Last week Google released the beta version of their brand new web browser: Google Chrome (Windows only for now). This release comes hot on the heals of Microsoft's beta release of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) and Mozilla's Firefox 3 (FF3) release. As you might expect the blogosphere is filling up with opinion about the product itself and why Google has decided to enter the browser marketplace. At risk of adding to the noise I thought I might write a bit about what I believe is interesting about the release of Chrome...

WebKit web browser engine
WebKit is an open source browser engine project already used by Safari (Apple's web browser) and other Mac OS X applications. Building Chrome on proven technology, rather than starting from scratch, makes good sense from a commercial perspective. However, I think project cost would be way down the list of Google's concerns. The work that the WebKit community has done to maximise website compatibility is great news for Website owners and Web Developers like kilo75 because it means the sites we have built to be W3C standards compliant work nicely when viewed with Chrome (in theory). That removes one major potential barrier to user adoption. Perhaps even more importantly (I believe) supporting an open source project has more strategic value to Google as a means of differentiating themselves from Microsoft's approach, especially in light of the growing concern over Google's diminishing mojo and increasing comparisons with the darker aspects of Microsoft's dominance.

V8 Javascript Virtual Machine and Google Gears integration
Big improvements in the handling of Javascript is a common theme running across the new generation of web browsers. V8 is Google's own open source (take note) Javascript engine. Sure enough, some (very basic) testing indicates that some Javascript operations are quicker than FF3. I gave up waiting for the results of a comparable test with Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), which would have been a stronger indication of how much improvement we will see. Google Gears, which allows Web Applications to run from your local system, makes extensive use of Javascript so V8 is going to help. Historically the adoption of Gears will have been hindered by the need for users to understand its worth and install it. Now it comes as part of Chrome, which potentially will have an impact on Web application development and Cloud Computing in general.

Chrome is layden with lots of other features (please note that I'm not saying these are unique to Chrome). Separate processes for Tabs means better performance and security, also one tab can crash now without taking out the whole browser. Incognito (or Porno mode as it is being dubbed) allows private browsing with nothing saved to your system. I think this functionality is sort of inevitable, I'm only mentioning it because I think whoever was given the job of explaining this functionality through any examples other than viewing Porn should be saluted! "For people looking for a present for their loved one" - brilliant. Radio 4 surely can use this sort of exercise as the basis of a comedy panel game!

Omnibox
Finally (for now), Chrome's "Omnibox" automatically suggests website addresses as you type something into the location box. It does this by performing searches of Google on each key stroke. Firefox 3 does the same thing, thanks to The Mozilla Foundation's deal with Google (reported to be worth $56.8 million in 2006, source: Wikipedia). The ramifications for advertisers and website owners are obvious and this is a "feature" which is attracting loads of analysis and comment. I think the Omnibox is the answer to the question "Why should Google enter the Browser Marketplace?" As a media company whose revenue is built on selling advertising Google is simply creating another medium through which it can place advertisements in front of consumers. The question is whether consumers believe Chrome is a good enough product to put up with it, in the way we all tolerate the ads in Google search because it is perceived as being the best engine.

So in conclusion I will leave you with this thought... if Chrome does turn out to be good enough to lure people away from the pre-installed browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer mostly) won't that damage Firefox more than IE?