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Google launches internet browser

Tom Warren   on 02 September 2008 - 04:30 · 71 comments & 22506 views

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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.

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

View: BBC News

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(5 replies) #1 exit on 02 Sep 2008 - 04:39
Great News
#1.1 excalpius on 02 Sep 2008 - 05:02
Let me guess. It will have a generic, bare white interface with the absolutely minimum of features and remain in beta forever, just like everything else application-wise by Google.

Love the search. Love gmail. Google Earth is pretty good too, come to think of it. But everything from their joke of a messenger clone to their useless web applications has been **** poor to say the least.

I'm curious whether this will have an OH WOW or HO HUM google tag on it tomorrow. 8P
#1.2 Beastage on 02 Sep 2008 - 09:43
(excalpius said @ #1.1)
Let me guess. It will have a generic, bare white interface with the absolutely minimum of features and remain in beta forever, just like everything else application-wise by Google.

Love the search. Love gmail. Google Earth is pretty good too, come to think of it. But everything from their joke of a messenger clone to their useless web applications has been **** poor to say the least.

I'm curious whether this will have an OH WOW or HO HUM google tag on it tomorrow. 8P


Hey m8 I agree with you there... and don't forget that Google Earth is developed by keyhole and google purchased them.

This is why I am skeptical about android , maybe promising , but you have to be nuts to have trust in it at least for a few years, anyone that buys android phone should avoid storing personal data on it.
#1.3 2Cold Scorpio on 02 Sep 2008 - 11:58
(excalpius said @ #1.1)
Let me guess. It will have a generic, bare white interface with the absolutely minimum of features and remain in beta forever, just like everything else application-wise by Google.

Love the search. Love gmail. Google Earth is pretty good too, come to think of it. But everything from their joke of a messenger clone to their useless web applications has been **** poor to say the least.

I'm curious whether this will have an OH WOW or HO HUM google tag on it tomorrow. 8P


Agreed. I love Google Search and Google Maps/Earth, but never liked the rest (including GMail; I like folders, dangit! lol). As a web developer, the last thing I need is *another* web browser to test websites in, and I'm not seeing anything promising from Google on this one. They need to stick to hat they do well and quit sticking their finger in every pie that's out there... ^_^
#1.4 some_guy on 02 Sep 2008 - 12:13
(2Cold Scorpio said @ #1.3)
As a web developer, the last thing I need is *another* web browser to test websites in, and I'm not seeing anything promising from Google on this one. They need to stick to hat they do well and quit sticking their finger in every pie that's out there... ^_^


yea for sure, but as long as the browser doesn't pull off an ie 7 (or 6, or 5) i'm down with that
#1.5 2Cold Scorpio on 02 Sep 2008 - 18:25
(some_guy said @ #1.4)
(2Cold Scorpio said @ #1.3)
As a web developer, the last thing I need is *another* web browser to test websites in, and I'm not seeing anything promising from Google on this one. They need to stick to hat they do well and quit sticking their finger in every pie that's out there... ^_^


yea for sure, but as long as the browser doesn't pull off an ie 7 (or 6, or 5) i'm down with that


IE7 is fine; a big improvement over IE6, and I actually like it more than Firefox 2 or 3, and nearly as much as Opera 9.5...

Personally, I foresee Google becoming a huge hypocrite with this: they raise cain over Microsoft for them defaulting IE's features, and yet I see Google doing the exact same (and think its OK. You know, because they're Google and do no wrong.). Seriously, what reason does Google have in getting into the browser market (where there's no money to be made as browsers are usually free) other than to push their own services down your throat (most of those services aren't even worth writing home about, other than search and Google Maps/Earth, etc; a lot of people would also say GMail, though it isn't my cup of tea...). The UI looks freakin' ugly too...man, I thought FF3's default skin was bad, but this takes the cake.

I won't be using this browser; I just hope, as a web developer, that is functions exactly like, or really close to, one of the Big Three so I don't have to start coding everything for yet another browser. I already don't build for Safari or Konquorer at all; Google's browser will just be added to that list...if my sites don't work in it, then too danged bad!
(2 replies) #2 Express on 02 Sep 2008 - 04:47
Interesting. Much of the exact same features as IE8!
#2.1 excalpius on 02 Sep 2008 - 05:03
Um, where did you get that? I RTFA and there is no feature list whatsoever.
#2.2 excalpius on 02 Sep 2008 - 05:29
(3 replies) #3 excalpius on 02 Sep 2008 - 04:53
Um, why? Why not just add this to Mozilla?!

