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Google launches free web browser Chrome

Google has done it yet again. Google is challenging Microsoft’s dominance in the web browser market, by launching a free web browser named as Chrome. Google launched this new browser on Tuesday ( 02-Sep-2008 ), opening a yet another challenge which is going to revolutionize the way people access internet worldwide. Google is known for its competitive and innovative offerings on internet based technology.

Chrome browser is an universal gateway to the internet, providing access to not only internet applications, but also cell phones and other mobile devices, hence widening the utility of web and web advertising. With Chrome not widely available for public, this now widens the rivalry between Microsoft and Google, and marks a paradigm shift from Google, which has had earlier backed the open source browser Mozilla Firefox.

Microsoft is already gearing up for this competition. It could be easily gauged when the General Manager of Internet Explorer group, Dean Hachamovitch, said, ” the browser landscape is highly competitive. But people will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts its services the way they want right at their fingertips, respects their personal choices about how they want to browse, and, more than any other browsing technology, puts in control of their personal data online.”. The Microsoft group clearly looks to be in a defensive mode, trying to explain why they are better than the rest. This is a clear signal of how seriously they are considering the free web browser Chrome, offered by Google.

Microsoft still holds the biggest pie in the browser market, holding around 73%, followed by Mozilla Firefox, which has climbed to 19% of the market share. Google has offered that the Chrome browser will run on Apple’s Macintosh as well as Linux environment.

Google Chrome is an open sourced browser based on the Webkit HTML engine, and a new Javascript engine. Chrome offers tons of services, which will surely revolutionize the way, people use the web browser.

I just downloaded the Chrome web browser. I found that the browser is has the usual Google effect - simple, yet effective. The overall look and feel is just awesome, with very intuitive design interfaces. The best part about it is that it does not look a heavy duty browser with tons of features, yet if you dig down, you will find that the feature set provided is very advanced and at par with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Here is a brief insight of the features being offered by Google’s web browser:

One Box for everything:

Type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages. The address bar sits at the top of the window. The same address bar can be used as a search box. It can also be used to bookmark websites, and check the security of a website. Once a query is typed in the address bar, it automatically suggests related queries and popular websites. The best part is when a word is typed, the related search and website appears along with the site description and the title.

New tab page:

On opening a new tab, the Chrome browser preloads and opens the page with most accessed sites in the system. There is a plus( + ) icon, which can be used to open a new tab. There are thumbnails for all the top sites visited, hence improving the overall speed.

Shortcuts for your apps:

Get desktop shortcuts to launch your favorite web applications. This is very helpful for applications like email services and other programs. This can be done through Page -> Create application shortcuts -> Google gears dialog box -> Desktop/ Start Menu/ Quick Launch bar -> OK.

Dynamic tabs:

There are lots of keyboard shortcuts for Chrome windows and tabs. There are options for opening a new tab, page loading information, flip between tabs, rearrange tabs, duplicate tabs, close tabs, move tabs to different windows.

Import Settings:

When you download Chrome, you get an option to import your settings/ favorites list/ bookmarks from Firefox and internet Explorer. There is also an option to manually do the setting to import the settings on a later date, if one does not find it feasible to do it during installation of Chrome.

Private browsing:

There are at time you want to browse sites, and yet do not want it to be visible in the browsing history. So to address this point, Google Chrome has in built stealth feature to provide incognito browsing mode. Files which are downloaded and the sites that are visited are not logged into download history. The cookies are deleted after the window is closed. The operation mode is also very simple where in you just click on the Page menu option and then click on New Incognito Window.

Safe browsing:

Google Chrome checks the certificate of each site, and tries to match it with the background information. This way it can be verified whether you are communicating with the website named on the certificate, and not someone pretending to be that website.

Here is the link to download Google Chrome web browser;

http://www.google.com/chrome