News: Google Chrome

Ponster · 02-09-2008 9:34am #1

I haven't seen this mentioned so I thought it was worth a post.

Google are launching a new Internet browser today called Chrome.

A fresh take on the browser
9/01/2008 02:10:00 PM
At Google, we have a saying: “launch early and iterate.” While this approach is usually limited to our engineers, it apparently applies to our mailroom as well! As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit "send" a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome. As we believe in access to information for everyone, we've now made the comic publicly available -- you can find it here. We will be launching the beta version of Google Chrome tomorrow in more than 100 countries.

So 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.

All of us at Google spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends -- all using a browser. Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. 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.

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. 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. We 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.

This is just the beginning -- Google Chrome is far from done. We're releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.

We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we're committed to continuing on their path. 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 web gets better with more options and innovation. Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the web even better.

So check in again tomorrow to try Google Chrome for yourself. We'll post an update here as soon as it's ready.

egan007 · 02-09-2008 9:39am

install something that google made on my deskyop.....er no thanks

Sully · 02-09-2008 9:40am

Should be interesting. Ill try it out for sure, but not sure ill make my switch just yet. Happy with Firefox at the moment. Wonder how the two's relationships will be now?

Kintarō Hattori · 02-09-2008 9:41am

egan007 wrote: »

install something that google made on my deskyop.....er no thanks

Ehh why not?

egan007 · 02-09-2008 9:46am

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Ehh why not?

They are far too interested in information.

Adam · 02-09-2008 9:47am

egan007 wrote: »

They are far too interested in information.

it's open source.

aidan_walsh · 02-09-2008 10:17am

Can't say I have had too many problems with tabs crashing each other, being bottlenecks maybe not not crashing. Still, should be interesting to see how it works.

delly · 02-09-2008 11:08am

I like Google as a company, but couldn't really think of much that Firefox can't handle. However I checked out there info comic here and have to say I'm quite impressed.

MunsterCycling · 02-09-2008 11:40am

Nice cartoon.

MC

sink · 02-09-2008 12:08pm

That cartoon certainly gained my attention. I just thought it was going to be a Firefox clone but they really seem to be taking things in a different and interesting direction. I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Get0fix · 02-09-2008 12:30pm

I think at least from a developers point of view, the built in task manager will seriously help in finding out what plugins are killing websites etc. Whether its the javascript content, or say Flash etc etc.

Also not having your entire browser crash because of one page would be great!

Dartz · 02-09-2008 1:06pm

Depends on resource use, whether I use it or not. Firefox 3 drives on of my old laptops so hard trying to play flas, it literally runs out of memory and locks up... Wont even respond to alt-sysrq-o , or anything like that.

If chrome can do the job, anjd not be a memory hog, I'd use it alright. Though I'd wonder how google as a commercial entity plan to make money out of it. Could they be watching our browsing perhaps?

Ponster · 02-09-2008 1:09pm

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

dulpit · 02-09-2008 2:33pm

I'm looking forward to giving it a lash, the more competition the better, it'll create better browsers in the long run...

aidan_walsh · 02-09-2008 2:36pm

Ponster wrote:

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

Available on Windows only for the time being, Mac and Linux will be coming at a later date.

Shiny · 02-09-2008 3:08pm

I'm interested in the way you can monitor the individual
resources consumed by tabs and plug-ins. Very handy if
you install a dodgy plug-in with a memory leak or something.

I also doubt it would be a viable alternative to firefox for the
foreseeable future. Maybe after a few iterations though....;)

sink · 02-09-2008 3:15pm

Dartz wrote: »

Though I'd wonder how google as a commercial entity plan to make money out of it. Could they be watching our browsing perhaps?

I from what I gather they don't plan on making money directly out of it. What chrome is designed to do from googles pov is to provide a universal platform across many OS's for their online services and applications. They have judged that they will never rival client side individual installations (like MS office) using current browser technology because it is too limited and unstable. Chrome will provide a much more adaptable and stable platform to develop future online applications with which they will be able to take on microsoft and apple.

maki · 02-09-2008 3:49pm

First images of Chrome:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/01/first-public-screen-captures-of-google-chrome/

I hope they release some skins; it honestly looks like crap.

calex71 · 02-09-2008 4:22pm

seems to be a big fuss made over the fact the tab bar is above the address bar? opera has had that for eons + you could move it if you wanted.