Is it just because they don't want to keep paying $60 million a year to Mozilla?
#3.1 jjss on 02 Sep 2008 - 05:21
They said "lightweight and fast", so probably they are using webkit...
#3.3 HalcyonX12 on 02 Sep 2008 - 22:14
Google just extended their support of Mozilla to 2011, although Firefox got quite popular before any of Google's support (there were even other similar efforts before Firefox got started that are still around, such as K-Meleon). They are probably just using WebKit because it suits their purposes better for their own browser, but they still support alternatives. It's good to have choices at least!

Google's browser also changes the interface and scope of the browser quite significantly, so it's probably better as a stand-alone browser. It's also nice to have another browser supporting WebKit, and a lot of the same tools are already available for Firefox in the Toolbar and in Google Gears. The Firefox team are also working on interesting browser developments of their own such as Prism and Weave that go in different directions than what Google is interested in, so it's probably best to keep the two separated.

If both WebKit and Gecko are expected to be used to view Google sites, and if both are pushed to end users, developers will have to support web standards and make sure their pages work across more browsers (Opera and IE as well), so overall this is a benefit to all.

Last edited by HalcyonX12 on 02 Sep 2008 - 22:24
(1 reply) #4 Hooya on 02 Sep 2008 - 05:15
I, for one, welcome our new google overlords.

or something.

When the Linux version hits the Ubuntu repos I'll check it out, but I doubt I'll switch from Firefox.
#4.1 tiagosilva29 on 02 Sep 2008 - 08:51
There will be an Epiphany with WebKit...
(3 replies) #5 excalpius on 02 Sep 2008 - 05:28
http://books.google.com/books?id=8UsqHohww...ntcover#PPP1,M1

Here's the whole webcomic with everything about Chrome...except actual screenshots of the UI/interface/program, ahem.

Tearaway tabbing is something I might use and the security advances are LONG overdue.

As someone who usually has 3 browsers open with 8+ tabs each, I'd like a way to manage this all faster, better, cleaner.

We'll see tomorrow.

PS My worry is that it will be as fugly as google talk at release though.
#5.1 excalpius on 02 Sep 2008 - 05:41
Yup, fugly it is...

Screenshots here

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-02-n72.html
#5.2 joeydoo on 02 Sep 2008 - 09:24
That doesn't look too bad... a bit bulky maybe. Hopefully you can customise it enough to get rid of that. Really it has the buttons and such from firefox 2.. shame they couldn't have used Firefox 3 more.

The point is... it's open source. So there's nothing on it that can't be fixed.
#5.3 JoDaddy on 02 Sep 2008 - 13:23
Tear-away tabbing is something the IE8 team has already stated they'd be working on for this release. Also, the fact that we're putting the address bar in the tab section means that, if you use toolbars, those toolbars will either have to be duplicated in each tab, or have some way of knowing which tab they're supposed to address now. I'd like to try it, but that doesn't seem like the best solution to me.
(5 replies) #6 Shiranui on 02 Sep 2008 - 05:37
Everyone is advised to read the comic before commenting.

I have, and am very impressed. I can't wait to try it out tomorrow.

There are screenshots of the UI floating around if you look hard enough.
#6.1 xpgeek on 02 Sep 2008 - 06:02
Agreed. I read it, and am very much looking forward to trying it out.
#6.2 excalpius on 02 Sep 2008 - 06:27
I read it and found the engine interesting, but as expected, there is a reason they are telling you all about it in a webcomic instead of with screenshots.

Prepare to yawn. http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-02-n72.html
#6.3 vetmarkjensen on 02 Sep 2008 - 11:18
Wow. The comic book is actually quite informative on their vision for this browser. I like the multi-threaded sub-processes. and the ability to look and see what individual process is causing lockups or memory leaks.

I'm looking forward to checking out this new browser.
#6.4 some_guy on 02 Sep 2008 - 12:17
that blue background would look so much better if it was substituted with aero
#6.5 excalpius on 02 Sep 2008 - 22:30
Fortunately, on Vista, the actual chrome looks much better than those screenshots. It's still weak sauce, but not AWFUL.

And it's so much faster that I'd switch today if we had an adblock/ie7pro solution for it.
#7 :: Lyon :: on 02 Sep 2008 - 05:39
Can't wait to try this
#8 koppit on 02 Sep 2008 - 05:40
The Webcomic is awesome.
I can't wait!
#9 IntelliMoo on 02 Sep 2008 - 06:01
bah, Safari 2 probably. lol
#10 Mav Phoenix on 02 Sep 2008 - 06:15
Interface is a bit too sparse for me, and lack of extensions or even mentions of extensibility hurt a lot.
(1 reply) #11 fl0at on 02 Sep 2008 - 06:37
This is good for google. As someone said above they don't need to send a lot of $$$ to mozilla now in meantime they will keep a lot of profitable information like they did in their email system. Now enchanted with a browser?? wow cool stuff..
More google seems like more trouble to Privacy.

