Google's New Browser - "Chrome"

[slayerdiabolus]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7593106.stm

Google is launching an open source web browser to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

The browser is designed to be lightweight and fast, and to cope with the next generation of web applications that rely on graphics and multimedia.

Called Chrome, it will launch as a beta for Windows machines in 100 countries, with Mac and Linux versions to come.

"We realised... we needed to completely rethink the browser," said Google's Sundar Pichai in a blog post.

The new browser will help Google take advantage of developments it is pushing online in rich web applications that are challenging traditional desktop programs.


"It's certainly the biggest news in the browser space since Firefox started to dent Internet Explorer's lead and many people see this as a re-ignition of the browser wars"
-Darren Waters


Google has a suite of web apps, such as Documents, Picasa and Maps which offer functionality that is beginning to replace offline software.

"What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build," Mr Pichai, VP Product Management, wrote.

Competition
The launch of a beta version of Chrome on Tuesday evening (UK time) will be Google's latest assault on Microsoft's dominance of the PC business. The firm's Internet Explorer program dominates the browser landscape, with 80% of the market.

Those already in the browser space were quick to respond to the news.

Writing in his blog, John Lilly, chief executive of Mozilla was sanguine about the new rival in the browsersphere.

"It should come as no real surprise that Google has done something here — their business is the web, and they’ve got clear opinions on how things should be, and smart people thinking about how to make things better."

Chrome will be a browser optimized for the things that they see as important, and it’ll be interesting to see how it evolves," he wrote.

He welcomed the competition and said collaboration between Mozilla and Google on certain projects would continue.

Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, was more bullish.

"The browser landscape is highly competitive, but people will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their fingertips, respects their personal choices about how they want to browse and, more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal data online," he said in a statement.

Chrome will be available for download from the morning of Wednesday 3rd September, PST.

I can't wait to try it out.

Its looking like it will have an extremely simple interface.




Its also worth noting that around 85% of Firefox's revenue comes from Google

[Bob Garage]

sounds interesting. i'll give it a whirl.

[Zrak0z]

Google is definately the skynet of the future...slowly taking over the world, muhahaha

Anyways...might try it, but I doubt it will separate me from my firefox...

[frantik2k3]

Yes, I have mixed feelings about this... on one hand I am excited to see the "browser wars" picking back up again and I would love to see Microsoft be forced to produce a decent browser because the competition is there. I do feel Google has a better chance at it than AOL's browser did.

On the flip side, as a web developer, this means it is just one more browser that I need to build compatible websites for. It is hard enough sometimes to get things to look good with Firefox and IE alone, now add in this new one... oh the headaches that will ensue

[MetDream]

On the flip side, as a web developer, this means it is just one more browser that I need to build compatible websites for. It is hard enough sometimes to get things to look good with Firefox and IE alone, now add in this new one... oh the headaches that will ensue

That was my first thought when I read this thread... and I am not even a web developer, just a conent manager imputer!

[clovnul]

On the flip side, as a web developer, this means it is just one more browser that I need to build compatible websites for. It is hard enough sometimes to get things to look good with Firefox and IE alone, now add in this new one... oh the headaches that will ensue

Why? Many web developers ignore Opera. You can do same thing with Chrome.

[MetDream]

On the flip side, as a web developer, this means it is just one more browser that I need to build compatible websites for. It is hard enough sometimes to get things to look good with Firefox and IE alone, now add in this new one... oh the headaches that will ensue

Why? Many web developers ignore Opera. You can do same thing with Chrome.

Well gmail has caught on like wildfire. I think that Chrome will be much more recieved and widely used than Opera.

[clovnul]

I never understood why Opera is less popular then the other browsers.

Anyway. I did a test and it seems they copied the look from Safari. But what I don't understand is why the hell when I started LastFm player it requested to have access on the internet.

[Judge B]

Everybody should read EULA before installing.

[slayerdiabolus]

Enable Chrome's Best Features in Firefox
The Internet is atwitter with Google Chrome's innovative new features, but there was no clear winner in our speed test comparing Firefox and Chrome—which means your choice of browser may depend solely on features.

Apart from a few specific issues (namely process management), many of Chrome's best features are already available in Firefox 3, proving yet again the power of extensibility. From incognito browsing and the streamlined download manager to URL highlighting and improved search, let's take a look at how you can bring some of Google Chrome's best features to Firefox.

Stealther Turns On Incognito Browsing
Chrome's Incognito browsing allows you to shop for your significant other without keeping any history of that browsing session anywhere on your computer. In Firefox, the Stealther extension does the same thing.

The main difference: In Chrome, a single window can enter Incognito mode, whereas in Firefox it's enabled globally (this is probably possible in Chrome because of how it manages each tab as a separate process). But let's be honest, are your multi-tasking skills really that good? (Original post)

Download Statusbar Puts Downloads in Your Status Bar (Surprise!)
Chrome is all about saving space, so files you download don't break out into a separate window. Instead, they live in your status bar. Not bad, but guess what: The Download Statusbar Firefox extension has been doing this for five years, and it offers lots of additional options and wastes even less screen real estate.

Speed Dial and Auto Dial Power Up Your Empty Tabs
Chrome's empty tab page—which displays your most visited sites, most used search boxes, and even your recently closed tabs—is awesome. There isn't currently anything quite as full featured for Firefox, however there are a couple of options that are very close. The Speed Dial extension (which itself is a ripoff of the Speed Dial feature in Opera) provides a very similar thumbnail-based new tab page, but you decide which sites you want in your speed dial and you can quickly access any of them from your keyboard with shortcuts.

Locationbar2 Adds Domain-Highlighting to the Address Bar
Google Chrome's "omni bar" sports root domain highlighting, a cool feature that doubles as a nice anti-phishing device (if you see the root domain more easily, you are less likely to give your information to an imposter domain). That sort of domain highlighting isn't new by any means, though; the Locationbar2 Firefox extension has been boasting this same highlighting—in addition to several other excellent features—for well over a year.

Prism Extension Turns Any Site into a Separate Application
If you want to break out a webapp you use all day long into a separate window and desktop shortcut, Chrome makes it easy on you. Just click x and do y. The concept of separating webapps into their own application isn't new, though. At Mozilla, they've been cooking up Prism to do just that for quite some time. With Prism and the Prism for Firefox extension installed, just go to Tools -> Convert Website to Application to break a webapp into a separate window and application. Right now this extension is Windows only, but hey—so is Chrome.

Keyword Search Bookmarks Integrate Site-Specific Search with the Address Bar
Chrome boasts that after using a site's search engine once, you can perform that same search from the address bar the next time. For example, after you search Amazon once, the next time you may just be able to go to your address bar, type 'a', press Tab, and then perform your search. That's pretty saucy, but it's also not much of an innovation over keyword searches in Firefox.

Granted, you have to manually add a search box, but you can also define exactly what you want that shortcut to be. Chrome also doesn't currently support keyword bookmarking in general, which is one of the most time-saving features in Firefox.

On the other hand, previously mentioned Auto Dial automatically populates the new tab page with your most frequently visited sites. It's not as attractive as Speed Dial or Chrome's new tab page, though. Either way, give Firefox extension developers some time. We'll have an even better alternative before you know it.


Theres some great ones in there. I've added the Prism and Locationbar ones and I've had Stealther since the very beginning