Mountain View (CA) - Google had a big Labor Day announcement – stating that the company would launch at beta version of its “Chrome” web browser in more than 100 countries on Tuesday.

Do we really need another web browser, next to Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera? Google thinks so and hopes to outshine all other web browsers with a new browser that has been designed from scratch with a purpose not only to display text and pictures but to run applications. Google claims that Chrome can do this faster and in a more stable and more secure way than its rivals.

“We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser,” Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management and Linus Upson, engineering director at Google, wrote in a blog post. “What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build.”

According to the post, we can expect a browser that has a “streamlined and simple” user interface: “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.” Below the simple surface, however, Chrome is described to be able to run “today's complex web applications much better.” The browser is promised to be released as Open Source.

“We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers,” Pichai and Upson wrote. Both emphasized that Chrome isn’t done and may need much more work, so all we should expect is an idea of what Google is working on. “We're releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.”

In our mind, the most recent releases of Firefox 3, Opera 9.52 and IE8 may not be perfect, but they are very good browsers with lots of product development, engineering and market experience behind each of them. Google certainly has built up our hopes that it will reveal a browser that can trump all three – and we can’t wait to see if that in fact is the case.

Though I love Firefox...

Sep 02, 2008 00:05     

Competition is always a good thing. Who knows, this could lead to something even greater in the future. I'll try the new browser because I like almost all things Google. However, I think I can speak for many people when I say it will have to really win me over for me to ditch Firefox. Aaaaand... only having seen a screenshot of it, I already like it better than IE. :) Screenshot: http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-chrome-screenshot.jpg

Henrik Gustavsson report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +8

Will Chrome spy on us and collect data?

Sep 02, 2008 00:18     

Google is infamous for collecting data and retaining it. We were lucky that Google was allowed to depersonalize the data it was forced to turn over in the lawsuit but I just don't trust Google. We really don't want personalized advertising. We don't want Google tracking us online and collecting this information. I'll stay with Firefox on my Win and Mac computers.
Ralph report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +7

About competition

Sep 02, 2008 01:14     

I have hopped for a long time to see a true MS competitor, especially in the OS area. I still hope Google will be that competition.
Virtualban report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +4

whats teh point??!

Sep 02, 2008 01:16     

Ive tried them all... still, I think Microsoft Internet Explorer is the best. I know all you firefox users out there will be thinking im smokin pot.... but seriously.. firefox is just crap. Junk. many websites dont display correctly using firefox, plus it takes me a crapload of clicks just to DL a file... wtf? This google one sounds like the right thing tho.... but i certainly agree that Im not too keen on them spying on what Im reading... and you know they are!

R report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -36

Where will the download be available.

Sep 02, 2008 01:22     

This is so exciting. I just can't wait to discover the page where it can be downloaded so that I could use it asap. Anything new is fun to play with.
m report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +6

Chrome

Sep 02, 2008 01:24     

I don't trust google. None of my e-mails on google are sensitive. Again I don't trust Google! I wont use chrome. I will continue to use Firefox.
quick report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

do some research

Sep 02, 2008 01:29     

according to google's own blog, this report was an April Fools Day joke. !!
jonny report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -6

Chrome is open source.

Sep 02, 2008 01:31     

So if it performed data collection it would be obvious and easy to remove.
FiredFox report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

correction

Sep 02, 2008 02:13     

Internet Explorer is actually the browser that doesn't display web sites properly. They are the ones who don't follow the standards. Microsoft hasn't followed the standards for years. The reason websites don't seem to load properly in Firefox is because developers have to target their development towards IE because it has such a high market share. They have to please the target audience even if that means creating non-standards-compliant sites to appease IE users.

Kevin report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +15

When, when, whennnnnnn?

Sep 02, 2008 03:52     

I've been waiting for Google to publish Chrome for hours. But there has been nothing, yet. Does anyone know when?
yusuf report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

Motivation: higher web usage OR spying

Sep 02, 2008 06:39     

I'm curious as to why google is investing in this. I see two possible reasons (though I'd like to hear other ppls other reasons). 1. To spy on ppls web usage and use that data to improve their search results. eg if someone stays at a site for a long time then it must be good and deserve a higher ranking and vice versa. Think Alexa. 2. If ppl enjoy their web experience more (due to a better browser), then they are more likely to use google's other things more, thus earn google more money. Including searching for useful web apps.

Jay report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

prefer SeaMonkey

Sep 02, 2008 08:27     

I prefer SeaMonkey not only for my Win pc but also for my eComStation pc since it has been ported to it. http://www.ecomstation.com It would be nice if they created an OS/2 - eComStation version, too.
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

google.

Sep 02, 2008 09:57     

yea, still not trust google...since they use our browsing pattern to sell ads. rather than using search results, of course data collected by browser is more accurate... As for IE8 beta...it's not that much better than Ie7, but I just found out from last week that a web site torrentreactor.net was trying to install a program into my computer throught IE7 and it did succeed even IE7 is fully patch and vista has SP1. It even try to call quicktime ....lucky my anti-virus program catches and removed it. I have try login the page a few times and each time it try to invade my computer... I upgrade the browser to IE8 and the upload stopped when I access the same web page... At least it did some good.

yo report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

soon, soon

Sep 02, 2008 12:15     

As I understand it, it will be launched at 2 p.m. EST. http://gears.google.com/chrome/
webtech report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

response to Motivation

Sep 03, 2008 10:03     

Google is in "competition" with Microsoft on the search engine market, though MSN search is far behind, IE always links to MSN search or makes it easier for the user to use MSN Search. The motivation for Chrome is to push its users to use Google Search, fine with me since it's the better one ;)
LionHell report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0