This newest version of Chrome is a stable release, this meaning it’s not a Beta like the mobile version is, and should have absolutely no glitches while you’re using it on a daily basis. This version has Google using their “Omnibox” term again to describe the URL bar, this being because of its ability to also search for items should you type in anything other than a url. Chrome’s newest desktop version here has two steps in the Onmibox:

1. You type in your url and it suggests what you’re likely looking for.

2. Your most likely option is pre-rendered as you continue to type, this giving you an extra few instants of time added to every query!

It’s brilliant! We’re hoping it works out to be as magical as it seems, of course. Chrome browser here also updates Security measures to warn you of malicious downloads. Chrome has for a while not checked on executable files such as EXE and MSI for you PC users, and now if the executable file does not match a whitelist of approved bits, the next step is taken. The next step is Chrome checking with Google for more information on the website you’re using, seeing if its been know to host malicious downloads in the past. You’ll be safe here, folks, safe as you can be!

Updates will be coming to Chrome OS soon as well, but for now everyone using the Chrome web browser on their desktop or laptop machine will be updated automatically or manually through the Google Chrome homepage – get your preload on!

This isn’t a new question and certainly isn’t one I’ve not asked my own family when they used to use Windows-based machines, so I’d like to put it back out there today to see how we’re all feeling about the situation. In the time between when AOL was the dominant internet provider in my area up here in mid-Minnesota and now, there was a big period of time when Internet Explorer took over the earth because first, it was installed on your machine when you bought it, and two: because “Netscape” was much harder to remember than the perfectly simple “Internet Explorer.” The brand name is still easily the best one in the web browser market: what do you use to browse the web? The explorer of the internets, of course.

Then there’s Apple’s “Safari” which took a cue from Internet Explorer and comes with your Mac, this leading to SOME people using it, and Google’s Chrome which has shown itself to be amongst the most popular downloads of the last year — Google is beyond an amazing brand, and just like Apple, if you’ve got one piece of the puzzle, you’re inclined to want the rest. Firefox and Opera did an OK job of appealing to the crowds of nerds and gamers out there wanting a custom experience, but in times as recently as this past week, your humble narrator has witnessed hoards of people on places like Reddit and Google+ speaking down on both of these browsers saying they’ve fallen into disrepair. These same people wouldn’t touch Internet Explorer with a 10 foot pole.

Just to be clear: I ask this as both a web developer and a lover of Google Chrome, as it’s been nothing but perfect for use in my everyday life, and developing for Internet Explorer has and continues to be nothing but a pain in the neck whereas all other browsers essentially live by the same basic rules.

So I ask again: why do you and/or anyone you know still use Internet Explorer?

What Google is doing this week with a group of game developers such as Square Enix, Unity Technologies, and Bungie, is host an appearance on campus showing off how the open source project Native Source runs inside their proprietary browser Chrome. Such fabulous features as mouse lock, full-screen API, and OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics have been introduced to the platform since its launch in Chrome 14 Beta, and both 2D and 3D graphics either work right this moment or are well on their way to becoming a reality soon. One of the other features the group emphasized is Google Chrome’s ability to store code for games inside itself.

Have a peek at this explanation and demonstration of Native Client courtesy of Google Developers and the product manager for Native Client, Christian Stefansen:

Again in a nutshell, what this Native Client platform provides is a simple way for developers to port over (or create) their work while maintaining one code base in Chrome. One example of this, says Google, is Star Legends [Chrome store link], a game whose developers ported the entire multiplayer online game over to the web in just two weeks. More than a half million lines of code in less than a month, is what that is.

Product Manager for Chrome Christian Stefansen (from the video above) provided the following links for directions on where to go from here for all of you would-be web-based game developers hoping to get in on the Chrome web store:

“The community is actively involved in Native Client, porting some of the most popular application middleware. Ports include Unity and Moai game engines, programming language environments Mono and Lua, audio middleware such as fmod and Wwise, as well as the Bullet physics engine. These Native Client ports make the web more accessible to hundreds of thousands of application developers.” – Stefansen

After all that good stuff, you can head out to Google Chrome’s brand new Native Client help and development site and get your show on the road today!

