Google launched their beta Chrome Web Browser today. Check it out, it’s lean and clean, but does seem to eat up more of a chunk of memory than I.E. or Firefox.
For me it uses less memory than FF3.. it’s really good I must say.
Here’s the reason why Google built the browser:
A fresh take on the browser
At Google, we spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And like all of you, in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends - all using a browser. People are spending an increasing amount of time online, and they’re doing things never imagined when the web first appeared about 15 years ago.
Since we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if you 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.
So today we’re releasing the beta version of a new open source browser: Google Chrome.
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 V8, a more powerful JavaScript engine, 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’ve released 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 we’ll 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.
But enough from us. The best test of Google Chrome is to try it yourself.
The gods know I’m tempted to try Chrome, but I may wait for something other than the beta version.
I just bought a new computer last week with Vista Home Premium SP1, and of course, IE crashed over 16 times in 8 days (at least those were the “recorded” number of crashes). A search on Google and MStechnet let me know that I was one of the 98% of other Vista/IE users with the problem… let’s hear it for Microsoft using end users as beta testers… I was hoping to at least check out all of Vista’s “stuff” before giving up and downloading better things… but… And of course with IE crashing so often (stops working) it’s hard to D/L replacements.
At least mahjonng was cool…
After doing a “reset” of IE (thereby zapping all the add-ons) it seems to be working more or less so far… but I downloaded FF3 onto my USB hard drive using this XP system in prep for dumping IE. Or I should say ignoring IE. You can’t delete it as it’s part of the OS and a number of programs I use need it to function (ie eBay’s Turbo Lister).
Anyone have an opinion on Apple’s Safari?
I thought Safari on windows was not good enough to use,
from what I read (plus Apple wanted to install it on my pc because I use itunes, so I refused).
This chrome is a different thing altogether…
Hmmm… has anyone actually read the Terms and Conditions?
It’s the underlined part that really bugs me. The T&Cs for both Firefox and Apple’s Safari are nowhere near as far-reaching and open - I mean ‘open’ in a bad way - as that. I haven’t looked at Opera yet.
I’m giving it a miss. Something about those terms above makes alarms go off in my head.
Musk
Ya, it “breaks” a lot of web sites. I’m “lucky” I guess, I’ve not had the crashing problem with IE. Of course, I’ve been running IE 8 for the past 6 months (closed beta).
I read it was changed.