Google Chrome is a web browser A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content. Hyperlinks present in resources enable users to easily navigate their browsers to developed by Google Google Inc. is a multinational public cloud computing, Internet search, and advertising technologies corporation. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, often dubbed the " that uses the WebKit WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. The WebKit engine provides a set of classes to display web content in windows, and implements browser features such as following links when clicked by the user, managing a back-forward list, and managing a history of pages recently visited layout engine A layout engine, or rendering engine, is software that takes marked up content and formatting information (such as CSS, XSL, etc.) and displays the formatted content on the screen. It "paints" on the content area of a window, which is displayed on a monitor or a printer. A layout engine is typically used for web browsers, e-mail clients, and application framework In computer programming, an application framework or application development framework consists of a software framework used by software developers to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific development environment. It was first released as a beta version A software release is the distribution of an initial or upgraded version of a computer software product. The software engineers and company doing the work decide on how to distribute the program or system, or changes to that pre downloads and compact discs. A release in general contains code, documentation, and certification for Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal on 2 September 2008, and the public stable release was on 11 December 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface A graphical user interface (sometimes pronounced gooey) is a type of user interface item that allows people to interact with programs in more ways than typing such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment with images rather than text commands. A GUI frame, or "chrome A graphical user interface (sometimes pronounced gooey) is a type of user interface item that allows people to interact with programs in more ways than typing such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment with images rather than text commands. A GUI", of web browsers. As of June 2010, Chrome is the third most widely used browser, with 7.24% of worldwide usage share of web browsers The usage share of web browsers is the percentage of visitors to a group of websites that use a particular web browser. For example, when it is said that Internet Explorer has 52% usage share, it means that some version of Internet Explorer is used by 52% of visitors that visit a given set of sites, according to Net Applications Net Applications is a web analytics firm. The company is commonly known in the web browser development and technology news communities for its global market share statistics.[3]

In September 2008, Google released a large portion of Chrome's source code, including its V8 JavaScript engine The V8 JavaScript engine is an open source JavaScript engine developed by Google in Denmark and shipping with the Google Chrome browser. Lars Bak is the head programmer, as an open source Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology. Before the term open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; open source project entitled Chromium Chromium is the open source web browser project from which Google Chrome draws its source code. The Google-authored portion of it is released under the BSD license, with other parts being subject to a variety of different permissive open-source licenses, including the MIT License, the LGPL, the Ms-PL, and an MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license. It implements.[4][5] This move enabled third-party developers to study the underlying source code and help port the browser to Mac OS X and Linux. A Google spokesperson also expressed hope that other browsers would adopt V8 to improve web application performance.[6] The Google-authored portion of Chromium is released under the permissive BSD license The phrase BSD licenses represents a family of permissive free software licenses. The original was used for the Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix-like operating system after which the license is named,[7] which allows portions to be incorporated into both open source and closed-source software programs.[8] Other portions of the source code are subject to a variety of open-source licenses.[9] Chromium implements the same feature set as Chrome, but lacks built in automatic updates and Google branding, and most notably has a blue-colored logo in place of the multicolored Google logo.[10]

Contents

History

For six years, Google's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt Eric Emerson Schmidt ) is an engineer, Chairman/CEO of Google Inc. and a former member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc. He also sits on the boards of trustees for Carnegie Mellon University and Princeton University. He is author of the lex lexical analyser software for Unix was against the idea of building an independent web browser. He stated that "At the time, Google was a small company," and he didn't want to go through "bruising browser wars". However, after co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page hired several Firefox developers and built a demonstration of Chrome, Mr. Schmidt admitted that "It was so good that it essentially forced me to change my mind."[11]

Announcement

The release announcement was originally scheduled for 3 September 2008, and a comic by Scott McCloud Scott McCloud is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic non-linear medium was to be sent to journalists and bloggers explaining the features of and motivations for the new browser.[12] Copies intended for Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus region (Specification of borders) and the Black Sea to the southeast. Europe is bordered by the were shipped early and German A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, has been known and documented before AD 100. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. During the 16th century, northern Germany became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. As a modern nation-state, blogger Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped Google Blogoscoped is a blog authored by Philipp Lenssen covering the search engine company Google since 2003[13] made a scanned copy of the 38-page comic available on his website after receiving it on 1 September 2008.[14] Google subsequently made the comic available on Google Books Google Books is a service from Google that searches the full text of books that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database. The service was formerly known as Google Print when it was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2004. Google's Library Project, also now known as[15] and mentioned it on their official blog along with an explanation for the early release.[16]