[via Chromium Blog]

This is not the first Chrome OS notebook, in fact it’s now amongst three Chromebooks out very soon, the first of which we gave away for free here on SlashGear and over on Android Community like so: CR-48 for all! That contest is over and you’ll be wanting to “toss that device in the river” if you know what I mean now that these new ones are coming out. And what’s the best thing about this whole situation?

They’re encouraging you to jailbreak. June 15th is the day these devices come out, and attendees of Google I/O will be getting them for free. For free, I tell you!

Here are the specs for the Acer Chromebook:

• 11.6-inch HD Widescreen CineCrystal LED-backlit LCD
• 2.95 lbs.
• 6 hours of continuous usage
• Intel Atom dual-core processor
• Built in dual-band Wi-Fi and World-mode 3G (optional)
• HD Webcam with noise cancelling microphone
• High-Definition Audio Support
• 2 USB 2.0 ports
• 4-in-1 memory card slot
• HDMI port
• Fullsize Chrome keyboard
• Oversize fully-clickable trackpad

If you’ve got no hardware acceleration, you can still play it. It’s not the best, says the man in red, but it’ll work! And what about offline playing? You’re going to be able to play the complete game offline with localized storage. Want to play on your Chrome netbook on a flight with no wifi? That’ll work now.

On top of this, a few special “Chrome Exclusive” levels were revealed, Chrome buttons as rocks, very funny Chrome clouds and backgrounds. And then there’s some wooden boards and stuff if you like that sort of thing too. Oh and you want the Mighty Eagle feature? You can purchase this from your browser as well! This was only available via iOS thus far. Google web toolkit with Java was used to create this new version, the whole deal hosted on web app engine, and it was all available right after the keynote was complete.

Google, you know what time it is. You knew exactly what’d happen if you let loose even a momentary image of a new extension with such potential. Have a look at the video below so you can see where the above image originates. See if you can decide how important they’re making it right this minute. Then we’ll discuss how the video from yesterday does essentially the same thing.

Before we continue, check out what babies are saying about +1 so you fully understand what’s going on with it. What this extension is bound to do, I say with a dash of insight, is help Google get a new view of how readers work with webpages. I almost said “help Google rate pages for better search ratings,” but I don’t necessarily believe that. Not that I’m a search engine guru master, (that’s Ewdi,) but a +1 extension like this, if I may be so bold, may throw a massive wrench into the gears that are the current system of webpage rankings. For better or for worse.

Next have a look at the ad we had a conversation about yesterday:

There you’ll notice more pressing of buttons, hitting of extensions and sharing of information. The button they use, the green one, is an extension that shares the page you’re on with a number of different destinations of your choice. You can get that Google Chrome extension here: Google Share Button. This already active share button along with the +1 button have massive potential, wouldn’t you say?

No matter how you look at it, Google I/O is next week, and all questions will almost certainly be answered with masses of answers on top of answers.

[via TechCrunch]

The brilliance of the project lies not in the fact that Dan Savage’s idea blossomed, but in that now Google appears to have helped in some great way. But there it is – Dan Savage certainly approved of Google using all the footage, and it’s great for the It Gets Better project to have all the publicity it’ll certainly get here (at the moment the video only has 300 views, but it’s being released on television as well.) What do you think of Google’s tactics? What do you think of Dan Savage using this opportunity to spread the It Gets Better message?

Then answer this: do you use Google Chrome for your primary web browser? I personally use it as one of three. I’ve got Firefox and Safari open basically at all times as well because it’s easier to switch between the massive amount of windows I’ve got open at any one time by clicking icons in the dock than it is to find each one in a tab, believe it or not. Chrome, if you can fix that, I’m all ears. Meanwhile, I support your mutually beneficial effort here with Dan Savage as well.

And for those of you using this opportunity to cut down those who the It Gets Better project is trying to give hope to: shame on you. To those of you using this opportunity to call Google a bunch o’ jerks for profiting from the uplifting nonprofit project It Gets Better – chill out, chill out I say! Chrome here is performing a service, whether you like it or not, and money’s got to change hands somewhere.

NOTE: the above contains statements that are not necessarily the views of SlashGear or its constituents, remaining from start to finish a work solely the responsibility of the author.

