Google Internet Browser

[Robbo]

GOOGLE will launch its new web browser dubbed Chrome early after it accidently sent out a 'comic book' style media release.Google Chrome is set to be the third contender in a new round of "browser wars", competing with Microsoft's Internet Explorer and its rival Mozilla Firefox.

Chrome is touted to be faster, more stable and more secure than the alternatives and was designed specially for next-generation web content – such as video, web-based games, chat and internet banking.

 

Vice president of product management Sundar Pichai and engineering director Linus Upson said the company's developers had set out to "completely rethink" the concept of a web browser.

 

"On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple... Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better," they said in a post on Google's official blog.

 

The announcement comes one day after Google sent a press release about Chrome to journalists in Europe in the form of a comic book, which quickly spread online.

 

The 38-page comic book attempted to explain the technical concepts behind the web browser in layman terms.

 

"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," Mr Pichai and Mr Upson said.

 

"As we believe in access to information for everyone, we've now made the comic publicly available.

 

"We will be launching the beta version of Google Chrome tomorrow in more than 100 countries."

 

Like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome will be open source – meaning that other developers can contribute to the project or use it as a template for their own work.

 

Firefox is one of the most well-known examples of the open source code ideology, a principle of software development that states that the technology behind a product be made freely available and that encourages community development.

 

Google Chrome comic book - http://books.google.com/books?id=8UsqHohwwVYC&prin

[Guest Chainsaw]

Yea, I saw this too Robbo. Will be interesting to watch. I think a lot of people will try it at least. Not sure how it will pick up major market share though. It will have to be lightening fast and different to IE and Firefox...dead easy to use, simple.

 

Let us see.

 

 

[Robbo]

I see its out now http://www.google.com/chrome/index.html ... ampaign=en

 

 

[Robbo]

[youtube:2b4ot55g]

 

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[Guest Chainsaw]

I am doing some testing on it today. I'll let you all know what I think.

 

 

[Robbo]

FIRST tests of Google's "faster, safer" browser have revealed embarrassing glitches which prevent basic web features from loading.

Online speculation suggests that the errors are based on the Javascript foundations of the browser, which can affect everything from pop-up windows to login modules.

 

The free browser has been made available in a "public trial" version following a premature press release yesterday on the new service, which came in comic book form.

 

Google Chrome is being touted as a sleeker and more reliable alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, with Google saying a sophisticated testing system was used to prevent bugs from occurring on popular websites.

 

However this morning, some computers running Chrome failed to load Google services such as iGoogle and Google Docs, and others – such as GMail's login page – only loaded part of the text, without images or a login form.

 

One user told news.com.au that a YouTube video had crashed the whole browser in a matter of seconds, contrary to Google's promise of isolating crashes. Yet an exclusive pre-release version of the browser seemed to load Google Docs fine, according to CBS News.

 

The Chrome browser is designed to automatically update itself without user approval, Google said.

 

Bloggers have speculated that the errors are based in the browser's open-source foundation, known as WebKit, which Apple's browser Safari is also based upon.

 

Aside from this significant issue, Chrome can load large websites much faster than other browsers.

 

While today's release is a test version, the problems with it and the PR fiasco would suggest Google did not originally intend to release the browser today.

 

Google's announcement comes as Microsoft is set to release a beta version of IE8, the eighth major version of its Explorer. The new version is said to be faster, with more graphics and allows users to easily get updates from their favourite websites.

 

"This (Chrome) is a straight shot over the bow of Microsoft, which has tightly integrated its Live Search offering into its dominant Internet Explorer browser (and which, surprise, is in turn tightly integrated into Windows)," said Mark Hendrickson in a posting on the technology website TechCrunch.

 

"It also makes for an awkward relationship with Mozilla, whose Firefox browser Google basically funds."

 

However, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he planned to continue to work closely with Mozilla and hoped to see future versions of Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox become more unified over time.

 

"It is probably worth noting that they (Mozilla Corp) are across the street and they come over here for lunch," Mr Brin said of Mozzilla employees visits to cafeterias at the Google headquarters.

 

"I hope we will have more and more unity over time."

 

Google also gave a nod to Apple's web browser Safari, with Google spokesperson Sundar Pichai saying if a website worked well in Safari, it would work well in Chrome.

 

Chrome was designed to take advantage of multi-core chips, recently offered by Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices, which allowed computers to handle multiple processes simultaneously and with greater speed, Google engineers said.

 

Brian Rakowski, group product manager for the browser project, highlighted the significance of offering a faster browser and forcing greater competition in the market.

 

"You actually spend more time in your browser than you do in your car," he said.

[Guest Chainsaw]

Well...

 

I have been using Chrome most of today.

 

* Speed is on par with Firefox 3. Much faster than IE7

 

* Features. Very few. Very bare bones at this point. I personally would like the Bookmarks open in a frame like Firefox and IE does on the left.

 

* Feel. Nice. I actually like the usage feel. Quite smooth and clean. Has a 'full screen' look which I like too.

 

* Compatibility. Displays everything I threw at it correctly.

 

Overall, it's a great start. I'm sure there will be lots of add-ons as time goes by.

 

Will I change? Maybe. I'm going to use both Firefox 3 and Chrome during each day. There is something about Chrome that feels right. Hard to explain.

 

Yes, by all means try it and see what you think. If you can get past the last of features at this point, you might just like it like me.