Public release

An alpha version of Chromium for Linux, explaining the difference between Chrome and Chromium

The browser was first publicly released for Microsoft Windows (XP and later only) on 2 September 2008 in 43 languages, officially a beta version.[17] Chrome quickly gained about 1% market share despite being only available for Microsoft Windows.[16][18][19][20] After the initial surge, usage share dropped until it hit a low of 0.69% in October 2008. It then started rising again and by December 2008, Chrome again passed the 1% threshold.[21]

In early January 2009, CNET CNET.com is the online portal for CNET Networks, providing access to CNET's reviews, news, downloads, price comparisons and CNET TV as well as web search powered by search.com. CNET.com is divided into seven major sections, all of which can be accessed from the home or "Today on CNET" page. These sections are: reported that Google planned to release versions of Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux in the first half of the year.[22] The first official Chrome Mac OS X and Linux developer previews[23] were announced on 4 June 2009 with a blog post[24] saying they were missing many features and were intended for early feedback rather than general use.

In December 2009, Google released beta versions of Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux.[25][26] Google Chrome 5.0, announced on 25 May 2010, was the first stable release to support all three platforms.[27]

Chrome was one of the twelve browsers offered to European Economic Area The European Economic Area was established on 1 January 1994 following an agreement between the member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the European Community, later the European Union (EU). Specifically, it allows Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to participate in Europe's single market without having to join the Union users of Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal in 2010.[28]

Development

Chrome was assembled from 25 different code libraries from Google and third parties such as Mozilla Mozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the now-defunct Netscape Communications Corporation and its related application software, including the Mozilla.org group and its successor the Mozilla Foundation's Netscape Portable Runtime In computing, the Netscape Portable Runtime, or NSPR, a platform abstraction library, makes all operating systems it supports appear the same to Mozilla-style web-browsers. NSPR provides platform independence for non-GUI operating system facilities. These facilities include:, Network Security Services In computing, Network Security Services comprises a set of libraries designed to support cross-platform development of security-enabled client and server applications. NSS provides a complete open-source implementation of crypto libraries supporting SSL and S/MIME, NPAPI Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface is a cross-platform plugin architecture used by many web browsers, as well as SQLite SQLite /ˌɛs ˌkjuː ˈɛlaɪt/ is an ACID-compliant embedded relational database management system contained in a relatively small (~275 kiB) C programming library. The source code for SQLite is in the public domain and a number of other open-source projects.[29] The JavaScript JavaScript is an implementation of the ECMAScript language standard and is typically used to enable programmatic access to computational objects within a host environment. It can be characterized as a prototype-based object-oriented scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is also considered a functional virtual machine A virtual machine is a software implementation of a machine (i.e. a computer) that executes programs like a physical machine was considered a sufficiently important project to be split off (as was Adobe Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE) is an American computer software company headquartered in San Jose, California, USA. The company has historically focused upon the creation of multimedia and creativity software products, with a more-recent foray towards rich Internet application software development/Mozilla Mozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the now-defunct Netscape Communications Corporation and its related application software, including the Mozilla.org group and its successor the Mozilla Foundation's Tamarin Tamarin is a free virtual machine with just-in-time compilation support intended to implement the fourth edition of the ECMAScript standard) and handled by a separate team in Denmark Denmark (pronounced /ˈdɛnmɑrk/ ; Danish: Danmark, pronounced [ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊], archaic: [ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊]) is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders coordinated by Lars Bak at Aarhus Aarhus, or Århus (Danish pronunciation: [ˈɒːhus, ˈɒːhuːˀs] ), is the second-largest city in Denmark, the 99th-largest in the European Union, and the sixth-largest amongst the Nordic countries. The principal port of Denmark, it is situated on the east side of the peninsula of Jutland in the geographical center of Denmark. Aarhus is the. According to Google, existing implementations were designed "for small programs, where the performance and interactivity of the system weren't that important," but web applications In system software, a web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is hosted in a browser-controlled environment [citation needed] or coded in a browser-supported language (such as JavaScript, combined with a browser-rendered such as Gmail Gmail is a free, advertising-supported webmail, POP3, and IMAP service provided by Google. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though still in beta status at that time. As of December 2009[update], it has 176 million users monthly. The service was "are using the web browser to the fullest when it comes to DOM The Document Object Model is a cross-platform and language-independent convention for representing and interacting with objects in HTML, XHTML and XML documents. Aspects of the DOM (such as its "Elements") may be addressed and manipulated within the syntax of the programming language in use. The public interface of a DOM are specified in manipulations and Javascript JavaScript is an implementation of the ECMAScript language standard and is typically used to enable programmatic access to computational objects within a host environment. It can be characterized as a prototype-based object-oriented scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is also considered a functional", and therefore would significantly benefit from a JavaScript engine that could work faster.