I'd still like to try it and make up my mind on it though, FF i dont like because i need to add-on to much to it (though the ability to do that is nice) opera i still use as main browser as it has most of what i need and prefer how its layed out out of the box so to speek over ff but the 9.5 versions have annoyed me in terms of stability and I do envy a few of the ff plugin's

while people say 'evil google' and 'they will track' what we do , well they do that already to an extent, gmail is up there with the best of them and love the calander's ability to send you a free sms reminder for things ( yes it can do that !!!!) So if they 'borrow' the best bits of the others and have enough inovation of thier own the browser might be a nice one.

xbox36016 · 02-09-2008 6:09pm

looking forward to it

Overheal · 02-09-2008 6:21pm

I apologise but when it comes to google I wear my tin foil hat. Their whole browser is probably designed around their information gathering - mundane in itself if you have nothing to hide - but it opens itself up for serious security and phising issues: No way in hell would I be an early adopter of this.

Ponster · 02-09-2008 6:31pm

Overheal wrote: »

I apologise but when it comes to google I wear my tin foil hat. Their whole browser is probably designed around their information gathering - mundane in itself if you have nothing to hide - but it opens itself up for serious security and phising issues: No way in hell would I be an early adopter of this.

Do you know what open-source means?

fifth · 02-09-2008 7:07pm

I think from reading the comic, that it sounds great. Actually sounds like a browser that won't crash.. Mozilla 3 is pretty good for that though I must say. I'm looking forward to Chrome..

Overheal · 02-09-2008 7:26pm

Ponster wrote: »

Do you know what open-source means?

I'll open source you!

AlmightyCushion · 02-09-2008 7:41pm

Worth a look at the very least so I'll be downloading.

jcrowbar · 02-09-2008 8:02pm

I'm in Chrome now. Well worth the look.

It'll give Firefox real competition on my PC that's for sure. Shame there's no plugin yet to get at my online Google bookmarks. Then it'd be a keeper.

Mark200 · 02-09-2008 8:21pm

delly wrote: »

I like Google as a company, but couldn't really think of much that Firefox can't handle. However I checked out there info comic here and have to say I'm quite impressed.

Yes I read that a while ago and was so impressed that I downloaded google chrome and I'm using it right now

I love google as a company and I hate microsoft as a company and I'm liking this new web browser.

Zonda999 · 02-09-2008 8:30pm

Writing this on chrome right now!!I like it to be honest.I know litle about browsers but i definately prefer it to Firefox 3.It has a real simplicity that i like.Well worth a try

Ponster · 02-09-2008 8:54pm

All working well so far.

I think I'll try to find a rick rolling page to see how it deals with it.

EDIT: It took me about 5 minutes to crash it but rather than just the one tab closing as promised the entire browser went down.

bcheck.scanit.be -> Apple QuickTime MOV file JVTCompEncodeFrame heap overflow - failed

yoyo · 02-09-2008 9:03pm

Its certainly fast, I like it, pity it don't have the same catalog of extensions like firefox does

, the multi threading seems good though, I like the plain, basic UI aswell

Nick

sink · 02-09-2008 9:06pm

Testing it out now and so far I like it. Should be interesting to see what sort of apps google will design to go with it.

calex71 · 02-09-2008 9:11pm

booooooo no option to import opera bookmarks :mad:
am i missing something totally obvious here or is there zero options
for any real customization???? evan basic tweaks?????

PogMoThoin · 02-09-2008 9:13pm

I'm liking it

AlmightyCushion · 02-09-2008 9:13pm

calex71 wrote: »

booooooo no option to import opera bookmarks :mad:
am i missing something totally obvious here or is there zero options
for any real customization???? evan basic tweaks?????

What type of customisation?

TiGeR KiNgS · 02-09-2008 9:16pm

calex71 wrote: »

booooooo no option to import opera bookmarks :mad:
am i missing something totally obvious here or is there zero options
for any real customization???? evan basic tweaks?????

