The browser wars heat up: Google Chrome

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-09-02 01:26am

Google wrote: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.

Google has thrown its hat into the ring with some novel new architectural features (to be fair, ones that IE8 also has). An introduction to its design and features are here. Like several projects out there, this is based on Apple's WebKit, but with a brand-new JavaScript engine.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2008-09-02 02:57am

Some of the ideas are new, others are just tying together Speed Dial (opera 9), Tab independence (IE8), tab priority (Opera) and plugins (firefox mostly) together. If they pull it off it'll be a nice combination but I don't see anything radically new there.

DaveJB · Post by **DaveJB** » 2008-09-02 05:45am

It doesn't really matter if there's nothing radically new; so long as it's stable, easy to use and ties together the best features of all the other browsers, I can see this picking up some definite fans.

Really though, Google could have done with releasing this a bit sooner. Pretty soon, all the attention's going to be on IE8, and Chrome could end up being swamped if they aren't careful.

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2008-09-02 06:26am

Wow. They commissioned Scott McCloud to draw the entire thing? Awesome.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-09-02 07:19am

Frankly, if they can combine the best features of current and near-future browsers and have it not crash, I'll use it.

Post by **Edi** » 2008-09-02 08:33am

I like Firefox, but if they can do it better, props to them. I have no problem using it if it's a good product.

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2008-09-02 12:13pm

Yeah, I like Firefox as well, but I'm definitely curious about Chrome.

I want the Beta to drop already.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2008-09-02 12:18pm

Ryushikaze wrote:Yeah, I like Firefox as well, but I'm definitely curious about Chrome.

I want the Beta to drop already.

You mean the beta, or the final beta, which will always be a beta?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-09-02 12:21pm

Ace Pace wrote:
Ryushikaze wrote:Yeah, I like Firefox as well, but I'm definitely curious about Chrome.

I want the Beta to drop already.
You mean the beta, or the final beta, which will always be a beta?

I want the beta to drop myself, I don't care which one.

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2008-09-02 01:00pm

Ace Pace wrote:
Ryushikaze wrote:Yeah, I like Firefox as well, but I'm definitely curious about Chrome.

I want the Beta to drop already.
You mean the beta, or the final beta, which will always be a beta?

I mean the beta of DNF, obviously.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2008-09-02 02:54pm

For some irrational reason, I'm still a fanboy of the Gecko engine over webkit

.

Well, hopefully the Linux port will be native and GTK (not keeping my hopes up, it'll probably be QT like other google Linux ports). Separate process per tab would be great to solve the Firefox crashing on Linux if you look at it wrong problem (granted I don't see this as often anymore after moving to 64 bit Firefox w/ nspluginwrapper, but it still happens).

What's puzzling is that Google is paying Mozilla/Firefox devs and working on this at the same time....

Natorgator · Post by **Natorgator** » 2008-09-02 03:27pm

Well, it's out and I'm using it right now. Pretty slick, it seems really fast! I really like the idea of tabs running in their own sandboxed process.

Pint0 Xtreme · Post by **Pint0 Xtreme** » 2008-09-02 03:34pm

Out of curiosity, what other browsers allocate a process for each tab?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2008-09-02 03:41pm

Pint0 Xtreme wrote:Out of curiosity, what other browsers allocate a process for each tab?

IE8.
Though apperantly Beta 2 suffers from horrible preformance issues.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-09-02 03:47pm

This actually seems faster than Firefox so far, at least on Windows XP. I'll have to wait until I get home to fire it up on Vista and give it a proper shakedown unfortunately.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2008-09-02 03:52pm

Awesome, but what of a mobile browser mentioned this summer with Android? I want something to beat Opera Mini in speed and still have Flash and Java.

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2008-09-02 04:02pm

So, I picked it up, and am using it now. Not only did it install and properly configure my settings from Firefox lickety split, but it also, I discovered, you can drag and drop tabs from Firefox into Chrome and it will load that page in Chrome. Haven't tested it on other browsers though.

Now then, I'm off to install Chrome on my desktop.

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2008-09-02 04:03pm

Using it right now. It seems zippy, and the interface is nice, but I'm not used to the lack of a status bar at the bottom. I also found a bug while writing this post: in text boxes, when a word wraps to the next line, the letters that were originally on the first line don't immediately appear on the second line. Also, in line additions also fuck up a bit. I'm sure that'll be fixed in no time though.

Now I just need to find the tab settings so that I can get bookmarks and the address bar to open in new tabs. Don't know if this will become my default (I doubt it, I have too much cognitive investment in Firefox), but it's nice to play around in.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-02 04:05pm

No Linux version yet. Boo.

I'm not too sure about Google branching off into browsers. Their apps up until now were things that generally don't have an easy-to-use, widely-available alternative - think SketchUp or Earth - so I'm a bit puzzled why they're branching out into a market that's already split up between free alternatives.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-09-02 04:13pm

Bounty wrote:No Linux version yet. Boo.

I'm not too sure about Google branching off into browsers. Their apps up until now were things that generally don't have an easy-to-use, widely-available alternative - think SketchUp or Earth - so I'm a bit puzzled why they're branching out into a market that's already split up between free alternatives.

Anything that gets more people away from using IE is good, imo. The market might be saturated, but if Google can offer new features well that nobody else really offers, and do it well, all the better.

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2008-09-02 04:14pm

Braedley wrote:Using it right now. It seems zippy, and the interface is nice, but I'm not used to the lack of a status bar at the bottom. I also found a bug while writing this post: in text boxes, when a word wraps to the next line, the letters that were originally on the first line don't immediately appear on the second line. Also, in line additions also fuck up a bit. I'm sure that'll be fixed in no time though.

I noticed that too, as well as a new one with fake overtyping in text fields. It's a slow update of the redraw, and not that big of an issue as far as fixing or dealing with til they do fix it. Worse to worse, just run the cursor over your text or Ctr + A and the current text appears.

Now I just need to find the tab settings so that I can get bookmarks and the address bar to open in new tabs. Don't know if this will become my default (I doubt it, I have too much cognitive investment in Firefox), but it's nice to play around in.

Thus far, the only options appear to be startup and security related, but I'm sure more bells and whistles will appear shortly. If they get about half Bell and Whistle as Firefox, I might permanently switch, as the interface, method, and lack of bloat are quite nice.

Addendum: Apparently, on my desktop, which is running XP X64, opening the options menu causes a crash. I also can't check any webpages, but I can't seem to do that with Firefox at the moment either.

Isil`Zha · Post by **Isil`Zha** » 2008-09-02 05:47pm

Some nice stuff. I especially like the fact that each tab is its own process.

However, it won't be replacing my Firefox for quite some time, if ever, depending on features that may or may not be added.

Most notably, the IE Tab and Ad Block Plus plug-ins alone will keep me on Firefox. Aren't the only two I have, but the others are all a jumble of various toys basically. Those two plug-ins provide significant functionality improvements. With the IE tab, I only need one browser. Any pages that use special IE rendering can be done inside Firefox. And Ad Block Plus is just awesome.. ads aren't just blocked, they're completely removed from the final rendered page.

Sharp-kun · Post by **Sharp-kun** » 2008-09-02 06:38pm

Chances of this ever leaving beta?

May just be me, but I'm always mildly concerned whenever I use gmail, simply as I can imagine something going wrong, then just being told "sorry, its beta". Why is Gmail still beta anyway?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-09-02 08:18pm

First major complaint: It seems to have no built-in java support or option to get a working plugin that I can see. I find this disappointing.

Yogi · Post by **Yogi** » 2008-09-02 08:49pm

Second complaint, this security hole.