The extension adds a right-click menu option to images under Google Chrome. There are options available to send an image from Chrome to the active wallpaper on the C7, to send a URL from Chrome into a list under the NokiaDrop app running on the C7, and to send an image into the same list on the NokiaDrop. The cool part is that it does this without any interaction by the user on the device. The whole thing is done on the back-end and the phone really demonstrated being the endpoint of a complex system instead of a device in-itself.

Check out the video here, Mark shows the whole process, it seems simple. The tinker-hacker-geek in me wants to know the source of the Download Failed that shows up about halfway through the video, but he doesn’t mention that during his explaining.

[via the Nokia Blog]

Are you annoyed with images? Dismayed by color? Do you crave the purity of text, and only text? Then this is the extension for you. Stripped of all of the flash and glam of the web today, you can browse at speeds not seen since 1983! ChromeLite replicates the action of the venerable browser known as lynx. Used by command line jockeys almost everywhere, lynx (not to be confused with links) cuts out most of what makes the web sluggish today.

Are you a chromium user? Mosey on over to the extension’s page and take a look at it for yourself. It’s the only way I’m ever going to browse the web again.

[via Google]

“What we want to do is get the power into users’ hands more quickly,” says Mozilla VP of product, Jay Sullivan. He gives the example of the video tag, which was ready since June but has yet to be released to users and will be part of the Firefox 4 update. “We’re moving on web time now, and we’ve been shipping a little bit on desktop time. It’s not necessary, so we’re undergoing some process changes, and we’ll do smaller bundles more quickly.”

Google’s Chrome has taken up a large market share, pumping out a few key features almost every six weeks. They are already working now on Chrome 10 beta. Should Mozilla adapt this model, we’ll likely be seeing Firefox 5, 6, and 7 within the next year. Firefox 4 is currently on its 12th beta, with the Release Candidate version expected to arrive within a few weeks.

[via Electronista]

They are actually working on four different interfaces: classic, sidetab, touch, and compact. The classic is like your current Chrome browser, the sidetab places navigation elements on a sidebar, and touch is for touchscreens.

The compact is the interface that may have a vanishing address bar and features all navigation elements on one line resembling the recent RC release of Internet Explorer 9, which sports a sleek new interface with the address bar and tab bar being in the same row.

[via CrunchGear]

During last year’s contest, Google Chrome was the only browser undefeated but with this additional cash prize and added publicity it is likely that more hackers will seriously take this to task. Details of the Google Chrome contest are as follows:

On day 1, Google will offer $20,000 USD and the CR-48 if a contestant can pop the browser and escape the sandbox using vulnerabilities purely present in Google-written code. If competitors are unsuccessful, on day 2 and 3 the ZDI will offer $10,000 USD for a sandbox escape in non-Google code and Google will offer $10,000 USD for the Chrome bug. Either way, plugins other than the built-in PDF support are out of scope.

Other web browser targets for this year include the latest release candidates of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, and Mozilla Firefox. Each browser will be installed on a 64-bit system running the latest version of OSX or Windows 7.

[Via ZDNet]

Market leader Internet Explorer from Microsoft still enjoys a comfortable lead at 56%, but saw its numbers drop slightly from 58.41%, while second place Firefox remained at 22%. Coming up right behind Chrome is Apple’s Safari taking in 6.3%, crossing the 6% barrier for the first time.

2011 is looking to be a big year for Chrome as Google is preparing to launch the ChomeOS on notebooks running the new OS from Samsung, Acer, and others by mid-2011. I’m sure Google is hoping the rising popularity of its browser will translate into similar results for ChromeOS in the competitive OS market.

[Via CNN]

Among those changes are security fixes, and minor changes to make it run faster. There are no new features added to the Chrome Labs section of the browser. Google is reportedly aiming to launch the final version of the browser by November 29.

Among the fixes in the latest dev version include a Mac fix for dock icon updates after closing an incognito window with an in-progress download. A Linux fix takes care of border colors in incognito mode. There are still a few known issues including windows media player for Firefox not loading and a few others.

[Thanks Armin!]

Video demo after the cut

There’s also the Google Chrome browser (or support for Google Chromium) and, when the MeeGo Handset version is released in June, the Fennec Mobile Browser will be implemented.  An early developer release of the MeeGo SDK – also in June – will support touch-based devices.