YEAH, ITS BETA

Blowfish · 02-09-2008 9:17pm

Definitely seems speedy. Some interesting tricks too, e.g. you can drag down in the bottom right of all text fields (like the quick reply one below) to adjust the size of them.

AlmightyCushion · 02-09-2008 9:21pm

Blowfish wrote: »

Definitely seems speedy. Some interesting tricks too, e.g. you can drag down in the bottom right of all text fields (like the quick reply one below) to adjust the size of them.

Shít, I didn't notice that. That's pretty cool. I agree with everyone though, it does seem fast (just tried it on boards so far). The American dictionary is a little annoying though.

How so Joe · 02-09-2008 9:22pm

Blowfish wrote: »

Definitely seems speedy. Some interesting tricks too, e.g. you can drag down in the bottom right of all text fields (like the quick reply one below) to adjust the size of them.

Oh! Thanks for pointing that out, it's great!
Chrome does seem to have some nifty tricks, but since it's only in Beta I'm kind of missing my extensions and skins from Firefox.
I'm warming to this though, no doubt about it!

calex71 · 02-09-2008 9:23pm

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

What type of customisation?

comming from opera i guess i expected more even from a beta, little things
like have bookmarks perminantly on the left with and expandable folder structure and use f4 to hide/unhide, i repositon other things to suit me.

I know people will say its the 1st beta , relax but to be honest while i think is alcually nice to use they had so much insperation from other browsers expecially firefox from the looks of it that they could have offered more in terms of options. Oh will rant over i looks promising all the same, like the history and search download pages.

Edit is it just a coincidence that the Acid 3 test site is very slow to open on all the browsers i have installed :-D which also let me discover another feature it has the option to display a google cached copy of the page if its down , nice

sink · 02-09-2008 9:34pm

The whole browser just crashed, I tried to open a bookmark folder with 10 sites all at once and the whole browser crashed. So much for stability.

Keano · 02-09-2008 9:39pm

Well I am so fed up with FF3 that I will give Chrome a go for a while. I'll go back to FF2 if Chrome is not for me.

Khannie · 02-09-2008 9:43pm

sink wrote: »

So much for stability.

It's beta.

Blowfish · 02-09-2008 9:45pm

RAM usage is far higher than FF3. Chrome was using 450mb with 60 tabs open, while FF3 was using half that.

aidan_walsh · 02-09-2008 9:48pm

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Shít, I didn't notice that. That's pretty cool. I agree with everyone though, it does seem fast (just tried it on boards so far). The American dictionary is a little annoying though.

Thats probably in there from Webkit. Been a feature in Safari for donkeys.

godskitchen · 02-09-2008 9:50pm

They will keep this in BETA for years, just like gamil, it means you cant complain too much.

Saying that, gamil in beta is much better than a lot of 1.2 crapware out of beta.

Not sure I like the EULA too much, EVERYTHING you type and post can be used without your permission.

Including this text right now.

They are watching, just because its open source does not mean its not evil.

Oh and give me noscript. I am seeing Ad's for the first time in years, its not pretty.

calex71 · 02-09-2008 9:50pm

Blowfish wrote: »

RAM usage is far higher than FF3. Chrome was using 450mb with 60 tabs open, while FF3 was using half that.

to be fair who opens 60 tabs????? :eek:

AlmightyCushion · 02-09-2008 9:54pm

godskitchen wrote: »

They are watching, just because its open source does not mean its not evil.

Yeah, apparently hitler ran linux on all his tanks. :pac:

calex71 · 02-09-2008 10:07pm

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Yeah, apparently hitler ran linux on all his tanks. :pac:

the devils tool i say

godskitchen · 02-09-2008 10:09pm

Khannie wrote: »

It's beta.

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Yeah, apparently hitler ran linux on all his tanks. :pac:

Yes, yes he did.

jester77 · 02-09-2008 10:11pm

I'm liking it, very nippy! Has some display issues but not bad for a first release. I like the way it mimics prism as I use that quite a bit.

Not sure about each tab having it's own process, has it's advantages and disadvantages.

Overheal · 02-09-2008 10:14pm

calex71 wrote: »

to be fair who opens 60 tabs????? :eek:

Well when looking for grade A porn its better to cast a wide net

News: Google Chrome

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