Google polishes up Chrome browser for attack on Microsoft
The search engine giant Google has introduced a new browser program to go head to head with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. John Stokdyk reports.
The new browser, called Chrome, was announced in a Google blog at the beginning of the week, and accompanied by an electronic comic that explained how the browser has separate tabs that work independently. If the process in one tab crashes, only that tab will be affected.
Chrome has an "incognito" privacy mode that stops tracking the browser window's actvitiy and the program will also query Google's list of malware sites to block access to potentially harmful pages.
"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," wrote Google product management vice president Sundar Pichai and engineering director Linus Upson. "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."
The arrival of Chrome disrupted the steady crescendo building up around the launch of the lastest version of Microsoft's browser, Internet Explorer 8. Coincidentally, the Firefox browser from the Mozilla foundation (bankrolled in part by Google) was upgraded in June.
Chrome has been the subject of an energetic discussion on UK Business Forums, BusinessZone.co.uk's sister website.
Forum member Chris@Crane liked Chrome, highlighting the dynamic tabs and download manager ("much better" than Firefox), its clean design and intelligent address bar, as well as a spell checker that looks at what you type into web forms.
The speed of operation and lack of clutter also impressed Phil, one of several members who delved into the program's Javascript capabilities and claims to be a more of an application platform than passive browser.
For a forum member from New Delhi-based software house Kneoteric, Chrome was an innovative product, but would become "a big headache" for webmasters who now needed to ensure their sites were compatible with yet another browser's idiosyncracies.
Google Chrome has galvanised the technology industry and kept forum members, bloggers and commentators chattering all week. But how important is a web browser to the average business person in the street?
UK Business Forums member cordsduraflex may have spoken on behalf of the silent majority. "I had a look at Chrome but couldn't make head nor tail of it. I just like to have IE7 pointed straight at Google and that's it really."
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BusinessZONE - 4-Sep-2008
Categories: News
Story read: 1835
