Google launches open source Chrome web browser today!

By Davey Winder
Tuesday, 02 September 2008 04:04

Open Source

After admitting it boobed by hitting 'send' a little early on a comic book posting introducing Google Chrome, the search supremo confirms that the open source web browser client will be available for download starting later today...

Why is Google getting involved in the Web browser client business? According to the developers of Google Chrome it is simply because they believe that they "can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web."

And maybe take a little bit of that browser client action that Firefox is lapping up, or even slice into the Safari share in some small way.

Whatever, Google Chrome for Windows is launching today in Beta version guise, of course, simultaneously in some 100 countries. So what do Google have to say about this latest open source project?

"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" say Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management, and Linus Upson, Engineering Director of Google Chrome.

"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."

Google is promising a typical Google-like experience in as far as keeping it streamlined and simple goes. Arguing that it isn't the browser most people care about, but rather the content that runs within it, Google is promising a clean and fast browser that "gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go."

The developers say that under the hood, they have built a browser structure that runs complex web applications much better than other clients can. Although they have used components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox among others.

This has been accomplished by keeping each tab in an isolated sandbox to provide improved protection from rogue sites, together with building a more powerful JavaScript engine called V8.

"This is just the beginning" they say "Google Chrome is far from done." By which Google means that as well as continuing to improve the Windows version it is also hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux as well.

Keep your eyes on the Official Google Blog during the course of Tuesday 2nd September where the download link will be published just as soon as it becomes available.