As for what’s further around the corner, the MeeGo team plan to release v1.1 in October 2010, complete with support for touch-based devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and “In-Vehicle Infotainment systems”.  You can download MeeGo v1.0 for netbooks here and v1.0 for the N900 here.  Demo video below by Brad Linder.

[video via NokiaUsers]

The Chrome Web Store is a web app store. It’s designed with full HTML5 support, and it’s meant to make playing games a lot easier. Well, that, and do just about anything else you might want to do, all within Chrome OS. For example, while there was a fun demo of Plants vs. Zombies shown off, another piece of software that was shown off was called Dark Room. A full-featured photo editing service, it’s going to cost only $4.99 when the Web Store launches later this year.

They also showed off a functioning demo of LEGO Star Wars, which is a fully rendered 3D title, and looked mighty impressive for functioning directly in the browser. And while Google obviously wanted to show off that all of these games and pieces of software work perfectly well in Google Chrome, and Chrome OS, they wanted to make sure that you know it works in all of the major browsers, too. Unfortunately, no word on when all of this will get turned on for the rest of us, but we’ll hope it’s soon along with the rest of you.

When it comes to technology I’m an instant satisfaction type of girl, so naturally I was less than thrilled about the long wait before we start seeing new laptops with Google’s Chrome OS preloaded. (By the way, the fact that you cannot download and install the OS yourself is total BS and a subject for another column.)   But, I am resigned to accepting the product delay not only because it relates to Google geeks’ needing sufficient time to work on the back end of the OS and on other techy stuff for quality assurance, but also because other improvements and developments in mobile technology over the next year or two will make the Chrome OS worth waiting for and make it an overall better experience.

More ubiquitous wireless connectivity. Given Google’s deep roots in, you know, the Internet it makes sense that they have built an entire operating system on top of the web browser. Not only will you have the main functionality of a browser, but you will be able do more through web applications that are to be developed over the next year. Point is Google wants you to spend your time online and it is clear that there will be very little functionality (details are few and far between on this) to the OS if it isn’t connected to the Net.  With WiFi being spotty at best, I would assume that most Chrome notebooks will have some sort of 3G technology. However, beyond 3G’s kick to the wallet it is also slow.

The fourth generation of cellular wireless is beginning to be rolled out with sporadic WiMax coverage areas, but that uptake will be a lot wider over the next year or so. In addition, Verizon’s 4G LTE network which promises even faster speeds is slated to be rolled out during 2010 and into the next decade. With the evolution of 4G in the coming years, Google Chrome OS netbooks will be a lot more useful and powerful than they would be if introduced at this moment in time.

Improved netbook, notebook form factors. In the last year alone we have seen the physical evolution of the netbook. What started out as a notebook with a 7-inch screen has now evolved into almost a real size laptop. With 10 to 12 inch displays that can accommodate better ergonomics and longer usage, netbooks are not only better in terms of function, but have improved in design and style. And this is only going to get better in the 2010 with companies designing and releasing smartbooks that can accommodate different types of form factors because of the smaller and fanless processor architecture. By mid-2010 we will have even better looking and more interestingly crafted mobile computers that will have hardware, as we are told by Google, that will be optimized for the new OS.

Web applications with more functionality than ever before. Apple released its application SDK a few months before it actually rolled out its application store, giving developers time to create some of the most impressive applications around. It will be the same with Chrome OS. Similar to the way Adobe Air has provided a whole new crop of connected applications for the desktop, developers will be hard at work for the next year figuring out services and features to bring to the new platform, including many that will support hardware graphics acceleration and multithreading. I have no doubt that Google’s web applications will surprise us with their capabilities, just as Android and iPhone applications have during the last year. The more time for those to brew the better.

Chrome OS netbooks and notebooks if released today just wouldn’t be as compelling as those that will hit the market a year or two from now. (In fact, I actually think that the end of 2010 may even be too early for Chrome OS given the wireless ubiquity issue.)  As Google has said, it is working on the future of computing and, as always, we must wait for the future to arrive, just as we must wait for our operating systems to boot up.

According to the Wall Street Journal, via Net Applications, right now Google Chrome only accounts for 2.6% of the global web browsing market. That’s not really even a dent, so to speak, so it looks like the combination of Sony and Google, at least for a small number of laptops, is a step in the right direction. Neither Sony or Google would comment on the financial scope of the deal, or even any of the geographical details regarding which laptops get what, but at least we have something to go on. Google Chrome is going to be pre-installed on some laptops, in the coming months. Like we said: it’s something.