Chrome uses the WebKit WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. The WebKit engine provides a set of classes to display web content in windows, and implements browser features such as following links when clicked by the user, managing a back-forward list, and managing a history of pages recently visited rendering engine to display web pages, on advice from the Android Android is a mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel. It was initially developed by Android Inc., a firm later purchased by Google, and lately by the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries team.[15] Like most browsers, Chrome was extensively tested internally before release with unit testing In computer programming, unit testing is a software verification and validation method in which a programmer tests if individual units of source code are fit for use. A unit is the smallest testable part of an application. In procedural programming a unit may be an individual function or procedure, "automated user interface testing of scripted user actions" and fuzz testing Fuzz testing or fuzzing is a software testing technique that provides invalid, unexpected, or random data to the inputs of a program. If the program fails , the defects can be noted, as well as WebKit's layout tests (99% of which Chrome is claimed to have passed). New browser builds are automatically tested against tens of thousands of commonly accessed websites inside of the Google index within 20–30 minutes.[15]

Chrome includes Gears Gears, formerly Google Gears, is software offered by Google that "enables more powerful web applications, by adding new features to your web browser." Released under the BSD license, Gears is free and open source software, which adds features for web developers A web developer is a software developer or software engineer who is specifically engaged in the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over HTTP from a web server to a web browser typically relating to the building of web applications (including offline support).[15] However, Google is phasing out Gears in favor of HTML5 HTML5 is currently under development as the next major revision of the HTML standard. Like its immediate predecessors, HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.1, HTML5 is a standard for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. The new standard incorporates features like video playback and drag-and-drop that have been previously dependent on third-.[30]

Major Updates

Google released Chrome 2.0 on 21 May 2009, citing increased speed and stability. New features included form autofill, an improved New Tab Page, and full screen mode.[31]

Version 3.0 was released on 15 September 2009, bringing with it a 25% speed improvement, HTML5 HTML5 is currently under development as the next major revision of the HTML standard. Like its immediate predecessors, HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.1, HTML5 is a standard for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. The new standard incorporates features like video playback and drag-and-drop that have been previously dependent on third- capabilities (such as <video> and <audio> elements with native support for Ogg Ogg is a free, open standard container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format claim that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia Theora Theora is a free lossy video compression format. It is developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and distributed without licensing fees alongside their other free and open media projects, including the Vorbis audio format and the Ogg container video, Ogg Vorbis audio, H.264 video, AAC and MP3 audio), an improved Omnibox, theme support, and a redesigned New Tab Page.[32][33][34][35][36]

Version 4.0 was released for Windows on 25 January 2010, adding extension support, bookmark synchronization, improved developer tools, better HTML5 support, performance improvements, and increased security.[37][38]

Google Chrome 5.0, the first stable release to support Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, was announced on 25 May 2010. Highlights included improved JavaScript performance, synchronizing of browser preferences, new HTML5 capabilities, and a revamped bookmark manager.[39]

