Google launches own web browser

[Koolan]

A fresh take on the browser

9/01/2008 02:10:00 PM

At Google, we have a saying: “launch early and iterate.” While this approach is usually limited to our engineers, it apparently applies to our mailroom as well! As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit "send" a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome. As we believe in access to information for everyone, we've now made the comic publicly available -- you can find it here. We will be launching the beta version of Google Chrome tomorrow in more than 100 countries.

 

So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.

 

All of us at Google spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends -- all using a browser. 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. 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.

 

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

 

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful Javascript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.

 

This is just the beginning -- Google Chrome is far from done. We're releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.

 

We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we're committed to continuing on their path. We've used components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox, among others -- and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward.

 

The web gets better with more options and innovation. Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the web even better.

 

So check in again tomorrow to try Google Chrome for yourself. We'll post an update here as soon as it's ready.

 

Update @ 3:30 PM: We've added a link to our comic book explaining Google Chrome.

 

Posted by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management, and Linus Upson, Engineering Director

 

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fre...on-browser.html

 

New York Times article

 

[Edwin]

Guess what I will be doing tomorrow Testing this sucker out on all our business applications. More than likely we won't be supporting it, but still...

[nano]

The guys at work were so hyper about this and told me more than I wanted to hear..lol...

[Edwin]

I didn't have to wait until tomorrow. It's available now at http://www.google.com/chrome/

[nano]

*downloading

 

*testing

Edited September 2, 2008 at 07:50 PM by nano

[nano]

hmm....I don't know if I like this browser..

[Nikosn17]

I'M A LOYAL FIREFOX FAN!

[Edwin]

I'M A LOYAL FIREFOX FAN!

Then you should like Chrome. It's Safari + FF, lol. It's too plain for me :S

[Koolan]

According to another member, It's faster than FireFox.

[KimboCosmo]

Bah...

[stevethefan]

Be careful of Google. They track and store everthing you put into it and save it on one of their ginormous databases. That being said. I use it all the time.

[Krys]

Steve

 

oh god i tried reading that comic they've put up to explain what in the world did they do to Chrome...its facking confusing

 

*goes to download Chrome*

[Krys]

According to another member, It's faster than FireFox.

 

its almost the same. i dont see the huge difference. just slightly faster

 

i noticed it loads the flowers on the front page funny lol

Edited September 3, 2008 at 04:34 AM by lamourpourCeline

[Black Kitten]

According to another member, It's faster than FireFox.

i doubt it

[VintageCeline]

I heard that it has virus's attatched to it already or something.

 

I'm perfectly fine with my standard google, I don't use it enough to want it to be different

 

x

[Nikosn17]

Yeah I heard that google even is doing something ... like for example when you talk on MSN or Skype and if you're in google.com during that time they can record your voice and use it to give you links for things connected with you talked about. That's kinda scary.

[Edwin]

Google Chrome vulnerable to carpet-bombing flaw

Google’s shiny new Web browser is vulnerable to a carpet-bombing vulnerability that could expose Windows users to malicious hacker attacks.

 

Just hours after the release of Google Chrome, researcher Aviv Raff discovered that he could combine two vulnerabilities — a flaw in Apple Safari (WebKit) and a Java bug discussed at this year’s Black Hat conference — to trick users into launching executables direct from the new browser.

 

Raff has cooked up a harmless demo of the attack in action, showing how a Google Chrome users can be lured into downloading and launching a JAR (Java Archive) file that gets executed without warning.

 

In the proof-of-concept, Raff’s code shows how a malicious hacker can use a clever social engineering lure — it requires two mouse clicks — to plant malware on Windows desktops.

 

The Google Chrome user-agent shows that Chrome is actually WebKit 525.13 (Safari 3.1), which is an outdated/vulnerable version of that browser.

 

Apple patched the carpet-bombing issue with Safari v3.1.2.

 

 

Some Google Chrome early adopters using Windows Vista are reporting that files downloaded from the Internet are automatically dropped on the desktop, setting up a scenario where a combo-attack using this unpatched IE flaw could be used in attacks.

The joys of beta

[Bellamy]

I don't use Beta anyway. I'll wait for the final version. It's too early to tell it's good or not.

[firebird]

OMG. I know what you did last summer http://www.vitalsecurity.org/2008/09/chrome.html?from=rss

[celinerific]

I heard the browser is like its own hard drive sort of... all the stuff is saved into the browser itself instead of onto your computer, so if your computer crashes, you're browser stuff will still be safe, but that means that Google has access to all your browsing history and whatnot, so that's not quite that appealing. I think it's called incognito browsing, or something. Edited September 7, 2008 at 05:23 AM by celinerific

[CelineAndRene]

According to another member, It's faster than FireFox.

 

 

[je t'aime]

I downloaded Google Chrome. It's very nice. It's fast and puts my frequently visited pages on the front so I can just click them.