenshots
+1http://www.tonesall.com/comput.....shots.html
mark September 2, 2008
Hm, I really didn’t notice before, but Google uses exact the same colors as MS. Now the question is: who bought who… :)
+2Vincent Nguyen September 2, 2008
Anyone else excited? I actually lost some sleep overnight in anticipation of Chrome’s arrival —- I hope it does not disappoint!
+2Tom September 2, 2008
I’m really enjoying it. Very simple. Unfortunately before I can make it my regular browser I need Outlook Web Access to open in it. Blarg.
Maybe someone can make an IE tab for Chrome I could still view some IE only pages.
NeutralSteve September 2, 2008
I want to be making the money that Google will be making from this because in my first try, I got to see ads with no content! Way 2 encourage clicks!!!:)
Its caught on video here:
+2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTd8IZUrNZ0
jbdean September 3, 2008
Why create yet another browser? Why not contribute your knowledge, ideas and skills to those already developed with open source like FireFox? It seems a waste of time & an inconvenience to create yet another browser that designers (of which I am one) will have to figure out a way to get their sites to work well with. I danced the day Netscape went south as a popular browser and when people woke up and realized the the AOL browser was as good as the whole AOL experience (they don’t call it AOLHell for nothing! LOL). I know Google probably wants their name on this like so many great things (Picasa, for one) but come on. Enough with the new and better browsers. Can’t we all just get along? Browsers are getting like ATM machines at the stores. Each time you go to use one, you have to re-learn the process because while they all do the same thing … they all have to do it a bit differently than the others. This, of course, only results in frustration for whom? The user, that’s whom!
And very interesting what Steve posted about the Google-Ads-Only content display. Being one that never clicks on ads like this, it won’t affect me other than thinking there’s so content at the site and if I’d never been there before, I’d never go back. Not the way to actually make money but I do begin to see why a Google browser vs lending a hand to FireFox and the like. Google … I must admit I am disappointed in you! :hangs head in shame:
+1Chrome browsing September 4, 2008
After only 2 days the new browser from Google already reached a market share of 1 percent according to reports from Marketh Share and stat counter the new fast webbrowser from the search engine giant has started a strong upwards marching process against it’s competitors.
+1