Of course, Sony has a relatively small presence in the computer world, especially compared to the likes of Apple and other manufacturers, so it is probably not going to be enough. Enough, in terms, of making Google Chrome the number one web browser available. Then again, crazier things have happened. Which side are you on? And, was your decision forced on you by a manufacturer from the get-go? (Yes, you can install other browsers, but some times just using the default one is fine for consumers.) Let us know in the comments what you think.

[via Wall Street Journal]

“Microsoft is welcome to put Internet Explorer on our operating system, [though] it’s highly unlikely they would do it.  They would have to port it and the port is not trivial…the ball is in their court.  All of it is open.  Even if we had an evil moment [and tried to block Microsoft], we would be unsuccessful.” Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google

Echoing recent discussion about whether a browser-based work environment is a realistic proposal, Schmidt also revealed that he was resistant to the idea of both the Chrome browser and the Chrome OS when co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page first suggested it six years ago.  “I wanted the operating system to kind of be out of the way,” Page explained, “if you live your life in the browser maybe you don’t want all the stuff that came from Eric’s generation.”

The trio also touched on Twitter and Facebook, neither of which they now perceive as a threat – or at least not publicly, anyway – and which they have no intention of going into competition with; “we have a rule of not doing what everybody else does” said Schmidt.  As for revenue streams, they believe display advertising “is likely to be the next billion-dollar business at Google.”

[via Android Community]

UPDATE: The screenshots are fake, as we suspected might be the case.  Just a video designer hoping to drum up business. 7/9/2009

More Google Chrome OS feedback after the cut

Only one restart was required to complete the install, and only the Google Talk app was loaded as standard.  The so-called “Chrome Bar” at the bottom of the display has a blue “Start menu” button and clock, and auto-hides; the Windows key and space bring it back up, but on proper Chrome OS netbooks there’ll be a dedicated key.  There’s also the possibility of adding a search box to the bar.

Two forms of navigation are present, “Exploration” and “Browser”; the former is a simple Explorer-type folder navigation, while the latter uses local search in the Chrome browser.  It will also show “most visited” files.  Icons can be resized, and there will be wizards – such as the internet wizard, which is described as “very quick” – to setup different features.

Of course, it would be very easy to fake screenshots like these, and only Google (and their hardware partners) can say whether they’re authentic or not.  It’s probably too early to judge the visual side of the OS, as the Google rep apparently kept reiterating that it was a very early beta, but it looks as though simplicity is the order of the day.

[via Engadget]

Video overview of Google Chrome v2 after the cut

There’s also extra control over which thumbnails appear on the Chrome tab page, giving users the ability to delete sites from that display if they’d rather not have record of them.  Meanwhile, under the hood there’s increased stability – apparently in excess of 300 bugs have been vanquished since Chrome’s launch – and increased speed.

That speed boost comes courtesy of a new version of WebKit and an update to the JavaScript engine, V8.  The latter ensures that Chrome still moves speedily even with multiple JavaScript pages open.  Chrome v2 is a free download from google.com/chrome; existing users will be automatically upgraded.

Side-by-side tab viewing – as shown in the short video below – involves dragging a tab off the edge of the browser window, whereupon a new pane shuffles into view so you can compare the two.  Other fresh features include form auto-filling, full-page zooming and of course the new speed boost: it’s actually twice the speed of the original Chrome beta, and that was never accused of being slow.

Chrome is a free download, but is currently only available for PC users, not Mac OS X.  Such users will probably be too busy playing with Apple Safari 4, which launched last month, and boasts such things as 30x faster JavaScript than IE7.

“We have never seen an OS stripped off the user agent string before. I believe you have to arrange to have that happen, it’s not something we’ve seen before with a proxy server. All I can tell you is there’s a good percentage of the people at Google showing up [at Web pages] with their OS hidden” Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president of marketing and strategic alliances, Net Applications

Google themselves, unsurprisingly, have declined to comment on the situation, but that has done nothing to staunch the flow of rumors.  Some are predicting a desktop version of the search giant’s open-source Android OS, deployed as a way of introducing Linux to entry-level users.