#11.1 Cryton on 02 Sep 2008 - 11:58
Google and Mozilla recently renewed their deal to have Google as the #1 search engine in Firefox for another three years and umpteen sackfulls of money
(1 reply) #12 Aleck79 on 02 Sep 2008 - 07:14
the main question here is why?...
#12.1 39 Thieves on 02 Sep 2008 - 18:05
Why not?
(1 reply) #13 C++ on 02 Sep 2008 - 07:18
Why is this titled Google launches internet browser when this browser is no where to be found as of yet?
#13.1 redfox2200 on 02 Sep 2008 - 10:52
beta will be release today
(2 replies) #14 brent3000 on 02 Sep 2008 - 07:24
the logo looks like a pokeball...


Go GOOGLE Go





Last edited by brent3000 on 02 Sep 2008 - 07:30
#14.1 JamesWeb on 02 Sep 2008 - 08:21
Looks like a Simon Says machine to me.
#14.2 Skyfrog on 02 Sep 2008 - 09:04
Isn't that part of GlaDOS from Portal? "I wouldn't touch that thing if I were you."

(1 reply) #15 REM2000 on 02 Sep 2008 - 08:40
looks good to me, nice clean UI. The technology underneath is incredibly interesting. The web comic goes over quite a few great ideas. I am really looking forward to trying out this browser.
#15.1 +macf13nd on 02 Sep 2008 - 09:21
my thoughts exactly
#16 Kushan on 02 Sep 2008 - 09:37
I don't think Google is intending on directly competing with IE and Firefox. From the looks of it, they're focusing on what they see as the biggest flaws and limitations in browsers today and instead of just complaining about it, they've implemented their own solutions and open sourced them so that other browsers can use them, thus improving the situation for everyone.
(1 reply) #17 boho on 02 Sep 2008 - 11:08
In the words of the "Lost in Space" Robot... "Danger danger... warning danger approaching"

As much as I hate Microsoft, I also know that my enemies enemy, IS NOT MY FRIEND. Microsoft were, and still are, way too powerful, now Google are in the same camp. Google's control of Internet advertising (money) needs to be addressed - and very soon. Anyone who using this browser over Firefox is a mug, and deserves to have Google "Hoover" their PC for information!
#17.1 Kushan on 02 Sep 2008 - 11:52
(boho said @ #17)
In the words of the "Lost in Space" Robot... "Danger danger... warning danger approaching"

As much as I hate Microsoft, I also know that my enemies enemy, IS NOT MY FRIEND. Microsoft were, and still are, way too powerful, now Google are in the same camp. Google's control of Internet advertising (money) needs to be addressed - and very soon. Anyone who using this browser over Firefox is a mug, and deserves to have Google "Hoover" their PC for information!


Paranoid much?
Microsoft can lock you into their platforms, google can do no such thing. Sure, they run the biggest advertising business on the interweb, but it's not like they control something that prevents anyone else from setting up a similar business.
(1 reply) #18 jonnytabpni on 02 Sep 2008 - 11:17
I dunno about this.

I still don't trust the Google Toolbar never mind a whole browser
#18.1 zaidgs on 02 Sep 2008 - 12:42
I too don't trust Google. But for the browser, I think it should be OK for one reason: It is open-source... So trust is not an issue now!
(1 reply) #19 tes1234 on 02 Sep 2008 - 11:35
well you cant trust any application on internet but i agree with you on this the toolbar sends so much anonymous data!!!
#19.1 xinary on 02 Sep 2008 - 16:02
You can tell it not to..oh wait..you wouldn't have paid attention to that part, would YOU
#20 Septimus on 02 Sep 2008 - 12:13
Yay, Safari with Gears, what a concept. Oh, wait....
#21 Ricmacas on 02 Sep 2008 - 14:42
well... Isn't their V8 = blowfish incorporated in Webkit builds??
#22 xXTOKERXx on 02 Sep 2008 - 14:43
Personally i love it and i think Google should do well out of it,

Remember were the first to offer totall free high capacity email, and also made a neat search engine combined with it, which trashes the hell out of outlooks capabilities, some more development could be done with it to make it more user friendly, but as it is it's a pretty damn good and simple client.

They revolutionised web searching and did extremely well at making everything simple, clear and best of all accurate.

They did change their search engine about 2 years ago which changed the way results appeared, and to be honest i felt annoyed by this as my usual deep searching techniques no longer worked - however it is still very accurate.

You can't hate them from turning it into a highly profitable business, i am sure we would all do the same, and i am sure that they have been influenced by business managers to do things differently.

But over all they essentially offer free, simple, feature rich products, which are incredably useful and if they continue with this model then they should continue to suceed.

