The offspring of Google Gears and presumably many Red Bull fueled nights is here: http://www.google.com/chrome/
- Matt Cutts is twittering and blogging about it;
- blogoscoped.com has a page of Google Chrome screenshots;
- Google has put up an official confirmation, but the link is for the moment
returning a 404. - The Google Chrome comics book can be downloaded here. UPDATE: not anymore. But blogoscoped offers a much better quality version anyway: Google on Google Chrome.
- And
speculation is rife…still no Mac version. Just a sign up link for Mac users to be informed of the upcoming Mac release (sigh) - UPDATE: link to Google Chrome added to the Google main page
By the look of things, there are a few exciting things in store.
My top 5 Google Chrome features:
- Open source platform - I can already hear the ooohs and aaahs of the open source community! This builds on the trend already established by the Google API platform. UPDATE: Chromium, he site dedicated to open-sourcing Google Chrome is live at http://code.google.com/chromium/
- V8 javascript engine - apparently much more solid than anything provided by current browsers. I’m sure the applications are diverse, but as a web designer, let me take a deep breath and say Hallelujah!
- Omnibox - this looks like a combo of the Onebox and the auto-completion feature, but I think it may get a bit more complex than that, integrating web search history, bookmarks, etc. Similar to what Firefox 3 already does, really.
- Privacy mode - now this is an interesting one. Clearly, our paranoia has struck a chord with Google, and this is a powerful reply to Internet Explorer 8’s privacy invasions.
- Opera style speed dial - so glad about this one, this was the main reason why I fell in love with Opera.
Unfortunately the Mac version will not be available initially, so I don’t think I’ll be able to play with this new toy too soon. In the meanwhile, have a look at Reuters’ video on Chrome:
Updates
- Sergey Brin, one of Google’s founders, on the lack of Mac Chrome: “It’s embarassing”.
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September 2nd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Thanks for the news. Im also waiting for this Google release. We shall see if it has any chances to compete with Firefox and IE. Probably there will be hundreds of thousands of downloads at first, but will people actually use it after they see it?
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:30 pm
You know, I have KeywordLuv installed in order to avoid forcing people into using their keywords as name; but the bloody plugin sometimes displays the “this site uses keywordluv”, and sometimes it doesn’t. Weird.
Anyways, based on what I read so far about Chrome, I think the Google guys aren’t releasing this as yet another little experiment a la Google Talk; I think this is a serious competitive move aimed squarely at Microsoft.
As such, I think we’re in for a lot of cool features. And I think people will adopt it. And perhaps in a year’s time Firefox and Chrome might merge. Interesting possibilities, this will be a giants war…
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
The Official Google Blog announced that they’re releasing Google Chrome to over 100 countries tomorrow
September 7th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Someone posted the cartoon link below on a Dreamweaver email forum. It beautifully describes how thrilled I am about having yet another browser to fuss over:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/2008-09-05-disturbance.gif
September 16th, 2008 at 7:44 am
I don’t see what all the fuss is about…Firefox does the trick…why would we want Google to have more information…just stay away I say.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:37 am
I’ve tried it out for a little while now and can’t find a reason to switch over to it. It is pretty slick, but it lacks features right now I’ve come to rely on. Maybe down the road, but for now I’m sticking with Firefox.
September 30th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I agree with Simon, I’m a bit wary of giving google to much information, if you have a gmail account and leave it logged in it already effects your search engine results. They say it is related to your previous searches.
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October 8th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Now that Chrome is out all I can say is I havnt looked at either of my other two browsers since… those being IE and FF
November 6th, 2008 at 3:45 am
Anyone know why Chrome doesn’t have any plugin support with it, such as the Google toolbar? I found this a little odd since the product belongs to Google itself.
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November 15th, 2008 at 8:24 am
I have not even tries chrome yet as I have no need to since Firefox has all I need.
November 29th, 2008 at 3:23 am
I can’t trust Chrome even after they updated their EULA. Firefox is fine.
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