Google Chrome is a new, open source browser with a sleek, minimal design. It is based on Webkit and powered by Google Gears. With the realization that the web has evolved from simple text pages to powerful interactive applications, Google set out to design a new browser with a modern platform for applications and web pages. As Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management, says in the Google Blog:

“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.”

There are several advantages of Google Chrome. The first is speed. It is significantly faster and more responsive than Explorer or Firefox. It features tabbed browsing with each tab processed independently, for more stable and faster browsing. If one tab fails, the whole browser doesn’t crash with it. Chrome features automatically updating phishing and malware lists to warn users of potentially dangerous websites.

Another feature of Google Chrome, particularly valuable in the workplace, is an “incognito” browsing mode that allows the user to browse in privacy. In stealth mode, any opened webpages and downloaded files are not logged into the browsing and download histories and all new cookies are deleted after the incognito window is closed.

The default home page displays a visual sampling of most visited sites and recently bookmarked pages. When a new tab is opened, it is preloaded with links to most often visited sites, most used search engines, recently closed tabs and saved websites. Up to nine thumbnail images of most-visited websites are displayed.

With Google Chrome, only one box takes you anywhere you want to go. It doubles as an address bar and a search box. You can quickly bookmark websites with a single click on the star, part of the address bar. You can also click and drag any link within the current webpage to the bookmarks bar to create a bookmark.

Google was introduced to the media with a comic book created by Scott McLeod. As was discussed in the blogosphere, it was accidentally released early, before the beta version of the browser was released.

Currently, Google Chrome is only available for Windows. Mac and Linus versions are scheduled to follow.

Categories: Glossary
Tags: Google Chrome