Google's Browser Project, 'Chrome'

[Hazirak]

While rumors of a Google-branded web browser have been around for years, now it's official - 'Chrome' is the name of Google's web browser project. Their method of announcing it was a little unorthodox, though - they did so through a 38-page comic book.

Features being touted for this new browser include placing the address bar below the tabs rather than above them, a new JavaScript virtual machine called V8, an 'omnibox' that sounds very similar to Firefox's AwesomeBar, and an anonymous window mode akin to Internet Explorer's InPrivate feature.

The comic points to www.google.com/chrome as the official website, but as of this posting, all that comes up is a 404 error.

Read more here.

While no official release date has been set, it will be interesting to see what comes out of this whole project.

 

[Scoochi2]

The comic points to www.google.com/chrome as the official website, but as of this posting, all that comes up is a 404 error.

But did you notice that it isn't Google's normal 404 page?
Try some other addresses, and notice the difference in 404.

www.google.com/chrom
www.google.com/iloveoompaloompasthatjumpupanddownatparties

 

[Scott B]

Hmm, I wonder if this means that Google is going to drop their strong affiliations with Firefox?

 

[xPlozion]

I would love to see something new and innovative like this. Stops the browser from getting above 200MB ram usage, which firefox tends to do quite frequently... but god bless it's plugins (adblock plus, web developer and html validator)

 

[Hazirak]

Google has officially released a beta version of the browser today. You can download it by going to the Chrome website above (which now actually works!) and clicking the download button. Unfortunately, only a Windows XP/Vista version is available at this time.

Haven't had a lot of playtime with it yet, but first impressions are promising.

 

[Nathan H]

I now have this as my default browser and it is brilliant. Quick seemingly stable and looks really nice. main dig though, because of the tab bar on top vista won't apply the normal theme. But the spell checker on every text box is a really useful feature.

 

[hamsn]

Google yet again shows its simplicity and speed here as it is in search engines.

Look at the simple design compared to the whole lot messed up functions and menu bars.
Edit:
its not 474kb...its just the setup initialiser, when u download this 474kb, and run it, the actual setup file begins to download, this is chrome.

 

[nterror]

The high resource usage in Firefox is due to the plug-ins. With no plug-ins I hit 22MB RAM usage, with basic everyday plug-ins I hit 36MB. =/

As far as Chrome goes, looks like it could replace Opera on my end. I only use it occasionally due to quick startup speed and high scores on the Acid tests. Google's Chrome is based on WebKit, which is getting 100/100 in Safari.

 

[Smith6612]

For me, Firefox runs at roughly 60MB. The only add-on I have running is adblock (for those times my Linux box may miss an ad or two), but of course Firefox is also integrated into Vista's Aero feature, and I have 10 tabs open.

 

[xPlozion]

XP/Vista only... oh well, they'll have a linux release eventually... :-/

 

[Sohail]

Is this browser any good if anyone has tried it yet, nothing seems to be released for Mac yet .

 

[Sharky]

It's ok, I guess. Seems to be based on Safari. Browsed a couple of sites with it and got bored. It's nothing special.

 

[Smith6612]

Someone on my site has already found a few bugs, saying they could not use Facebook, MySpace, or watch YouTube videos on it. I guess he sent in a bug report to Google about it, so if it actually is a bug which I'll find out later myself, expect an update soon.

 

[Nathan H]

That must be a way he has his computer set up, all 3 of those worked fine for me, my only issues are the way tabs are moved between windows and that favourites importing didn't actually work.

 

[Spartan Erik]

I'm using Chrome right now. I haven't tested it on Facebook or Youtube, but it feels very fast compared to Firefox. With one tab open, it uses 5-10 MB less usage than Firefox.

It needs addon functionality, i.e. Adblock Plus and Mouse Gestures. Once these are implemented, I could easily see myself using Chrome as my primary browser, but until then, FF is still supreme

 

[Smith6612]

Another user on my forum just reported the same issue, but they seem to think it's a Windows XP issue as someone there noticed that while their XP machine was affected, it was running fine on Windows Vista. Here's the topic if anyone is interested.

http://seansite.dyndns.org/forums/index.php?topic=1074.0

 

[Nathan H]

Well, I'm on vista so maybe that's why there's inconsistencies in our experiences.

 

[hrhtx]

The high resource usage in Firefox is due to the plug-ins. With no plug-ins I hit 22MB RAM usage, with basic everyday plug-ins I hit 36MB. =/

As far as Chrome goes, looks like it could replace Opera on my end. I only use it occasionally due to quick startup speed and high scores on the Acid tests. Google's Chrome is based on WebKit, which is getting 100/100 in Safari.

It would take a LOT to tear me away from Opera. I'll still take a look and put it in the toolbox for testing sites. It will probably be popular because Google promotes it if nothing else.

 

[xPlozion]

Wow, I'm on XP right now, and I LOVE Google Chrome!!! It's so fast compared to Firefox, and I've only got 3 plug-ins (adblock, web developer, and html validator). I'm all about speed, and this is what I've wanted in a browser.

I got a Core 2 Quad about a month ago, and firefox hasn't sped up any, this is a great speed improvement imo. Also, on XP, YouTube works fine for me...

 

[Smith6612]

I got a Core 2 Quad about a month ago, and firefox hasn't sped up any, this is a great speed improvement imo. Also, on XP, YouTube works fine for me...

One of the reasons for that is the fact that Firefox cannot utilize even two core CPUs all the way.