HitChrome

Back in September of 2008 Google entered the web browser arena with the Beta release of their new Chrome browser. On the Google Chrome web site, this explanation is posted regarding why they chose to build Chrome: “So much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if you started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. 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. 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.”

Millions have downloaded and tried Chrome already. It has a unique interface and some innovative features. However, within days of its release it was found to have a couple security issues. In Google’s defense, this is a Beta version of the software and Chrome was scrutinized heavily by security researchers since it was from Google- the Web company. But, those flaws are not reason enough to not check Chrome out.

You can read overview of the security features of Google Chrome, which also contains a link to download the latest version of the software if you care to take it for a spin.

With the full release of Chrome 1.0 in December, Google has just released Chrome 2.0 alpha that brings many noticeable improvements over Chrome 1.0. With this new alpha release of Chrome 2.0, the browser has been overhauled in which it handles HTTP.

Chrome 2.0 browser also includes the addition of auto-complete in text fields, full page zoom, improvements in spell checker, and auto scroll. Google also states that the 2.0 alpha is more reliable and faster browsing is achieved by accessing your hard drive less often.

Now you can even import bookmarks from Google Bookmarks, a feature that was not found in Chrome 1.0. You also have the ability to drag a tab to certain positions on your monitor and have a docking icon appear.

One interesting feature, worth mention, is the “Profiles” feature in this new release. The “Profiles” feature lets users separate their browser settings, including bookmarks, history, and cookies into different categories. For example if you use your work computer for personal use, you can set up a work profile and a personal profile so that your bookmarks, history and home pages are kept separate.

A new version of WebKit rendering engine has also been implemented in Chrome 2.0 that’s the same as the one used in Apple’s Safari 3.1 web browser. The new rendering engine enables some CSS coding features such as reflections, masks, gradients, and canvas drawing.

To get the new version of Chrome 2.0 you will need to have Chrome 1.0 installed on your PC. You will also need to subscribe to Google’s Developer Preview Channel. Keep in mind that Chrome 2.0 is an alpha release and expect it to crash quite often.

The focus of Chrome 2.0 is on the implementation of a number of new features, including some key features missing from the first version. In addition, some bug fixes and security updates have been made as well.

Updates to the Chrome browser include the addition of form auto complete (one of the features most obviously missing from the initial release that lets Chrome remember what has been typed into fields on Web pages), full-page zoom, spell checking improvements, and auto-scrolling.

Google on Thursday released the pre-beta, officially called 2.0.156.1, to its Dev Channel, which is where developers get a chance to take a look at possibly new features.

Moreover Google said Friday it hopes to release versions for Mac OS X and Linux by the first half of the year and released a new version Wednesday that paves the way for the most requested feature, extensions. Brian Rakowski, Chrome’s product manager, said the company wants to release Chrome for Mac and Linux before the first half of 2009 is up.

Both Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, and Microsoft, whose Internet Explorer still accounts for nearly 70% of all browsers, rely on periodic major updates that go through long periods of beta testing. Mozilla, for instance, is working through beta testing of Firefox 3.1, the successor to Firefox 3.0, which launched in June 2008.

Until now, Google has only offered Chrome on Windows in two versions, the Stable-channel and the Dev-Channel. With the latest dev-channel release, Google is adding a third development milestone release with a Beta-channel as well.

Several computer vendors are exploring the possibility of including Google Chrome as the default Internet Web browser of choice. Most PCs and laptops traditionally come with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer installed.

Google Inc is talking with PC vendors to include its Chrome Web browser new desktop PCs, notebooks, and laptops. New PCs customarily come with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the default browser. The Microsoft operating system, such as Windows and Vista, include IE as the default.

Even so, top companies such as Dell, HP, Acer, and Toshiba are showing interest in a pre-install agreement with Google. The agreement would replace Internet Explorer as the default Internet Web browser with Google Chrome.

“We could work with an OEM and have them ship computers with Chrome pre-installed,” Sundar Pichai, Vice President of Product Management at Google, said in a statement.

The search engine giant wants to gain more acceptance for its latest project by pre-installing it on new PCs. Some vendors already like the idea.

Internet Explorer currently leads the market which critics say having the browser set as a default is the primary reason. In fact, IE has been the default Internet Web browser for over a decade.

Google Chrome recently came out of beta. New versions of the browser will be released in January 2009 for Linux and Mac computers.

Google has made some interesting changes to the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) which users are required to sign.

Chrome, which was launched for beta testing only in September this year, has already performed well in such a short period, and now Google is going all out to promote it even further, and increase their customer base.

Thus the latest changes to the EULA have been made keeping this target in mind. Some of the noteworthy changes are mentioned below.

Earlier, people who were not of a legal age to enter into an agreement with Google, were not allowed (legally) to use Chrome. Now, that restriction has been totally done away with.

Google had made it mandatory for users to provide personal identification and contact data, and also keep it up to date, while signing the EULA. That section is now no longer applicable.

Google had specifically banned the use of automated access to their browser. They have now decided to delete that clause, as long as the user does not indulge in any activity that could interrupt or disrupt the services. Read the rest of this entry »

Google’s strategy to update its browser more frequently has helped the software to jump back over the 1% mark again. Chrome’s market share and the release of the final version of the browser helped the software to bounce back.