 

Chainy

 

 

[Guest Darren Masters]

Good report Chainy. I am going to give it a go too and will probably post tomorrow night.

 

 

[Guest Chainsaw]

Well Daz,

 

Ive changed it to my default browser. I can't stop using it.

 

The default home page has a great feature. It has a display of your most used sites (thumbnails), A Google search box (of course) and a text list of the most recent bookmarks.

 

Yessum, I'm hooked.

 

 

[Guest Darren Masters]

Good stuff Chainy :D I love my Firefox but am willing to give it a go.

 

 

[Robbo]

It took you all a bit of time to get me hooked on Firefox and now you are goner have to convince me to get chrome !

 

I love Firefox !

 

 

[Guest Chainsaw]

Just try it Robbo.

 

It feels good. Peace man.

 

 

[Guest Darren Masters]

Just try it Robbo.It feels good. Peace man.

:lol: :lol: (Just trying to get my post count up)

 

 

[Robbo]

It feels good. Peace man.

Chainy this a G rated forum, No touching the browser :mrgreen:

 

 

[Guest Chainsaw]

Robbo, I was just Googling at it ok? :mrgreen:

 

 

[Robbo]

Robbo' date=' I was just Googling at it ok? :mrgreen:[/quote']=D> =D>

 

You Win !!! :mrgreen: :lol:

[Guest Glenn]

Benn too busy to try it but I will soon

 

 

[Guest PaulR]

I played with it as well under Windows Vista yesterday. Like Chainy I liked the feel and simplicity of this browser. Firefox has a wonderful feature that the address bar polls your saved links when you type in an address. Chrome goes one step further and searches the web as well. I believe that the power of what Google is will make this a successful browser.

 

... on that note. I looked at this as less a browser and more of a OS replacement or at least an OS gadget. Laptops like ASUS EeePC have a feature that allows one to connect directly to web services without the need of logging into an operating system. I believe that this is where computing is headed, and Google has taken the first shot across the bow.

 

A small business owner should be in LOVE with this offering. Just think, a low cost office bundle via Google Apps and now a "shell" which allows you one click access to all your needs.

 

I'll be extremely excited when a Linux version is available. I allocate 60GB for Vista for Flight Sim and other games. My day-to-day life is in Ubuntu.

 

 

[Robbo]

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/ ... 94391.html

 

Google has made an embarrassing backdown after it was revealed the company would have rights to any information entered into websites by people using its new internet browser.A day after the Google Chrome browser was released, a controversial clause in its "End User License Agreement" (EULA) has been removed following concerns it breached people's privacy and copyright.

 

Users who downloaded the free browser yesterday were asked to agree to a clause that gave Google a "perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly, perform, publicly display and distribute" any information they typed into a website.

 

Part of the same clause allowed Google to share the information with "other companies, organisations or individuals with whom Google has relationships".

 

David Vaile, executive director of the cyberspace law and policy centre at the University of NSW, described the clause as "unprecedented" with "massive privacy and copyright implications".

 

"On the face of it, this does give Google a licence to do almost anything they want with content you 'submit, post or display' through the browser," Mr Vaile said.

 

The clause has now been changed to allow users to retain their copyright over information.

 

Senior product counsel for Google Chrome, Rebecca Ward, said in a statement that the company used the same set of legal terms for all its products to "keep things simple for our users".

 

"Sometimes, as in the case of Google Chrome, this means that the legal terms for a specific product may include terms that don't apply well to the use of that product," she said.

 

She said Google had moved quickly to respond to users' feedback and make changes to the agreement that would apply retroactively to people who had already downloaded Chrome.

 

Mr Vaile slammed Google for asking users to agree to a "nonsensical licence" that didn't actually apply to Chrome.

 

"It is very sloppy legal work if it was not Google's intention to gain such rights from users, and borders on treating users and their legal advisers with contempt," Mr Vaile said.

 

Monash University law lecturer Rebecca Giblin said buzz about the clause had spread over the internet within an hour of the browser's release.

 

She said Google's backdown was "clearly in response to public opinion".

 

"I think the people who drafted the agreement were doing the best to protect the company's interests without thinking about the users' interests," she said.

[Guest kiplinght]

Like you guys, I've been using the last 2 days on and off, but today, it's been really hard to let it go.

 

I feel sorry for my Firefox now, sitting there all alone :( Is it weird to have feelings for a piece of software? :P

 

One thing I miss from FF so far is the lack of extensions, such as Adblock Plus and a few others I use a lot. The interface is very clean, and generally great looking, it's also really fast out of the box.

 

 

[Guest Chainsaw]

Like you guys, I've been using the last 2 days on and off, but today, it's been really hard to let it go.I feel sorry for my Firefox now, sitting there all alone :( Is it weird to have feelings for a piece of software? :P

 

One thing I miss from FF so far is the lack of extensions, such as Adblock Plus and a few others I use a lot. The interface is very clean, and generally great looking, it's also really fast out of the box.

Yes mate, I feel sorry for my FF too. Weird eh?

 

Google announced that they will certainly be creating loads of extensions.

 

 

[Guest Darren Masters]

Geez, I'm kind of glad I have not tested it yet. I think I would miss Firefox too much :cry:

 

 

[Guest Glenn]

I'm sticking with firefox. Chrome is boring