Meanwhile, others believe Google is being a little more cautious, and instead working on an application infrastructure that would bridge local hardware and network applications, such as its online office suite and GMail.  Similar suggestions were made at the launch of Google’s browser, Chrome.

[via BGR]

The new Dell will likely be causing some sleepless nights at ASUS, who up until now have been top dog with their Eee PC.  After suffering plenty of criticism for spreading the brand thin, they’ve even dropped the Eee name altogether for their latest luxury netbook, the N10. 

The second major headline this week has come from Google’s stable, in the shape of their new internet browser, Chrome.  An open-source project to take on Internet Explorer, FireFox and the rest, Google are making all the right noises about “shared development” but at the end of the day this is undoubtedly their attempt to wrest the desktop from Microsoft.

Next up comes Apple, who have confirmed a special event for this coming Tuesday, September 7th, in San Francisco.  The expected announcement is for new iPods, with the nano and touch being tipped for the biggest changes (and leaked information hitting the headlines almost daily).  However new patent documentation this week – covering a variety of multitouch and other UI methods – once again adds fuel to the rumors of some sort of Mac Tablet.  SlashGear will be at the event, running our usual Live Blog, so join us at 10am EST at http://live.slashgear.com/ to find out everything Apple announce, as they announce it.

It must be a constant source of frustration to Microsoft that their Zune doesn’t inspire the same frantic rumormongery and excitement as the iPod does.  The Seattle company has new versions on the way too – in fact one branch of Fry’s sold a 120GB model early – but the effect just isn’t the same.

CEDIA has been running this week, and there have been plenty of new projectors, TVs and other home entertainment gadgets to please.  Hitachi’s super-thin 50-inch plasma caught its share of headlines, as did Sony’s fresh HD projectors.  If you’re looking for content to play on them, TiVo will happily oblige with their new HD XL DVR, boasting a whopping 1TB of storage.

Coming up over the next few days is CTIA Wireless, and we’ll be bringing you the top stories both here and at our sibling sites Phone Magazine and SlashPhone.

Section 11 used to contain the following, apparently pretty boilerplate and used by Google for its other, content creation apps (such as Blogger and GMail):

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

Now, having been updated, Section 11 reads as following:

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

The Google team are now going through the different language versions of Chrome (of which there are in excess of 40) to alter the licence wording, as well as removing the incorrect sections from the download installer.  The changes are affective immediately and retroactively, which means that if, as we know many readers did, you installed Chrome as soon as it was released, you’ll be covered by this new version of the ToS.

Ironically, Google needn’t have publicised this change (though not doing so with such controversy about it would’ve been ill-advised).  Section 19 of the ToS allows them to alter the content of the terms & conditions of use at any time, without Chrome necessarily informing you that it has happened:

19. Changes to the Terms
19.1 Google may make changes to the Universal Terms or Additional Terms from time to time. When these changes are made, Google will make a new copy of the Universal Terms available at http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS?hl=en and any new Additional Terms will be made available to you from within, or through, the affected Services.

Check out the full launch presentation video after the cut

At the Chromium project site, the source code for Chrome – including the new JavaScript V8 virtual machine – is already available.  Google have also added documentation about the project and a JavaScript benchmark suite.

The video of the full presentation is available below.  It’s not been edited, so at just over fifty minutes it’s a not-inconsiderable watch.  You might want to skip forward to the questions & answers session, where Google representatives are asked about the potential for adverts to be integrated into Chrome.

Check out the video walk-though of the Google Chrome browser after the cut

Alternatively, scrolling can be too fast, with no way to slow it.  Other issues present more of a problem.  Some users are having trouble with Google’s webapps, with reports of Google Docs and GMail login pages either refusing to load or only loading partially.  Others have suggested problems with streaming media, with some finding YouTube videos can crash Chrome entirely.

The Chrome Terms of Service have also come in for some close examination.  Broadly speaking, there are three factors that have led to concern for some: Google’s asserted right to use content in advertising and promotion; Google’s ability to update Chrome without first alerting the user; and the potential for Google to introduce advertising. 

By installing Chrome, while you retain copyright to any content you “submit, post or display on or through” the browser, Google has the opportunity to use it for service promotion or marketing.  They can also make that content available to other companies “for the provision of syndicated services”; it’s hazy to what extent that could include personal data.  Update: Google have responded to the concerns about Section 11.

