Update: Google has posted on its official blog saying they screwed up by mailing this cartoon out early. A beta version of Chrome will be made available tomorrow in over 100 countries – but, alas, for Windows only to start, with Mac and Linux on the way.
Update 2: It looks like Google has at least semi-launched its Chrome site here. It provides this screenshot of the browser.
Google Blogoscoped has published a lengthy cartoon sent to them by Google and drawn by Scott McCloud that provides the first public details about Google Chrome, an open source browser based on WebKit and powered by Google Gears that has been rumored but never before confirmed.
According to the cartoon (which can be seen in its entirely here – thanks Marshall), the Google Chrome project has already undergone a substantial period of development with engineers working to create a product that’s secure, user friendly, fast, stable, safe, and easily testable. No word yet, however, on when it will be released.
This is a straight shot over the bow of Microsoft, which has tightly integrated its Live Search offering into its dominant Internet Explorer browser (and which, surprise, is in turn tightly integrated into Windows). It also makes for an awkward relationship with Mozilla, whose Firefox browser Google basically funds.
The cartoon breaks down Google Chrome’s features into the following four topics:
Super Tabs and Scalable Testing
Unlike other modern web browsers, which can only run one process at a time, Google Chrome will give each tab its own process. This speeds up overall performance and saves the entire browser from crashing when one tab causes problems.
The multi-process design requires more memory allocation up front but less memory over time as users tend to multitask. It also prevents your computer from slowing down after you browse for an extended period of time and open/close lots of tabs.
Google Chrome also features a task manager that can be used to determine just which tabs and plugins are hogging just how much memory. It’s main purpose is to spot bad actors and close them before they ruin your browsing experience.
Google is leveraging its massive server infrastructure to run automatic performance tests for Chrome. The company is claiming that its Chrome Bot can test the browser on tens of thousands of different webpages within 20-30 minutes of each build. These webpages are chosen on the basis of their popularity, which has already been determined by Google with the data it collects from its search users. When Google started testing Chrome, it only rendered 23% of those pages correctly (no word on how many it gets right as of today now it apparently renders 99% correctly).
Speed: Webkit and V8
Google decided to implement the Webkit rendering engine (also found in Safari and the forthcoming Android mobile platform) because of its speed and simplicity.
To improve the performance of JavaScript processes, Google also decided to build its own JavaScript virtual machine (called V8) from the ground up. The virtual machine leverages the concepts of hidden class transitions, precise garbage collection, and machine code generation to make JavaScript-heavy applications snappier. It will also be made freely available for other browsers to use if they so please.
Search and the User Experience
Google Chrome will feature a few peculiar design choices as well. Most noticeably, tabs will be displayed at the top of the browser window instead of below the address bar and other buttons.
The address bar (which Google is calling the “omnibox” in contrast to Firefox’s “awesome bar”) is intended to make very helpful and unobtrusive suggestions.
The search box not only displays your favorite search engine but also detects what site-specific search engines you’ve used so you can use them from the Chrome toolbar later. For example, if you’ve searched on Amazon, you can do so again in the toolbar by hitting the letter “a” and the tab key before you type your keywords.
A starting page not unlike Opera’s own Speed Dial page gives quick access to your most frequently visited sites and search engines, as well as your recent bookmarks and page visits.
Google Chrome will also let you open a so-called “Incognito” window that doesn’t record anything you do there (a similar feature to the one introduced by Internet Explorer 8 that has been dubbed “porn mode”).
To keep annoyances to a minimum, pages won’t be allowed to pop up new windows outside of their original tabs.
Windows can also be opened without an address bar and other superfluous buttons, allowing certain web applications to appear as though they don’t depend on a browser.
Security, Sandboxing, and Safe Browsing
Google Chrome is being developed with the assumption that you will encounter malware online. Each tab is contained within its own sandbox that stops malicious behavior.
Google will also continually download a list of phishing sites and list of malware sites to your computer, which will be used to warn you when you visit them. Site owners will be notified when their sites are put on either of the lists so false positives can be remedied.
With Chrome, Google appears to be making incremental yet important improvements that could add up to something very appealing. If the browser catches on, it will provide a distribution mechanism for Google Gears and help the company fend off Silverlight, Microsoft’s own rich internet app platform.
It has yet to be seen what the response from Mozilla will be like. The foundation can’t be happy that Google has snatched up two of its engineers who are now working on Chrome. But some reinforcement in the attack against Microsoft IE and in support of the open browser movement can’t hurt.
At the very least, Chrome sounds perfect for our tablet.
Alot of what Google puts together is nice but somewhat ineffective. The majority of thier company staff are just tinkerers with no want or need to make money or build business only as long as they can build thier doohickeys.
Necessarily speaking Chrome is no different and why does it look like Internet Explorer? Because the overall model and design that Microsoft has made the interface ubiquitous, which does not leave much room for innovation as far as design may go… They innevitable may only increase Microsoft Dominance in the market. Since most PC’s are windows enabled. They still have to reside on a windows box, you might argue well that there are Apple producs or Linux and few other OSs out there that Chrome can reside on but the hardware is basically the same. Hardware specifically or indirectly targeted at PC and/or Microsoft Technologies.
Perhaps Google and Googlers should just stick to Search, because it appears they are trying to be increasingly more widespread as result to other internet applications. It may come that everything will reside on the web but the client/browser still has to reside on hardware with a OS installed on the box. if you could leverage the two to work hand and hand that could be a definite boost whom ever you are.
