Google Launches New Web Browser "Chrome"

[Marswolf]

This was announced yesterday. Looks good from their Comic Book.

Most information can be found at this BLOG.

It should be released to download at http://gears.google.com/chrome/ but for right now, that resolves to the Google home page.

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.

Edited September 2, 2008 by Marswolf
Better comic book page

[Marswolf]

Launch press conference today at 11:00 PDT.

[molonlabetn]

I've been wondering how long it would be before Google developed their own browser... cool.

If it's an improvement on Firefox, I'll be all over the Linux version.

[Guest Len]

Potentially excellent news. I like Firefox just fine, but if there is a more streamlined and secure browser to be had at Google, I'll be there.

[Marswolf]

Looks like the release date will be tomorrow.

Here's another link that isn't working yet: http://www.google.com/chrome

One does have to wonder what Google is doing to make sure their display ads make it through. I'd say the tech blogs will be busy for a while.

[Marswolf]

Here is an interesting site with some info and technical speculation.

[TGO David]

I downloaded it and played with it a few minutes ago. Not bad. Not great, but not bad.

[Marswolf]

I'm running it now.

Nothing special so far.

[Guest sling]

Open Source....mmmmmm...

*drool*

Many sleepless nights of monkeying code...

*drools more*

[Smith]

So far I like! Seems faster than Firefox and lets me use a lot more of the screen for viewing than Firefox.

[MexicanDragon]

I've been using it for about 20 hours...

One thing I'm not liking right now is how it's set up in the task manager... I'm a "multi-tab" kinda guy (old habit from the days of dial-up... load a couple pages, read the first one that gets up, click a new link, let it load and check one of the others)... It makes each individual tab a new process. Now, I think I see the reasoning behind this - if you have something running in an individual tab, normally it could possibly crash firefox/Opera (IE... bleh). With this style of running things, you could isolate the individual oppressor and kill it without killing the other 13 (at the moment) tabs you have going.

Pros and cons...

I am also not liking the short list of options (that I've found so far) as far as customizing the browser. I'm a big fan of the "Classic Look", and I'm not seeing that option... just the bubbly blue skin.

Something awesome... hit CTRL+SHIFT+N... it opens an "incognito window". If nothing else, just read the blurb about it... makes me smile.

@sling... are you interested in cell phones? Check out the new open source phone OS called "Android" which will be released next month on t-mobile on a Handset called the HTC G1 aka the HTC Dream. Plenty of info out there on it now.

It still won't do JAVA chat out of vBulletin... which I find odd, as I was thinking it was kinda taking that thing as a sub specialty.

Something else I noticed and miss... there isn't the web-site header/info at the top like I'm used to. If I'm 18 posts down into a thread, I want to be able to see what the title was without scrolling up (ex. Google Launches New Web Browser "Chrome" - Tennessee Gun Owners ... which is what shows up on this same page under IE. Its helpful to me... a glaring ommission in my eyes.

Going to flesh it out some more... prolly give it two weeks (but still having IE running for a chat room I'm in that is most stable, for me, in IE)

**BRENT**

[Marswolf]

The Incognito mode is nice, but there are plenty of sandbox applications out there. I didn't care for Sandboxie though and I'm just guessing that Chrome did what it says it will do.

Chrome is a bit faster than Firefox 3.1beta and significantly faster than FF 3.0. But the difference isn't really huge, as it is with IE7. See http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10009139o-2000331777b,00.htm.

I miss the ad killing add-ons in FF. I doubt they will ever show up on an approved list of Chrome add-ons.

There are some good features here. Maybe FF will add them in a version down the line.

For now, I've tested enough and it's back to FF.

BTW, if you want the standalone Google Chrome setup, it can be downloaded at http://gpdl.google.com/chrome/install/149.27/chrome_installer.exe rather than having to install while online.

BTW #2: Chrome installs a Google updater task in Scheduled Tasks that will check every 10 minutes when your computer is idle. I killed that.

Edited September 3, 2008 by Marswolf

[Guest c_o_jones]

I gave it a try, but I can't live without adblock plus.

I'm sticking with FF.

[Marswolf]

I gave it a try, but I can't live without adblock plus.

And NoScript, and PDF Download, and AI Roboform.

[Guest c_o_jones]

Slimsearch is another good add-on besides the ones you mentioned, Mars. Definitely worth the install.

It allows you to highlight any word or phrase on a web page and right click to search with different options such as

Google search, eBay, You Tube, IMDB, Google maps, Images, etc..

[Guest nraforlife]

Yawn..... Ok, another browser. Its ok but nothing that cannot be lived without.

[mousegunner]

The purpose of Chrome is to attack Microsoft. At present, our personal computing, and business computing, is "desktop based," not "browser based. We do our stuff on the computer, and one of the things we do is use a browser to go online. We run applications that are physically located on our hard drives. We use MS Windows or Mac or Linux PCs. We write with Word or Works, and we draw with Paint or Paint Shop Pro, and we do this and that with applications/software that resides on our hard drives.

Google is trying to start a new paradigm. Under the Google plan, you will no longer need Word, or Paint, or Internet Explorer, or Windows Media Player, or whatever software you now have. All those programs will be created or hosted ONLINE by Google, and you won't need them on your pc anymore. You will immediately go to Chrome when you turn on your computer, and from that point on all you do will be done with one of Google's online applications.

Chrome is a baby step in that direction. Not much attraction to home users, but to business users there is a big attraction. Businesses will no longer have to update applications on all their computers. Google will update the single central application, and everyone will automatically be updated. Businesses will be able to cut back on their computer tech departments. They will not have to spend money on a thousand licenses for some application. Etc. etc.