Release history

Color Meaning
Red Old release
Green Current stable release
Light blue Current beta release
Purple Current dev release
Major version Release date WebKit version[40] V8 engine version[41] Operating system support Significant changes
0.2 2008-09-08 522 0.3 Windows First release
0.3 2008-10-29 Improved plugin performance and reliability. Spell checking for input fields. Improved web proxy performance and reliability. Tab and window management updates.
0.4 2008-11-24 525 Bookmark manager with import and export support. Privacy section added to the application options. New blocked popup notification. Security fixes.
1.0 2008-12-11 528 First stable release
2.0 2009-05-24 530 0.4 35% faster JavaScript on the SunSpider benchmark. Mouse wheel support. Full-screen mode. Full-page zoom. Form autofill. Sort bookmarks by title. Tab docking to browser and desktop edges. Basic Greasemonkey support.[42]
3.0 2009-10-12 532 1.2 New "new tab" page for improved customization. 25% faster JavaScript. HTML5 video and audio tag support. Lightweight theming.
4.0 2010-01-25 1.3 Extensions, bookmark synchronization, enhanced developer tools, improved HTML5 support, performance improvements, full ACID3 pass, HTTP byte range support, increased security, and experimental new anti-reflected-XSS feature called "XSS Auditor".[43]
4.1 2010-03-17 Translate infobar, new privacy features, disabled XSS Auditor.[44]
5.0.375 2010-07-26 533 2.1 Windows Mac Linux Improved JavaScript performance, browser preference synchronizing, more HTML5 support (Geolocation APIs, App Cache, web sockets, and file drag-and-drop), revamped bookmark manager. Adobe Flash Player integrated[39]
6.0.472 2010-07-21 534 2.2 UI changes for toolbar (e.g. merged menu buttons), omnibox and new tab page. Extension synchronization. [45] Polish main frame UI on Mac. Support for VP8/WebM videos. Built-in PDF support. Bug fixes for Mac and Windows.[46]

Features

Google Chrome aims to improve security, speed, and stability. There are extensive differences from its peers in Chrome's minimalistic user interface,[15] which is atypical of modern web browsers.[47] For example, Chrome does not render RSS feeds.[48] Chrome's strength is its application performance and JavaScript processing speed, both of which were independently verified by multiple websites to be the swiftest among the major browsers of its time.[49][50] Many of Chrome's unique features had been previously announced by other browser developers, but Google was the first to implement and publicly release them.[51] For example, its most prominent graphical user interface (GUI) innovation, the merging of the address bar and search bar (the Omnibox) was first announced by Mozilla in May 2008 as a planned feature for Firefox.[52]

Standards

The results of the Acid3 test on Google Chrome 4.0

The first release of Google Chrome passed both the Acid1 and Acid2 tests. Beginning with version 4.0, Chrome passed all aspects of the Acid3 test.[37]

Security

Chrome periodically downloads updates of two blacklists (one for phishing and one for malware), and warns users when they attempt to visit a harmful site. This service is also made available for use by others via a free public API called "Google Safe Browsing API". Google notifies the owners of listed sites who may not be aware of the presence of the harmful software.[15]

Chrome will typically allocate each tab to fit into its own process to "prevent malware from installing itself" and prevent what happens in one tab from affecting what happens in another, however, the actual process-allocation model is more complex.[53] Following the principle of least privilege, each process is stripped of its rights and can compute, but cannot write files or read from sensitive areas (e.g. documents, desktop)—this is similar to the "Protected Mode" used by Internet Explorer on Windows Vista and Windows 7. The Sandbox Team is said to have "taken this existing process boundary and made it into a jail";[54] for example, malicious software running in one tab is supposed to be unable to sniff credit card numbers entered in another tab, interact with mouse inputs, or tell Windows to "run an executable on start-up" and it will be terminated when the tab is closed.[15] This enforces a simple computer security model whereby there are two levels of multilevel security (user and sandbox) and the sandbox can only respond to communication requests initiated by the user.[55]

Typically, plugins such as Adobe Flash Player are not standardized and as such, cannot be sandboxed as tabs can be. These often need to run at, or above, the security level of the browser itself. To reduce exposure to attack, plugins are run in separate processes that communicate with the renderer, itself operating at "very low privileges" in dedicated per-tab processes. Plugins will need to be modified to operate within this software architecture while following the principle of least privilege.[15] Chrome supports the Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI),[56] but does not support the embedding of ActiveX controls.[56] On 30 March 2010 Google announced that the latest development version of Chrome will include Adobe Flash as an integral part of the browser, eliminating the need to download and install it separately. Flash will be kept up to date as part of Chrome's own updates.[57] Java applet support is available in Chrome with Java 6 update 12 and above[58]. Support for Java under Mac OS X was provided by a Java Update released on May 18, 2010.[59]

A private browsing feature called Incognito mode is provided that prevents the browser from storing any history information or cookies from the websites visited.[60] Chrome warns on the new tab page that "this feature does not make your actions on the internet invisible however and the browser advises to be wary of:

Incognito mode is similar to the private browsing feature available in Apple's Safari, Mozilla Firefox 3.5, Opera 10.5, and Internet Explorer 8.

