Google Browser Is Now Google Chrome
I’ve mentioned the long fabled Google browser for ages now “googlefox” as it began. Some more interesting news came today regarding “Google Chrome“.
Some of the features touted by the comic include:
- faster - mentioned throughout via new js virtual machine (might be SquirrelFish) that’s potentially embeddable into other applications and using WebKit. Also multi-threaded.
- More Stable - Separate process for each tab means one page doesn’t crash the browser. Also more memory efficient in the long run since you’ll kill tabs that hog memory at some point.
- UI - UI is minimal, tabs contain the controls (tabs on outside), are detachable from the window, and similar to Prism can be minimal enough to make a web application feel like it’s not in a browser. Omnibox (awsomebar equivalent), auto complete only to what you’ve explicitly typed before, improved new tab screen (similar to others proposed and implemented).
- Secure - Sandboxes processes (sounds like the work from GreenBorder), plugins running in their own processes, phishing protection. Also has
pornprivacy mode. - Compatible - Based on WebKit, automated testing via “chrome bot” browsing pages, unit tested, fuzz tested.
- Google Gears Included - Includes Google Gears, which is downloadable for other browsers already.
Also interesting were some of the names mentioned in the comic. While long known a few Mozilla hackers went to Google, here’s a list that are mentioned in the comic: Darin Fisher, Ben Goodger, Brett Wilson (various Mozilla contributions via Google), Arnaud Weber (Netscape).
Check the comic for more details. This is pretty much the main info in there for those who don’t have the time to sift through it all.
Edit [9/1/2008 @ 6:23 PM EST]: Google Blog post.
Edit [9/1/2008 @ 7:45 PM EST]: John Lilly’s Thoughts on Chrome & More.
Edit [9/1/2008 @ 9:05 PM EST]: Apparently this was announced prematurely due to someone not realizing that it Labor Day isn’t in Germany. As a side note, how does one get on that mailing list?
Edit [9/2/2008 @ 8:55 AM EST]: Code should appear here.
Tags: Google, google chrome, googlefox, greenborder, squirrelfish, WebKit
September 1st, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Pam Greene worked on Firefox as well…
September 1st, 2008 at 6:29 pm
AFAIK Google Chrome’s JS engine isn’t SquirrelFish, it’s one they built from scratch, which they call V8.
September 1st, 2008 at 6:48 pm
@Dao: You are correct.
@kourge: I suspect they are related, strongly related actually, but not much seems to be there except project names.
September 1st, 2008 at 6:52 pm
@Robert: No, kourge is correct. V8 looks like a drop-in replacement for Webkit’s JS engine. And it looks ridiculously fast, since the comic says they have a full JIT (beyond TraceMonkey) and incremental GC. I expect it to blow the pants off SquirrelFish. The most interesting thing was that they said V8 is embeddable, which makes me wonder is Webkit will just frop their JS engine and pick it up.
September 1st, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Hoping someone puts up the Chrome vs. TraceMoneky vs. Squirrelfish numbers on SunSpider and Dromaeo. That’ll be exciting.
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:20 am
Its very interesting that Google has decided to take on a project like this. They obviously have such an interest in how people access the web, it was only a matter of time before they took things into their own hands. It is going to be very interesting to see how this pans out.
Google Chrome browser Screenshots
http://www.tonesall.com/comput.....shots.html
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:02 am
Yes, they are releasing today. Also the logo is **** cool.. Lets see how it goes
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
[...] Robert Accettura: Also interesting were some of the names mentioned in the comic. While long known a few Mozilla hackers went to Google, here’s a list that are mentioned in the comic: Darin Fisher, Ben Goodger, Brett Wilson (various Mozilla contributions via Google), Arnaud Weber (Netscape). [...]
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
It’s alive!
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
@helpfulharry: I’ve got it… there will be more tonight in a blog post.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Google Chrome is really fast!
Now I can sort 200,000 records inside of Browser (Chrome) just in 1 sec. (Faster than Microsoft Excel):
http://www.ardentedge.com/ex_if.htm