Thursday, 4 September 2008

Google Launches Open Source Browser

Search Engine bellwether Google appears to be shaking up the browser ecosystem with the release of its own open source web browser, vying for a piece of the browser pie that is currently dominated by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox...

Search Engine bellwether Google appears to be shaking up the browser ecosystem with the release of its own open source web browser, vying for a piece of the browser pie that is currently dominated by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox.

Called Chrome, the new browser will be launched as a beta for Window machines in some 100 countries for Window users Tuesday.

According to a blog post, Google’s Sundar Pichai, VP of Product Management and Linus Epson Engineering Director said that Chrome was designed to offer a streamlined and simple solution that runs today’s graphics and multimedia rich web applications better.

“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,” said Pichai.

“To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. 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,” he added.

The emergence of Google’s Chrome is seen as a direct slap in the face to IE since it dominates the browser landscape, with 80% of the market share.

Many say Chrome would look more appealing next to IE, which has come under fire for being slow, problematic and harboring many security vulnerabilities.

Google said that it is currently working to deploy Chrome versions for Mac and Linux and has made its code open source so as it spark collaboration within the community to help drive the web forward.