Speed

The JavaScript virtual machine used by Chrome, the V8 JavaScript engine, has features such as dynamic code generation, hidden class transitions, and precise garbage collection.[15] Tests by Google in September 2008 showed that V8 was about twice as fast as Firefox 3.0 and the WebKit nightlies.[citation needed]

Several websites performed benchmark tests using the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark tool as well as Google's own set of computationally intense benchmarks, which include ray tracing and constraint solving.[61] They unanimously reported that Chrome performed much faster than all competitors against which it had been tested, including Safari (for Windows), Firefox 3.0, Internet Explorer 7, Opera, and Internet Explorer 8.[62][63][64][65][66][67]

On September 3, 2008, Mozilla responded by stating that their own TraceMonkey JavaScript engine (then in beta), was faster than Chrome's V8 engine in some tests.[68][69][70] John Resig, Mozilla's JavaScript evangelist, further commented on the performance of different browsers on Google's own suite, finding Chrome "decimating" other browsers, but he questioned whether Google's suite was representative of real programs. He stated that Firefox 3.0 performed poorly on recursion intensive benchmarks, such as those of Google, because the Mozilla team had not implemented recursion-tracing yet.[71]

Two weeks after Chrome's launch the WebKit team announced a new JavaScript engine, SquirrelFish Extreme,[72] citing a 36% speed improvement over Chrome's V8 engine.[73][74][75]

Chrome uses DNS prefetching to speed up website lookups, as do Firefox[76] and Safari[77]. This feature is available in Internet Explorer as an extension, and in Opera as a UserScript.

Stability

The Gears team implemented a multi-process architecture in Chrome,[78] similar to Loosely Coupled Internet Explorer (LCIE) implemented by Internet Explorer 8.[79] By default, a separate process is allocated to each site instance and plugin, a procedure referred to as process isolation.[80] This prevents tasks from interfering with each other, increasing security and stability. An attacker successfully gaining access to one application cannot gain access to others,[81] and failure in one instance results in a Sad Tab screen of death, similar to the well-known Sad Mac, except only a single tab crashes instead of the whole application. This strategy exacts a fixed per-process cost up front, but results in less memory bloat overall as fragmentation is confined to each instance and no longer requires further memory allocations.[82]. Safari[83] and Firefox[84] are also adopting this architecture in upcoming versions, meaning that most common browsers will use a multi-process architecture in the near future.

Chrome includes a process management utility called Task Manager which allows the user to see what sites and plugins are using the most memory, downloading the most bytes and over-utilizing the CPU" and provides the ability to terminate them.[15]

User interface

Google Chrome's user interface on Mac OS X

By default, the main user interface includes back, forward, refresh, bookmark, go, and cancel buttons. The home button can be configured through options to take the user to the New Tab Page or a custom home page.

Tabs are the primary component of Chrome's user interface and as such, have been moved to the top of the window rather than below the controls. This subtle change contrasts with many existing tabbed browsers which are based on windows and contain tabs. Tabs (including their state) can be transferred seamlessly between window containers by dragging. Each tab has its own set of controls, including the Omnibox.[15]

The Omnibox is the URL box at the top of each tab, which combines the functionality of both the Address bar and search box. If a user enters the URL of a site previously searched from, Chrome allows pressing Tab to search the site again directly from the Omnibox. When a user starts typing in the Omnibox, Chrome provides suggestions for previously visited sites (based on the URL or in-page text), popular websites (not necessarily visited before - powered by Google Suggest), and popular searches. Although Google Suggest can be turned off, suggestions based on previously visited sites can not be turned off. Chrome will also autocomplete the URLs of sites visited often.[15] If a user types several keywords into the Omnibox and press enter, Chrome will conduct the search using the default search engine.