Chrome’s market share does not reflect the media attention the software usually receives and the browser needs still time to grow until it could be considered a “major” browser that can compete with the big boys. If we believe data published by Net Applications, there are seven times more Safari users than Chrome users, twenty times more Firefox users and about 70 times more IE users globally.

But it seems that Google has found an effective strategy to increase its market share – frequent updates. Google began pushing its updates more often in late October, not quite two months after the browser’s initial release and was able to slow the browser’s market share decline and grow its share again. According to Net Applications, Chrome hit a record 1.16% three days after its release on September 4 and hit its lowest share at 0.69% on October 15.

Curiously enough, this was about the same time when Microsoft was able to almost match Chrome’s market share with its IE8 beta 2 release, which is pictured in our chart as well.

Last week’s release of Chrome 1.0 pushed Chrome back above the 1.0% mark for the first time since September. Chrome saw a 1.05% share on Saturday and 1.09% on Sunday. However, it appears that Google has now created a solid user base from where it may be able to grow.

The Official Google Blog stated that the full release comes after 14 product updates and that Chrome 1.0 is more stable and much faster than former one.

Video plug-ins optimization is one of the biggest improvements users wanted from Google Chrome. The browser had always had glitches in playing videos, even from Google’s subsidiary, YouTube. The official blog states that these bugs were fixed in the final release. Furthermore, the blog states that the “V8 JavaScript engine runs 1.4 times faster” on Chrome 1.0 compared to its first beta release.

PC Magazine reviewed the browser yesterday and reported a 24 percent increase in speed, Chrome being much snappier than Internet Explorer and comparable with Mozilla Firefox 3.1 Beta 2. Yet, the reviewer reported that Google Chrome still uses the biggest amount of RAM, almost double than Firefox, when opening complex websites.

Google Chrome has been continuously updated since its initial release in September 2008. However, there are still issues that Chrome’s users have to cope with. Among the most important flaws of Google Chrome is the inability to access websites like Windows’ Hotmail because the browser is still not officially supported. Also, it is somehow surprising that even the company’s own Google Zeitgeist 2008 Website isn’t properly displayed in Google Chrome.

In the near future, it is expected that Google will release Linux and Mac version of Google Chrome, along with RSS support and an extensions platform.

Google has claimed that in the 100 days since it unveiled the beta version of its Google Chrome browser, it has attracted more than 10 million active users on all seven continents.

Since its release, Google has released 14 updates to the product, and as of today, the company is removing the ‘beta’ label from the browser.

“Google Chrome is a better browser today, thanks to the many users who sent their feedback, and the many more who enabled automatic crash reports, helping us rapidly diagnose and fix issues,” said Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management at Google.

Among the problems that had to be fixed during the beta period were video and audio glitches.

One of the early distinguishing factors about Google Chrome was the speed of the browser in terms of scripting, and Google says this has been boosted 1.4 times faster on the SunSpider benchmark and 1.5 times faster on the V8 benchmark. “And there’s more speed to come,” Pichai said.

Bookmark features were a top request from early adopters, and Google’s engineers have made it easier to switch between another browser and Chrome with bookmark import and export features. Read the rest of this entry »

Google is thinking of restricting its Chrome browser’s ability to look at local Web pages to tighten the Web browser’s security.

According to Information Week , insider attacks tend to pose a greater computer security risk than external ones because insiders have greater systems access privileges.

In the last security fix for a vulnerability that allowed downloaded HTML files to read other local files and send them out to the Internet there was a clue to Google’s thinking on the problem.

Part of the fix included preventing local files from connecting to the Web with an XMLHttpRequest(), a widely used means of sending text data from Web browsers to Web servers.

Now in the Chromium Blog, Google engineer Adam Barth suggested that engineers wanted to extend this sort of restriction and wants additional restrictions on local Web pages.

This could include directory-based restrictions or preventing local Web pages from sending information to the Internet across a broader set of protocols.

Google does not like Microsoft’s technique of disabling JavaScript with an ‘infobar’ override. It thinks that users are too dumb to understand the security implications of re-enabling JavaScript.

However if Chrome does become that inflexible offline Web applications, like the open source TiddlyWiki, which relies on local HTML pages, could become useless. X

Google is actively expanding the functionality of its open source Chrome browser, which launched earlier this year. The latest features under active development are made available through the developer update channel prior to public release.

The latest developer channel builds include a full bookmark manager with a built-in search feature and support for organizing bookmarks into nested folders. I tested this feature by importing my Firefox bookmarks. The new bookmark manager appears to be loosely modeled after the one in Firefox. Like the rest of Chrome, it is still relatively minimalistic but it gets the job done. The sidebar displays the expandable folder heirarchy and the main pane shows a list of all of the bookmarks in the selected folder. Unlike Firefox, Chrome’s bookmark manager does not have an editing panel. You can modify a bookmark through the bookmark manager by right-clicking and selecting edit.

Chrome users who want to help test and get an early look at new improvements can use the Chrome channel chooser to select the developer channel. Instructions on how to do this are available at the Chromium documentation web site. For more information about the latest features and bugs, see the developer release at the Chrome release blog. Keep in mind that the developer channel versions are unstable testing builds and aren’t intended to be as robust as official releases.