A few bloggers report that they’ve received comic books from Google announcing its new open source browser, called Google Chrome. The browser will be based on WebKit, the same open source engine that Apple’s Safari is based on.
Taking a queue from modern operating systems, Google’s comic says that it constructed Chrome so that each tab’s processes sit in their own protected silos. So if a page crashes one tab, it doesn’t take the rest down with it. That means more memory usage up front, Google says, but less bloat overall.
Also, the comic says the browser will beat the competition (Mozilla Firefox and its variants, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera) with faster JavaScript performance and better security features such as an “incognito” mode.
Google says there will be a www.google.com/chrome, but it’s not live yet.
You can read the 38-page comic here, thanks to Google Blogoscoped. [Except that their servers have been crashed most of the afternoon.]
UPDATE: Downloads of the Chrome Browser for Windows PCs only are available starting at 3PM EDT, today, Tuesday the 2nd.
Since both Firefox and Safari work at DU – I presume that Chrome will, too.
And it will do No Evil™. Seriously… Google doesn’t do this just to be nice…
Another Browser… Yawn…
Minor feature variations… Yawn…
There are some good ideas (such as the threading architecture) in the presentation. Still reading though. But I’m still leery about Google.
Giving each tab its own process and the new garbage collection routines sound pretty good. I’ve had FF3 die sometimes just for clicking a link to open in a new tab, what a pain.
At least it’s better than FF2.
FF is implementing a new Javascript engine too.
Is that red/green/blue/yellow circle really the logo?
Doesn’t that scream Microsoft who use the exact same 4 colors in their logo for Vista?
Those four colors have been used in the Windows logo for a long time. Three of the four are primaries, and yellow is a secondary color.
The colors are not much of an issue.
The concern should be about Safari’s known security flaws. Safari is based on the Webkit browser, as is Chrome. It’s possible the Chrome browser has the same flaws.
I guess you didn’t read the comic book.
“Chromium was named after the Greek word “Chrōma” (χρωμα) meaning color, because of the many colorful compounds made from it”, Wikipedia. Nothing in there about buffer over runs and kernel sabotage. So far, it sounds good. Or maybe, from now on it’s all down hill.
After reading the whole book (with some interruptions), my knee-jerk was sort of unfounded (I would still not use Google’s browser). There are a lot of very good ideas in this “comic” book and Google provides the code for free to whoever wants to play around with it. I sincerely hope the Firefox developers consider some of these improvements for Firefox 4.
Thanks Eideard. One of the best posts.
Seriously, why do we need yet another web browser, especially one from a company that is behaving more and more untrustworthy as time goes on.
The browser as operating system (OS). They pretty much say this on page 4. Seems to me like a shot across the bow of the Microsoft and Apple…
Waiting for the Green Hornet browser with an animated Kato that kicks the browser buttons.
Should have called it.
Google Internet Tracking Device.
This will never be on my computer.
Sorry Mr. Cheney.
I’m happy with FireFox. I’ve been using it since just after it was released.
I have the most respect for the Mozilla writers, contributors, and staff. They gave their time and efforts to make my web surfing better. I just ain’t about to jump ship for another pretty face.
#15 Amen
Since they are using a comic book to promote it, I guess we can assume that it will be a browser for PRE-LITERATES !!! Fits in with WinBlozs being the “Executive Cartoon Interface” !!!
JimD: “Executive Cartoon Interface”!
I love it. I’m going to use it in my status reports.
To our intrepid reporter: a “queue” is a line that one stands in. The word you are looking for is “cue,” which denotes an indication or hint. Hint: spell checkers don’t always find your mistakes.
Great, I was thinking just recently that developing pages for Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari on Windows, Mac, and Linux just wasn’t enough. I was hoping there be something new, ideally with own particular nuances so nothing will quite work the same….
some of you need to remove your foil hats
this thing is open source, so if it has any tracking functions, they will be well known.
im quite excited to see how much of an improvement some of these functions will add, but like #19, i am not looking forward to discovering all of its html/js nuances
Why is everyone so worked up about the privacy issues?
This thing will be 100% open source, and since it’s from Google every hacker and third-rate Java student who has ever cracked open an IDE will be tearing it apart and chewing on it. Don’t you think that we’ll notice something odd if it’s phoning home or raping your wife?
That said, the architecture of the standard web browser hasn’t changed a lot since, what, 1995? If you don’t count plugins and tabs the browser itself hasn’t changed. The process isolation and Javascript enhancements look to be frickin’ awesome- and if nothing else I hope that Webkit/Safari/Firefox/IE/Opera will all take al ook at how this thing is built and steal a few (read: A FRICKIN LOT) of the ideas GIVEN FREELY TO THEM IN SOURCE CODE!
re #3: not sure you have actually read the comic. If they actually have all they describe in there in the end product it will be extremely nice and exciting. The multithreading is a _big_ advantage, so is the sandboxing. Remember when the flash player killed you firefox? Or the Adobe PDF viewer? Or when Javascript killed you IE?
I’ve wondered for a long time exactly what profit Microsoft (and now Google) get from having a browser available for free.
The future is surely saying ‘the browser must be standards compliant’ I don’t want to have to swap browser depending on the web site I visit and I certainly don’t want to develop even more variations of web sites to cope with differences between them. So what is the point?
3:30 PM EDT – looked at the download site, It offers a “Download and Install” option, Does this mean that it installs itself after the download completes without any further option from the user, and does this mean IT WILL TAKE OVER YOUR MACHINE LIKE REAL USED TO (AND STILL MAY – I HAVE NEVER INSTALLED ANY MORE REAL APPS SINCE THAT HAPPENED TO ME) ??? I wont take the chance that it installs itself and then becomes the primary browser !!! Could be EVIL, despite the Motto !!!
Downloaded it, imported my bookmarks but damned if I can find them. Another case of the UI being moved around to just look new and different, in other words lets force people to relearn button placements for no good reason. Uninstalling it now.
#24 – Jess Hurchist – I’ve wondered for a long time exactly what profit Microsoft (and now Google) get from having a browser available for free.
Microsoft’s incentive is to make sure that the browser doesn’t become an application platform (and thereby threaten Microsoft’s core products), so they drag their feet on improving stuff… well, that was true until IE’s share of the market shrunk below 90%.
Google wants browsers to be more stable and faster in order to built larger and more robust applications (which they – somehow – will earn money on). Chrome has a clever architecture, which I hope Firefox will implement in a later version (minus any Google we-spy-on-you features).
In other words… The browser is a strategic product for both companies. The profit is made elsewhere.
This browser is scary fast! Wow.
Once they get all the popular plugins available and have a nice applet library to install this browser will be a force to recon with!
I’m impressed with its speed and very excited about it’s underlying ability to thread tabs and manage multiple CPU and memory resources evidently MUCH better than FF or IE.
I doubt many people will use Chrome until they have some sort of add-ons. I’m deleting it now.
Used it for a while today at work, very nice and only going to get better. competition is a good thing