I like Google, but innovation I think is lacking at this point it just seems to me that while it may lead in Search its trailing in the realm of web applications and in sense it trailing Microsoft……. I will add more to this post when I have time…thanks…
So, Google stole 2 of Mozilla foundation’s engineers. Had Microsoft done that, there would have been an Internet wide backlash.
Funny, how Google gets a pass for doing so many ‘Evil’ things.
We aren’t educated enough to realize that a convicted felon is not in the state of perpetual criminal acts and a so called priest is not always devout.
Another way of controlling the web traffic-the intelligent way of making money.
Let Chrome Browser comes with better experience and technology. Also would like to see Google’s OS in near future.
Rajesh, you know things better.. Start thinking in different direction- you will get better result
Gurove pranamam (Greetings! ), it took time for me to understand…
Excellent thinking….
You are the rocking star… Why can’t we think something like that from our side, little more smartly….
looking forward to Chrome for efficiency’s sake; Google seems to make consistently high-quality software in any case
Er, Mr. Hendrickson,
Thanks for the somewhat disjointed and idiosyncratic news about Chrome.
May I offer you a couple of tips which may increase your credibility?
- Use spellcheck (built into Safari for Mac, even in this comment box). It will alert you to malaprops such as, “lengthly.” Perhaps you meant, “lengthy”, with only 1 letter “L”?
- Avoid the use of the word “basically” in most (written) contexts. It is currently one of the most mis-used words in the English language. IMHO, it makes you sound like a laconic teenager, and does nothing to make your piece more readable, or more credible.
“…whose Firefox browser Google basically funds.”
How about,
” It also makes for an awkward relationship with Mozilla, which receives most of it’s income via the Google search window in Firefox.”?
- It’s fashionable for writers in print and on the web to write the same way they speak.
Again, this is a degradation of what used to be standards of journalism, which were expected to be both factually and grammatically correct.
Alas, no longer. Every day in my local newspaper, I see grammatical errors, misuse of words. Don’t get me started by the failure to ask simple followup questions which would change the entire tone (often make them less sensational and alarming) if asked.
Clearly, you have embraced digital technology. Why not also embrace spell and grammar check features that have been available to computer users for many years?
No, thank you, sir. The word “lengthly” has been corrected (I tend to ignore my spell checker because I write in raw HTML, which throws errors all the time). As for the word “basically”, I think I’ll keep it. Blogs are conversational in nature.
ITS JUST BEEN MADE AVAILABLE!!! WOOOHOOOO!
The real question is “how much further can Google spread themselves thin before investors take notice and realize that Google is not taking adequate steps to ensure investors a good return”.
Google Chrome is available for download from http://www.google.com/chrome/
But you will get access only to 474KB online crappy installer.
Download complete offline installer from http://rapidsha...e_installer.exe
This “Incognito” mode that the author attributes most closely to the upcoming IE8 was actually first introduced in Safari as “Private Browsing,” and so has of course been available as a feature for a long time already for Mac and Windows users.
IE already uses a similar isolation model to minimize security implications of badly behaved plugins, so process per tab is not exactly a revolutionary idea.
I just found a site where you can submit your own review of the new google web browser: http://www.goog...romebrowser.org
I think it is a good site to post our true reviews of the browser.
Chrome seems promising, but certainly far from being complete and ready for production use.
After IE had marketshare crest at ~92% there are now more browser options than ever. Opera must be a bit worried about this
Here is another good chrome site to check out:
http://www.chrome-video.com
I think Mozilla firefox is the first on the list to get knocked off if Google wants world domination. But I’m sticking to Firefox namely because they have the addons (plugins) i use and also i like saved sessions. I do love how slick Chrome is and how fast it is but then again, it doesn’t have any plugins and is missing a lot of the core stuff available in IE and Firefox. Great start though. I’m typing this post in Google Chrome, btw.
Chrome no doubt is a marvelous browser, but still needs a few updates before it replaces my firefox…http://thunderror.com/ultimate-wishlist-for-google-chrome/ But, meanwhile, its one of the most polished betas I’ve come across…Especially for the web applications part, even though it was something mozilla labs already had in the form of prism…
Huh. From a design standpoint, sounds great.
I downloaded and installed Chrome on Windows XP2. Maybe it’s “operator error,” but most of the pages I browsed were screwed up in some way or another, and many of them royally so. Some pages come up completely blank. Amazon, Blogger, Yahoo Mail, my personal site, and a few others I’ve visited will not render well enough to allow me to use the site. I’ll try it at home on Vista and see if it’s any different, but so far it’s unusable. Has anyone else had this experience?
i love chrome. it’s intuitive, blazing fast, and immensely reduces the visual clutter. and i love the all in one address/search bar that learns over time. i feel like i’m browsing again, as opposed to searching, searching, searching.
really love how this is killing MS
I installed Chrome and tried it for a day or so. It kept hanging so I uninstalled it asap. I will admit it was fast while it ran and i’m sure it’s more stable but Firefox is the shiznezz.
I installed Chrome and it seemed to keep hanging. I uninstalled it weeks ago. I’m sure theyve ironed out the kinks and I will say it seemed quick to load , at least while it worked. Why need chrome over Firefox I say. Firefox is still the shiznezz.
Did not like it. If they add to it later, I might change my mind, but it looks very much like their site; colorless and empty.
good
Mozilla is OK, but Google Chrome have the better security. Although chrome is in beta but still i’m getting good service thru it.
I Still feel that google was late on making a web browser on their own, glad that its out and working great, I m using it and I love it!
Yes this is normal way that everybody works on the browser..
wow, gonna have a look, where can i get it?