When Google Chrome is not maximized, the tab bar appears directly under the title bar. When maximized, the tabs become flush with the top of the titlebar. Like other browsers, it has a full-screen mode that hides the operating system's interface as well as the browser chrome.

One of Chrome's differentiating features is the New Tab Page, which can replace the browser home page and is displayed when a new tab is created. Originally, this showed thumbnails of the nine most visited web sites, along with frequent searches, recent bookmarks, and recently closed tabs; similar to Internet Explorer and Firefox with Google Toolbar 6, or Opera's Speed Dial.[15] In Google Chrome 2.0, the New Tab Page was updated to allow users to hide thumbnails they didn't want to appear.[31]

Starting in version 3.0, the New Tab Page was revamped to display thumbnails of the 8 most visited web sites. The thumbnails could be rearranged, pinned, and removed. Alternatively, a list of text links could be displayed instead of thumbnails. It also features a "Recently closed" bar that shows recently closed tabs and a "tips" section that displays hints and tricks for using the browser.[85]

Chrome includes a bookmark manager that can be accessed from a menu. Adding the command-line option: --bookmark-menu adds a bookmarks button to the right of the Omnibox that can be used in place of the bookmarks bar.[86] However, this functionality is currently unavailable on the Linux and Mac platforms.[87]

Popup windows "are scoped to the tab they came from" and will not appear outside the tab unless the user explicitly drags them out.[15]

Google Chrome's options window has three tabs: Basic, Personal Stuff, and Under the Hood. The Basic tab includes options for the home page, search engine, and default browser. The Personal Stuff tab lets users configure saved passwords, form autofill, browsing data, and themes. The Under the Hood tab allows changing network, privacy, download, and security settings.

Chrome does not have a status bar, but displays loading activity and hover-over information via a status bubble that pops up at the bottom left of the relevant page.

For web developers, Chrome features an element inspector similar to the one in Firebug.[76]

As part of Google's April Fools' Day jokes, a special build of Chrome was released on 1 April 2009 with the additional feature of being able to render pages in anaglyph 3D.[88]

Desktop shortcuts and apps

Chrome allows users to make local desktop shortcuts that open web applications in the browser. The browser, when opened in this way, contains none of the regular interface except for the title bar, so as not to "interrupt anything the user is trying to do." This allows web applications to run alongside local software (similar to Mozilla Prism and Fluid).[15]

This feature, according to Google, will be enhanced with the Chrome Web Store, a one-stop web-based web applications directory which is to be opened later in 2010.[89][90]

Aero peek capability

Google has included aero peek capability for each tab on Windows 7. This has not been added by default but can be user enabled[91], resulting in a displayed thumbnail image of the tab. This will create similar functioning to that which is already included in IE8, Firefox and other browsers.

Negative responses from beta users on the inefficiency of aero peek tabs has prevented Google from including this as a default function[92].

Extensions

On 9 September 2009, Google enabled extensions by default on Chrome's Dev channel, and provided several sample extensions for testing.[93] In December, the Google Chrome extension gallery beta began with over 300 extensions.[26][94]

Along with Google Chrome 4.0, the extension gallery was officially launched on 25 January 2010, containing over 1500 extensions.[95]

As of 22 June 2010, the extension gallery featured over 5000 extensions[96], including official extensions from The Independent[97], CEOP[98], Transport for London[99] and FIFA[100].

Themes

Starting with Google Chrome 3.0, users can install themes to alter the appearance of the browser.[101] Many free third-party themes are provided in an online gallery,[102] accessible through a "Get themes" button in Chrome's options.[103]

Automatic web page translation

Starting with Google Chrome 4.1 the application added a built-in translation bar using Google Translate. Translation is currently available for 52 languages.[104]