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

Google also reserve the right to update Chrome in the background, without first alerting the user.  Although regular updates are generally a good thing for stability and user protection, many will be wary of what happens in the background without them permitting it to run.  Attempting to block the updates counts as a contravention of the ToS, which – in theory – could be grounds enough for Google to terminate any account you have with them.

12.1 The Software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the Services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the Services.

Finally, and to some most concerning, the possibility of advertising being introduced to Chrome.  Google makes its money through adverts, and while right now Chrome does not contain any as part of the browser itself, the company has left itself open to include them in future.  If if chooses to, there are multiple ways it could be added, including embedding them in-line in a viewed webpage or incorporating them into the window structure of Chrome.

17.1 Some of the Services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions. These advertisements may be targeted to the content of information stored on the Services, queries made through the Services or other information.

17.2 The manner, mode and extent of advertising by Google on the Services are subject to change without specific notice to you.

17.3 In consideration for Google granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Google may place such advertising on the Services.

At a press conference officially announcing the Chrome browser, Google representatives dodged a direct question asking if advertising would be placed on a webpage.  They did, however, confirm that a “huge” investment had been made in the development of the application.

Have you downloaded Chrome?  How have your first impressions been?  Let us know your experiences – and your thoughts about where Google intends to take Chrome in the future – in the comments.

SlashGear Google Chrome Video Walkthrough:

First impressions of the Google Chrome browser after the cut

On first install, Chrome asks to import settings from your current browser including favorites, cookies and search engine preferences.  The install itself is fast and doesn’t require a system reboot.  With two Chrome tabs open (the introduction pages) there are four mentions of the chrome.exe process in Task Manager, altogether using 51,968K.

Vincent’s first impressions of Chrome:

1. Super faaaaaaaast!

2. 78/100 on Acid3 Test

3. Tabs work great

4. Bookmarks are easy to maintain and move around

5. Gears is installed by default – works great with WordPress and WYSIWYG

6. Haven’t seen a site that doesn’t render correctly — even those heavy in Ajax

7. Flash sites run well

8. Works with VMWare for OSX with Windows XP (see video below)

9. Silverlight not yet compatible

We’ll be testing out Chrome and putting together our first impressions over the next few hours.  Remember, this is early beta software, so you probably don’t want to be putting all your eggs in a Chrome basket and relying on it for sensitive tasks such as internet banking; it will take a little time before the first security reports come in.

Chrome is Google’s next step toward making webapps behave – or users treat them – more like traditional desktop apps.  Address bar and window-free apps are just the surface gloss; what’s key to Chrome’s likely success is its native inclusion of Google Gears and the custom JavaScript app, V8, that the company has had a special team working on. 

Gears, which has been available as a separate download for some time now, allows users to run online applications without a network connection, or alternatively speed up webapps by caching data to reduce the amount of data transferred to and from the server. 

JavaScript V8, meanwhile, promises both improved performance and, more importantly perhaps, stability.  Chrome teases out individual tabs into separate processes, each referring to the JavaScript and plug-ins – themselves separate processes again.  If an individual tab crashes, it doesn’t bring the whole system down.  In fact, in the Google Chrome comic, they themselves refer to this as more similar to how your OS handles individual programs:

“We’re applying the same kind of process isolation you find in modern operating systems” Arnaud Weber, Software Engineer, Google

Together, they add up to improved and more stable webapp performance, with better memory management that, at this early stage, sounds ideal for the current crop of low-powered devices such as netbooks.  Webapps, with minimal (or no) local footprint, make good sense for machines like the ASUS Eee PC or Acer Aspire One, where onboard storage is minimal.  However users still want performance and, considering their connection speed could vary wildly from a tethered cellphone to WiFi, as little network dependence as possible.

It won’t just be Google’s apps which benefit from the streamlined JavaScript V8 engine, however; all online software will (hopefully) see a speed boost.  That could be enough to make Chrome the browser of choice for mobile devices, certainly, and plenty of desktop users who can’t afford, don’t need or would rather not buy into standalone software.

The software Google release today will be early Beta, certainly, and too early to realistically judge performance.  Nonetheless, it could begin to redefine what users expect from their browsers.

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]