If you’re web obsessed, this is already old news – since yesterday morning, everyone and anyone interested in the web has weighed in on it, but for everyone else, here’s a heads up: Today at a press conference, Google will be unveiling Google Chrome, an open source web browser entering the market to compete with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and more.
The news was leaked when a 40 page comic meant to introduce the browser to techies was leaked a day early - you can now read it here, but if you aren''t a techie you probably won't care. The big changes that will effect everyday users:
- Increased Speed - Google is using a combination of rendering engines built by Apple, Mozilla, and their own internal guys, which is meant for one thing: speed up the loading of websites, especially google tools
- Reduced Memory Usage - The browser will turn each tab into an individual applcation, which means it will start with a larger memory requirement, but me more efficient over the day as tabs are open and closed
- Built in Google Tools - Integration of Google tools will be big, right down to page rank and suggested links as you type in URL's or open a new tab - all data they mine will help to make the browser more intelligent
- Desktop Hybrid - Google Gears, their offline anchoring tool, will be installed with the browser, letting websites leverage your PC to speed up their site, provide offline usage, and more
- Privacy Mode - with one touch of a button, you can make a surfing session entirely private, with no trace of history recorded and no cookies dropped (this was going to be a big new feature in IE8)
It’s big news, it’s one more step towards a ubiquitous Google OS, and it’s going to elicit major reactions from companies across the board. Just a week ago, Google renewed their agreement wit Firefox to be the default search engine and share in the search revenue. Now Google is going head to head with Firefox in the independent browser market, and hoping to steal even larger share of the browser market from Microsoft Internet Explorer. One certainty, this is going to push feature development in browsers even farther. There is also reasonable speculation that this browser is being designed to live without an operating system, to eventually work not just on a computer, but in mobile devices, TV boxes, and more.
For more information, see the hundreds of articles written already on the Google Chrome Browser, and stay tuned for a link to download.