Release channels and updates

On 8 January 2009 Google introduced a new release system with three distinct channels: Stable, Beta, and Developer preview (called the "Dev" channel). Before this change there were only two channels: Beta and Developer preview. All previous Developer channel users were moved to the Beta channel. The reason given by Google is that the Developer channel builds are less stable and polished than those that Developer channel users were getting during Google Chrome's Beta period. The stable channel will be updated with features and fixes once they have been thoroughly tested in the Beta channel, and the Beta channel will be updated roughly monthly with stable and complete features from the Developer channel. The Developer channel is where ideas get tested (and sometimes fail) and can be very unstable at times.[105][106] On 22 July 2010 Google announced it will ramp up the speed it will release new stable versions; they will shorten the release cycles from quarterly to 6 week. [107] The faster release cycle brought a fourth channel: the "Canary" release; the name refers to using canaries in coal mines, so if a change "kills" Chrome Canary, they'll block it from the developer build. Canary will be "the most bleeding-edge official version of Chrome and somewhat of a mix between Chrome dev and the Chromium snapshot builds". A new feature of Canary is that it can be run side-by-side with any other channel; it isn't linked to the other Google Chrome installs and can therefore run different synchronization profiles, themes, and browser preferences.[108]

Chrome automatically keeps itself up to date. The details differ by platform. On Windows, it uses Google Updater, and autoupdate can be controlled via Group Policy,[109] or users can download a standalone version that does not autoupdate.[110][111] On Mac, it uses Google Update Service, and autoupdate can be controlled via the Mac OS X "defaults" system.[112] On Linux, it lets the system's normal package management system supply the updates.

Google uses its Courgette algorithm to provide the binary difference of the user's current version in relation to the new version that's about to be automatically updated to. These tiny updates are well suited to minor security fixes and allow Google to push new versions of Chrome to users quickly, thereby reducing the window of vulnerability of newly discovered security flaws.[113]

Usage tracking

Chrome sends details about its usage to Google through both optional and non-optional user tracking mechanisms.[114]

Tracking methods
Method[115] Information sent When Optional?
Installation Randomly generated token included in installer. Used to measure success rate of Google Chrome.[116]

On installation

 No
RLZ identifier[117] Encoded string, according to Google, contains non-identifying information how Chrome was downloaded and its install week, and is used to measure promotional campaigns.[116] Google provides the source code to decode this string.[118]
  • On Google search query
  • On first launch and first use of address bar[116]
 Partial[note 1][116]
clientID[119] Unique identifier along with logs of usage metrics and crashes. Unknown Yes[120]
Suggest[119] Text typed into the address bar While typing Yes
Page not found Text typed into the address bar Upon receiving "Server not found" response Yes
Bug tracker Details about crashes and failures Unknown Yes[120]

Some of the tracking mechanisms can be optionally enabled and disabled through the installation interface[citation needed] and through the browser's options dialog.[119] Unofficial builds, such as SRWare Iron and ChromePlus, seek to remove these features from the browser altogether.[115] The RLZ feature is not included in the Chromium browser either.

In March 2010, Google devised a new method to collect installation statistics: the unique ID token included with Chrome is now only used for the first connection that Google Update makes to its server. This sole remaining non-optional user tracking mechanism is removed following the server ping.[121]

Reception

Usage share of (non-IE) web browsers according to Net Applications data:[122]
Firefox Chrome Safari Opera
Other Netscape Opera Mini

The Daily Telegraph's Matthew Moore summarizes the verdict of early reviewers: "Google Chrome is attractive, fast and has some impressive new features, but may not—yet—be a threat to its Microsoft rival."[123]

Initially, Microsoft reportedly "played down the threat from Chrome" and "predicted that most people will embrace Internet Explorer 8." Opera Software said that "Chrome will strengthen the Web as the biggest application platform in the world."[124] But by February 25, 2010, BusinessWeek had reported that "For the first time in years, energy and resources are being poured into browsers, the ubiquitous programs for accessing content on the Web. Credit for this trend—a boon to consumers—goes to two parties. The first is Google, whose big plans for the Chrome browser have shaken Microsoft out of its competitive torpor and forced the software giant to pay fresh attention to its own browser, Internet Explorer. Microsoft all but ceased efforts to enhance IE after it triumphed in the last browser war, sending Netscape to its doom. Now it's back in gear."[125] Mozilla said that Chrome's introduction into the web browser market comes as "no real surprise", that "Chrome is not aimed at competing with Firefox", and furthermore that it should not affect Google's revenue relationship with Mozilla.[126][127]