I like the concept of "thumbnail" front page, a feature i had alredy implemented into my own html homepage which makes browsing, quick and efficient.

so long as it is open source with no data grabbing rubbish i can see this been a big success and it is time Mozilla felt hot under the colla, they have made no real enhancements for sometime!
(1 reply) #23 Avatar Viper on 02 Sep 2008 - 15:14
not another browser war...
#23.1 Ikshaar on 02 Sep 2008 - 17:24
(Avatar Viper said @ #23)
not another browser war...

On contrary... lack of competition and MS hegemony lead to years of stagnation... Firefox reignited the fire, and I am quite impressed by Google presentation of Chrome. Even if it does not become THE browser, it will sure challenge the current browsers to improve - and that can only be good for users.

#24 barteh on 02 Sep 2008 - 15:15
is this available to download yet? You can see the previous cached data when searching for google chrome but it just links back to their main website.
#25 C_Guy on 02 Sep 2008 - 15:38
As if Google doesn't have enough data on their users already. Let's sign over our credit cards and Social security numbers to Google, too. You know, for safe keeping.
(1 reply) #26 Xilo on 02 Sep 2008 - 15:43
Biggest thing they have is the process manager. FINALLY a browser will have each tab, each plugin running in separate threads. I hate having the whole browser crash just because I opened up some website that has ****ty coders or because a plugin had bugs.
#26.1 2Cold Scorpio on 02 Sep 2008 - 18:26
This isn't new: IE8 Beta 2 has it (and in my testing, it works quite well). I do agree, though, that its a feature we've needed for a long time now.
#27 phiberoptik on 02 Sep 2008 - 15:55
technically is it launched, if you can't get it yet?
#28 IntelliMoo on 02 Sep 2008 - 18:44
Everything google does is launched in spirit. lol
#29 plastikaa on 02 Sep 2008 - 18:58
http://www.google.com/chrome

For those who cant use Google... however it would be useful to post it in the news post.
#30 KayMan2K on 02 Sep 2008 - 19:00
Their new browser looks interesting and boasts a ton of innovative and open features, but they are advertising that much of their tab behavoir is brand new and innovative (even coining new phrases) - when it is exactly the same that Opera has been doing with its tab system for years. Even though Opera is not very popular on the desktop - give credit where credit is due.
#31 exit on 02 Sep 2008 - 19:04
got it
(3 replies) #32 plastikaa on 02 Sep 2008 - 19:08
Acid 2 seems perfect
Acid 3 76/100
#32.1 excalpius on 02 Sep 2008 - 22:32
oh goody. myself and the entire free world cares about Acid tests...NOT.
#32.2 plastikaa on 02 Sep 2008 - 23:16
but let me guess... you and the entire world then complain when things dont work. The better standards are followed the more likely you get a smooth ride in the end.

I hereby revoke your right to complain.
#32.3 excalpius on 02 Sep 2008 - 23:46
Sorry, revocation REVOKED.

Acid tests do NOT, under any circumstances, actually represent real world use, which is why the vast majority of us do not care what "score" any browser gets in them.

But you keep testing there.
(1 reply) #33 James Riske on 02 Sep 2008 - 19:16
Now if google would just get into making an operating system we may really see some shaky knees in Redmond.
#33.1 excalpius on 02 Sep 2008 - 23:48
Yeah, let's watch Google pull millions of lines of device driver code out of their ass...riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Apple's further along in that regard and they are STILL not...even...close to being able to be run on all PCs, old and new.
#34 Airlink on 02 Sep 2008 - 21:27
Nifty. I'll wait for the RTM.

No, wait this is Google. Everything they build is in perpetual beta.
:sigh:
#35 sreteP on 03 Sep 2008 - 15:21
This title changing of articles is starting to get slightly annoying!
#36 fl0at on 04 Sep 2008 - 08:25
why don't you (google lovers) just send your all personal information including your usernames and passwords to google hq ? so they can make a use of it making some bucks. Oh i forgot, you don't like to share your private usage information right? well it is a bit late you are already sharing your :
- pictures. (picassa)
- videos (youtube)
- emails (gmail)
- documents (google docs)
- calendar (google cal)
- e-commerce (google checkout)
- web site traffic information if you have any web site .. ( google analytics)
- chrome (oh yes everything related to internet maybe your usernames and passwords too..)

now it is time to get more nasty for google that wants you to send them all websites you are using and surfing even becoming a member so they can use this in their advertisement empire......

Irony, this reminds me the early years in Google as their famous slogan " don't be evil"... Remember the best trick devil did was to convince everyone around that it doesn't exist.! So who is the evil now?

Wake up friends... Don't be googliezed....



#37 Bri- on 04 Sep 2008 - 19:45
This browser seems amazing so far. It's fast, stable and render websites beautifully. On top of all that, it doesn't have a bloated, clunky UI. Go Google, go!

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