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Google Chrome - An Open Source Browser

Google had recently launched their own browser they called Google Chrome.  It is a free and open-source web browser which is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or “chrome”, of web browsers.

A beta version for Microsoft Windows was released on 2 September 2008 in 43 languages.

Few weeks after its beta version was released, I downloaded the browser and tried it myself.

I watched the google launching video and I was impressed by the improvement of browser simplicity, security, speed, and stability using Chrome.

Google came up with a-per-tab process. A tab has its own process which is stripped of its rights, it can compute but can NOT read or write from sensitive areas of your PC like your files or desktop. Malicious software running on a tab can’t interact to mouse or command Windows to run executable on start and will be terminated when tab is closed.  They added a secured browsing feature they called “Incognito” mode (IE’s InPrivate).  This mode prevents the browser from storing any history information or cookies from the websites you visited.  Chrome warns you if you’re about to visit a suspected phishing, malware or otherwise unsafe websites.

Chrome includes JavaScript Virtual Machine called V8.

Chrome default homepage presents you with a kind of “speed dial” feature. On that page you will see your most visited webpages as 9 screenshot thumbnails. To the side, you will also see a couple of your recent searches and your recently bookmarked pages, as well as recently closed tabs.

The browser has an address bar with auto-completion features called ’omnibox’ (“omni” is a prefix meaning “all”, as in “omniscient” – “all-knowing”). It offers search suggestions, top pages you’ve visited, pages you didn’t visit but which are popular and more.  It lets you search a website of which it captured the search box; you need to type the site’s name into the address bar and then hit the tab key and enter your search keywords.

Since tabs have seperate processes, when a tab fails, other tabs or whole operating system will keep running.  Chrome also features a process management they called “task manager” which allows the user to see what sites are using the most memory, downloading the most bytes and abusing CPU” (as well as the plugins which run in separate processes) and terminate them.

You can download and read more about Google Chrome at Google Chrome Page.