Chrome's design bridges the gap between desktop and so-called "cloud computing." At the touch of a button, Chrome lets you make a desktop, Start menu, or Quick Launch shortcut to any Web page or Web application, blurring the line between what's online and what's inside your PC. For example, I created a desktop shortcut for Google Maps. When you create a shortcut for a Web application, Chrome strips away all of the toolbars and tabs from the window, leaving you with something that feels much more like a desktop application than like a Web application or page. —PC World[128]

On 9 September 2008, when Chrome was still in beta, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) issued a statement about their first examination of Chrome, expressing a concern over the prominent download links on Google's German web page, because "beta versions should not be employed for general use applications" and browser manufacturers should provide appropriate instructions regarding the use of pre-released software. They did, however, praise the browser's technical contribution to improving security on the web.[129]

Concern about Chrome's optional usage collection and tracking have been noted in several publications.[130][131] On 2 September 2008, a CNET news item[132] drew attention to a passage in the terms of service for the initial beta release, which seemed to grant to Google a license to all content transferred via the Chrome browser. The passage in question was inherited from the general Google terms of service.[133] On the same day, Google responded to this criticism by stating that the language used was borrowed from other products, and removed the passage in question from the Terms of Service.[134] Google noted that this change would "apply retroactively to all users who have downloaded Google Chrome."[135] There was subsequent concern and confusion about whether and what information the program communicates back to Google. The company stated that usage metrics are only sent when users opt in by checking the option "help make Google Chrome better by automatically sending usage statistics and crash reports to Google" when the browser is installed.[136]

The optional suggestion service included in Google Chrome has been criticized because it provides the information typed into the Omnibox to Google before the user even hits return. This allows Google to provide URL suggestions, but also provides Google with web usage information tied to an IP address. The feature can be selected off in the options-under the hood-privacy box.[137]

See also

Free software portal

References

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  1. ^ Browser must be downloaded directly from the Google Chrome website to opt-out of the RLZ Identifier.

External links

Wikinews has related news: Google launches web browser, dubbed Chrome
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Google Chrome
Google Inc.
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Rich Internet applications
Basic frameworks Adobe Flex · Apache Pivot · Curl · Google App Engine · JavaFX · Lively Kernel · Silverlight · SproutCore · Cappuccino · XULRunner
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Related Web application framework · Fat client · Vector graphics · JavaScript · Layout engine · Runtime · Widget engine · ActiveX · Java applet · User interface markup language

Categories: 2008 software | C++ software | Cloud clients | Free web browsers | Google services | Windows web browsers | Software based on Webkit | Site-specific browsing

 

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'Google Chrome' News
You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz - San Francisco Chronicle
sfgate.com
You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz - San Francisco Chronicle
Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:43:36 GMT+00:00
San Francisco Chronicle Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome , Opera 10. Take the number of copies of Windows 7 sells each second, on average, and multiply it by what ...
Google News Search: Google Chrome,
Sun Jul 11 01:10:34 2010
'Google Chrome' Images
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img.article.pchome.net
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Web Google Chrome Google Google Mozilla Google IE

Yahoo Images Search: Google Chrome,
Fri Jul 16 18:50:35 2010
'Google Chrome' Blogs
Flash arrives in Google's Chrome browser | Deep Tech - CNET News
news.cnet.com
Flash arrives in Google's Chrome browser | Deep Tech - CNET News

Stephen Shankland

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:27:55 GM

Taking a pragmatic view of how the Web works, . Google. incorporates Adobe's Flash plug-in directly into its browser. Read this blog post by Stephen Shankland on Deep Tech.

Google Blogs Search: Google Chrome,
Mon Jul 5 18:48:06 2010
'Google Chrome' Answers
Google Chrome?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Q. Whenever i download google chrome it always reverts back to regular google the next time i try using the internet..help
Asked by Lacey M - Mon May 4 16:19:06 2009 - - 3 Answers - 0 Comments

A. Lets get one thing straight. Google chrome is a web browser. Google is a search engine just like yahoo, ninemsn etc and so forth. So... do u get the difference. Oh yeah that wasn't spose to come out mean.
Answered by RahRah29 - Tue May 5 06:09:29 2009

Yahoo Answers Search: Google Chrome,
Thu Jul 22 21:16:48 2010
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