Google Creates Internet Browser to Take on Microsoft

[Wretched Excess]

interesting.  I will definitely check this out.

Google Creates Internet Browser to Take on Microsoft

 Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., owner of the most popular Internet search engine, will offer its own free Web browsing software to challenge Microsoft Corp.

The browser, known as Chrome, will be available as a test version for download tomorrow in more than 100 countries, Mountain View, California-based Google said today in a blog post. The software is designed to isolate flawed Web pages so users can close them without shutting down the entire browser.

Google is battling Microsoft for customers who use a browser for tasks such as e-mail, calendars and word processing, applications that have traditionally been handled with software stored on a computer. A Web browser could help Google lure users to its programs and search engine, said analyst Roger Kay.

``This gives Google another opportunity to protect its flank and to create a new branding position,'' said Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates in Wayland, Massachusetts. ``The browser is a broader platform than they currently have.''

The market for Web-based software may reach $160 billion by 2011, including revenue from advertising, Merrill Lynch & Co. said in a May report.

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[Chris_]

What about Firefox?

[Wretched Excess]

What about Firefox?

I love firefox.  I doubt I would change . . . I dunno, though, I am addicted to some of the google applications . . . google calendar and gmail, especially.  if their browser is integrated into their other apps, it would be awfully sexy.


 

[thundley4]

I'll probably  download it and give it a try.  I'm happy using both Firefox and IE7, but I always try out new software.

[Chris_]

I'll probably  download it and give it a try.  I'm happy using both Firefox and IE7, but I always try out new software.

Me too -- I even use Safari for some things...

[Jim]

I use IE for networking into work as I'm forced to.

I'll try it as it should be a little more free from malicious attack, at least for a while.

[Wretched Excess]

a more detailed story about google's new web browser.

Google to Release Open-Source 'Chrome' Browser

Are Internet Explorer and Firefox ready to do battle with Chrome?

Google announced Monday that it has been hard at work on an open-source browser known as Chrome, a beta version of which will be released in 100 countries on Tuesday.

New features will included "isolated" tabs designed to prevent browser crashes and a more powerful JavaScript engine.
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"By keeping each tab in an isolated 'sandbox', we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites," Pichai and Upson wrote.

Having a number of tabs open in a single browser eats up memory. If a browser is running slow, a user's natural inclination is to close a few tabs? In some cases, however, little bits of the closed tabs remain, which eats up space and requires the operating system to grow the browser's address space, according to Google. With Chrome, there will be a different tab for each process, including plug-ins.

"When a tab is closed in Google Chrome, you're ending the whole process," according to the comic. "You can look under the hood with Google Chrome's task mananger to see what sites are using the most memory, downloading the most bytes and abusing your CPU" so you can place "blame where blame belongs."

[Chris]

"By keeping each tab in an isolated 'sandbox', we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites," Pichai and Upson wrote.

Microsoft can't even do that with their OS, let alone a web browser.  They said they did, but it doesn't always work that way. 

[Ptarmigan]

I have known that Google would release their own Internet browser. Also, they are releasing their own cellphone.

[thundley4]

I've downloaded and installed it, but haven't used it much . It's kind of odd looking.

[Chris]

Another article on Chrome

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/01/no-joke-google-introduces-its-own-browser-with-a-cartoon/

[thundley4]

It loads identical pages much faster than IE. No add-ons available, but it plays youtube videos, flash videos, and displays pdf files without any extra installs.

Chrome

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

As we reported yesterday, Google has released the first beta of their new web browser, Google Chrome. Within a day of its release, there are already a couple of points that users should be cautioned of before using this new browser.

The first, is the popular "carpet bomb" vulnerability that still exists within Chrome, as pointed out on our forums by our member matessim. This vulnerability allows malicious websites to drive by download and execute programs on your machine. Our visitors may remember the uproar that this same vulnerability caused for Safari users, and that Apple patched the carpet-bombing issue with Safari v3.1.2. Chrome is vulnerable to this exploit because it is based on the same engine, WebKit 525.13, and Google did not patch or update the engine before releasing the software.

The other, and less technical, problem with Chrome exists in its EULA. More specifically, the point that would seem to give Google rights to anything you post on the Internet while using their browser, mostly in conjunction with the promotion of its services.

"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services." Not exactly something you're used to seeing in a web browser's license agreement.

There is also the point that Google reserves the right to automatically update and install Chrome. Interesting, "the software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the services." ... so says the EULA.

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/08/09/03/google-chrome-out-for-one-day-already-reasons-to-avoid

[Uhhuh35]

I downloaded it yesterday, I'll install it tonight and see... wait..what's this?

The first, is the popular "carpet bomb" vulnerability that still exists within Chrome. This vulnerability allows malicious websites to drive by download and execute programs on your machine.

Uh, I think I'll just shitcan this for now!
 

[thundley4]

I did that shortly after readin the full article. 

[Chris_]

Thanks Snugs -- I, too, will wait until they work these issues out. Especially the EULA.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Thanks Snugs -- I, too, will wait until they work these issues out. Especially the EULA.

The latest word is Google is retroactively repealing the absurd part of its EULA.

Now the only real issue is the carpet-bombing...and any other issues that might pop-up from a generally untried program.