Google has come one step closer to owning every aspect of the Net experience with the announcement of their new web browser called Chrome (link not active yet).
Why did Google bother with creating another web browser you might ask? “Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web”, was the response given on The Official Google Blog.
A comic strip explaining the Google Chrome project and its benefits, was “accidentally” leaked a few days early.
Chrome uses aspects of Apple’s Webkit engine, which powers Safari, as well as Mozilla Firefox.
Amongst the new features it boasts are “isolated” tabs designed to prevent browser crashes and a more powerful JavaScript V8 engine that should dramatically speed up JavaScript-heavy web applications.
A beta release for Windows is expected to be available for download later today with a Mac and Linux version following thereafter.
Whether there is space for yet another web browser in a market that is heavily dominated by Internet Explorer and Firefox is questionable, but if anybody can do it I’d put my money on Google.
1 Rob Sep 2nd, 2008 at 1:43 pmHey Colin
Webkit does power Safari, but it isn’t Apple’s per se. Apple does contribute and employ the lead developer of Webkit, but it is an open source project.
And Gecko, not Webkit powers Firefox.
Will be cool to try out. Looks a lot like Opera.
Cheers,
R
2 Colin Daniels Sep 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm@Rob thanks for clearing that up
3 Rob Sep 2nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm@Colin:
Too bad there’s not going to be a Mac version for awhile.
4 Paul Jacobson Sep 2nd, 2008 at 2:57 pmI was also going to point out that Gecko powers Firefox.
I didn’t realise there won’t be a Mac version initially but I don’t know that this is a bad thing. I am reserving judgment on Chrome till I see it out in the wild. Firefox and Safari are two potent browsers and it will really take a look to make inroads there, especially into Firefox’s territory.
5 Colin Daniels Sep 2nd, 2008 at 3:14 pm@Paul – I’m also reserving judgement, but my theory is that Chrome is really aimed at the mainstream Windows/IE market in an attempt to convert those users to the light side and make Google products run faster and more stable as well as being more integrated in the browser itself.
I reckon existing Firefox power users will probably end up installing it as a secondary browser mainly for rich Internet apps which we all know Google are famous for.