[Marswolf]

...and when something gets messed up millions of users will be out of luck until it is fixed. And you will still have to pay for a license.

I'm trying SlimSearch. Looks like it might be handy.

[Schadenfreude]

Google Chrome vulnerable to carpet-bombing flaw

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1843

[Marswolf]

Yeah, I saw that this morning. You still have to be an idiot and click on something you don't understand to infect your machine. Sounds like this should be easy to fix. And this is a beta.

I've already uninstalled Chrome. It doesn't have the features I want yet and may never have them.

[enfield]

I've been wondering how long it would be before Google developed their own browser... cool.

If it's an improvement on Firefox, I'll be all over the Linux version.

Megadittoes.

[Marswolf]

There is a lot of technical talk going on about Chrome and spying on you.

Google Chrome and Privacy

"One problem is that there is no way to disable JavaScript, or disable images.

Another is that there is no way to keep Chrome from grabbing the standard Google universal cookie, even if you never access a Google site. This is the cookie that expires two years after the last time you landed on some Google site (which means it expires two years after your hard disk is in the dumpster).

Unless you have your home page set to some site of your choosing, Chrome will phone home with a HEAD fetch to grab the standard Google cookie within about ten seconds after loading. If you have a home page set it doesn't do this until you put something into the address/search bar. Then it will phone home with a HEAD to grab a Google cookie, or read that cookie if you already have one. This happens even if you've changed your default search engine to a non-Google engine.

The cookie options are minimal. You can accept all, reject all, or do something mysterious in between that Google doesn't explain, and doesn't allow you to configure.

Try this: With your own home page set, now delete your cookies and exit Chrome. Next, reload Chrome and you won't get a cookie. Before you do anything else, get into the "incognito" window, which is supposed to dump all cookies upon exit. It works, except that Google's own cookie is exempt from this! Google will read its own cookie in incognito mode, or set its cookie if you don't have one, and it stays in Chrome even after you exit the incognito mode. In other words, Google exempts itself from its own privacy features.

You can change the default engine to anything you like, and Wireshark tests indicate that Google doesn't phone home your search terms using its cookie if you change the default engine. But they're ready to do this with a minor automatic update, and someday they will.

All this behavior is with phishing and malware protection disabled, and "show suggestions" disabled, and send usage statistics and crash reports disabled.

The GoogleUpdate.exe program is separate from Chrome, and it tries to access the Internet on every warm boot. Then it hangs around in the process table forever, even if you never load Chrome. Why is this necessary? What is it waiting for? Is it watching you? "

Can't Remove Chrome's Phone Home Features Not Removable?

"I removed Chrome using the add/remove option in Windows, but the GoogleUpdate.exe doesn't get removed. There is no obvious way to kill that, which continues to phone home to Google with a huge GET request that has your machine configuration and a unique user ID:

/service/check2?appid=%7B430FD4D0-B729-4F61-AA34-91526481799D%7D
&appversion=1.2.131.11&applang=&machine=0&version=1.2.131.11
[COLOR="Red"]&machineid=%7B4F599683-B0DE-46F0-A73C-E8A4623C92BD%7D
&userid=%7BAD99E17C-DE6C-4ED7-8FE7-4919642086C7%7D&[/COLOR]
osversion=5.1
&servicepack=Service%20Pack%202 HTTP/1.1
User-Agent: Google Update/1.2.131.11;winhttp
Host: cr-tools.clients.google.com
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cache-Control: no-cache
Pragma: no-cache

Fortunately, I set a restore point before I installed Chrome, so I was able to revert to that restore point. Google's installation program doesn't set a restore point before it installs, unlike most responsible Windows packages.

I suspect this is all deliberate. When you uninstall Chrome, Google asks you why. I suspect that GoogleUpdate.exe, which sends off all that info on a warm boot and currently gets back empty content, can be set to show a nagging reminder that everything you didn't like about Chrome is all fixed now, and wouldn't you like to install it again?

No thanks."

I was able to easily kill GoogleUpdate.exe. Just disable it in your startup files and delete the entries in the scheduler. I had done this before when I reinstalled Google Earth. I also eliminated it from the process table using The Ultimate Troubleshooter. TUT is not free unless you steal it, but I highly recommend it, BTW.

I had my system set up with CCleaner to erase the Google.com cookie when I re-booted. But I added CookieSafe to Firefox to prevent Google from adding its cookie to my computer at all. It isn't needed to use the search engine and eliminates a source of spying. BTW, if you use CookieSafe, you will have to manually add Google.com to your "exceptions".

I'm afraid Chrome will be permanently crippled to prevent your ability to not be targeted for ads. The inability to kill Javascript or the Google cookies, even in incognito mode means that you will be tracked.

In short, it's pretty useless unless you want Big Brother looking over your shoulder. Back to Firefox.

[Guest canynracer]

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9114004http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9114004

[Marswolf]

Regarding [sic] to Google, "Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier". Unfortunately, each Google Chrome installation contains a unique ID that allowing identifying its user. Google doesn't make it an easy job to remove this ID.

UnChrome helps you with this task. It replaces your unique ID with Null values so that your browser cannot be identified any longer. The functionality of Google Chrome is not influenced by this. You only need to apply UnChrome once.

http://www.abelssoft.net/unchrome.php

This little application found my ID even though I have uninstalled Chrome.

Looks like Chrome has some nice features but at the cost of being a big spyware engine. Also looks like Firefox 3.1 will be just as fast without Big Brother Google looking over your shoulder.

[strickj]

I'm glad I didn't try it!

I always get kinda paranoid with spyware.What if they turn in the guy that watches Ben& Jerry,and watches pron in the same day

Will AVG,Spybot,or whomever not catch anything running?