Google released its first ever internet
browser on Tuesday in a long-awaited move that increased pressure on Microsoft
and laid a new foundation for a mass transition to web- based computing.
A test version of the new software, named Google Chrome, was made available for
download Tuesday in more than 100 countries. The open- source browser had been
in secret development for over two years at the search engine giant.
According to Google, Chrome is less demanding than current browsers on the
memory and chips which run computers. The main new features include a new
Javascript engine called V8 that executes functions through the browser much
faster and more securely than anything currently on the market.
Chrome also isolates each separate tab that is opened in the browser, making
sure that the browser never crashes.
Chrome's deployment marked a new threat to Internet Explorer, the Microsoft
browser which has seen its market share drop almost 20 per cent to just 73 per
cent in the four years since its open source rival Firefox came out.
But Google, the world's leading internet company, has far loftier ambitions for
Chrome than merely taking another chunk out of Internet Explorer. Google's goal
is for Chrome to accelerate the move to browser-based applications on devices
from PC's to cellphones.
By having a browser built from the ground-up to carry out complex functions,
Google can make obsolete complex PC-based programs like Microsoft's cash cow,
the Office productivity suite. And once PCs run everything through a browser
and don't have to host gigantic programs, it also doesn't matter if they are
running windows, Linux, Apple or any other operating system.
"Google (is) designing not so much a traditional Web browser, but a Web
application platform," said Stephen J Waughun, author of Computerworld's
Cyber Cybic blog. "Killing Internet Explorer isn't really Chrome's goal.
No, killing Microsoft Office is Chrome's goal."
That should set off alarm bells in the executive office of a certain software
company based near Seattle. "Memo to Steve Ballmer: If you've got a panic
button, now might be a good time to hit it," wrote Tom Bemis, an editor at
MarketWatch.
Other analysts also applauded the move with the main criticism being:
"What took Google so long?"
"The browser is a key piece of Google's strategy, delivering
"improved access to data and user behaviour without relying on
Microsoft," said UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter. He cautioned however,
that users might not download the browser in sufficient quantities to make a
difference.
Chrome was released just days after the release by Microsoft of a new version
of Internet Explorer, which Microsoft said would remain the top choice of
users.
"The browser landscape is highly competitive, but people will choose
Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their
fingertips, respects their personal choices about how they want to browse and,
more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal
data online," said Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Internet
Explorer, in a statement.
Chrome was also sure to be closely examined by privacy advocates because the
Mountain View, California-based company has been accused of collecting too much
data on its customers.
The Chrome browser is being introduced with the appearance of the first mobile
phones operating on Google's Android software. Internet surfing via cellular
phones is seen as the industry's next big growth market, and Apple is also
trying to capture the market with Safari on its iPhones, dpa reported.
...