Huckleberry Pie Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 It looks like as if Google's now entering the browser rivalry between IE and Firefox, as quoted: SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. is releasing its own Web browser in a long-anticipated move aimed at countering the dominance of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer and ensuring easy access to its market-leading search engine.The Mountain View-based company took the unusual step of announcing its latest product on the Labor Day holiday after it prematurely sent out a comic book drawn up to herald the new browser's arrival. The free browser, called "Chrome," is supposed to be available for downloading Tuesday in more than 100 countries for computers running on Microsoft's Windows operating system. Google said it's still working on versions compatible with Apple Inc.'s Mac computer and the Linux operating system. Google's browser is expected to hit the market a week after Microsoft's unveiling of a test version of its latest browser update, Internet Explorer 8. The tweaks include more tools for Web surfers to cloak their online preferences, creating a shield that could make it more difficult for Google and other marketing networks to figure out which ads are most likely to appeal to which individuals. Although Google is using a cartoonish approach to promote Chrome, the new browser underscores the gravity of Google's rivalry with Microsoft, whose Internet Explorer is used by about 75 percent of Web surfers. Google's lead in the lucrative Internet search market is nearly as commanding, with its engine processing nearly two-thirds of the Web's queries. For the past few years, Google has been trying to take advantage of its search engine's popularity to loosen Microsoft's grip on how most people interact with personal computers. The assault so far has been focused on a bundle of computer programs, including word processing and spreadsheet applications, that Google offers as an alternative to one of Microsoft's biggest money makers, its Office suite of products. Google has tried to make its alternatives more appealing and accessible by hosting them for free over Internet connections instead of requiring users to pay a licensing fee to install them on individual computers, as Microsoft typically does. Meanwhile, Microsoft has tried to thwart Google by investing billions in the development of its own search engine and making an unsuccessful attempt to buy Yahoo Inc. for $47.5 billion. The tensions between Microsoft and Google now seem likely to escalate with Google's foray into Web browsing. Until now, Google had been trying to undermine Internet Explorer by supporting Firefox, a Web browser developed by the open-source Mozilla Foundation. Bolstered by an advertising partnership with Google's search engine, Firefox ranks as the second most popular browser, with a market share of more than 10 percent. Google recently extended its advertising alliance with Firefox through 2001. Bearing the stamp of Google's renowned brand, Chrome could be an even more formidable rival to Explorer. Still, Google's name is no guarantee of success. For instance, Google's instant messaging service hasn't made come close to catching up to the market-leading products made by Yahoo, Microsoft and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL. In a blog post Monday, Google touted Chrome as a more sophisticated Web browser better suited for displaying the dynamic and interactive content blossoming on the Web as people migrate from television, radio and newspapers. "The Web gets better with more options and innovation," Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, Google's engineering director, wrote in the posting. "Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the Web even better." Microsoft brushed aside the threat posed by Google in a statement Monday from Dean Hachamovitch, Internet Explorer's general manager. "The browser landscape is highly competitive, but people will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their fingertips ... and, more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal data online," Hachamovitch said. Even as it has backed Firefox, Google has openly fretted about the possible ramifications of Microsoft's huge lead in Web browsing. Google is worried that Microsoft could abuse its power by manipulating Internet Explorer's default settings in a way that might diminish traffic to Google's search engine, which serves as the hub of the largest online ad network. In 2006, Google contacted the Justice Department to raise alarms about changes to Internet Explorer that Google believed made it more difficult to install search toolbars made by Microsoft's rivals. Although regulators decided not to intervene, Microsoft subsequently modified the way Explorer handled the selection of search toolbars. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WRX22B1998 Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 ooh but what will it have that ff3 doesnt? a preinstalled google bar? lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaz The Great Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 I'll download and try it out later on when I get on my PC. I have hopes for it, but only because I trust Google and I want them to overtake the PC industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTA Don Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Gugle Krowm! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris82 Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Looks like it has some very nice features, what I'd like to see though is them combine the two. I don't want to have to lose all my FF features just for the chrome features. I also don't like the WebKit engine-is AIDS. I'm with Firefox until Firefox Chrome is released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highwire Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 (edited) Im gonna try this out in a few. Ill see whats more reliable I.E., Chrome or FF edit: I'm on Chrome right now its pretty good but the scrolling with my Touch Pad is way to fast. Edited September 2, 2008 by auygjhsagy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charger Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 I downloaded hours ago, its nice and fast. But I miss some of the features from FF. The scroll bar is bad, I try to scroll up and it leads me back to the bottom of the page. I'll keep using it for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claude-5 Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 im gonna test this out later, I hope it good, just like everything else from google Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM™ Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 Is pretty nice. Like the layout, but the scroll bar doesn't work for me. I can only scroll up and down, but never hold the button and get an image of the scroll. But yeah, this is most likely to get fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huckleberry Pie Posted September 3, 2008 Author Share Posted September 3, 2008 (edited) Is pretty nice. Like the layout, but the scroll bar doesn't work for me. I can only scroll up and down, but never hold the button and get an image of the scroll.But yeah, this is most likely to get fixed. Agreed... And, if you load new tabs, Chrome loads it as a separate process; fire up Task Manager and you'll see several chrome.exe processes... Edited September 3, 2008 by Huckleberry Pie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hansui Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 i'm going to download this but it looks like it has lots of errors to be fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLlamaLlama Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 Good, but by no means great. Nice, big space for your browsing-ness, a simple layout, comfortable to use, everything where it should be. The blue is a bit.... well, blue, haven't checked to see if there are colouration preferences yet. Scrolling works fine for me btw, can't free scroll, but the wheel and bar work fine. Hope better things come post-beta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaz The Great Posted September 4, 2008 Share Posted September 4, 2008 Is pretty nice. Like the layout, but the scroll bar doesn't work for me. I can only scroll up and down, but never hold the button and get an image of the scroll.But yeah, this is most likely to get fixed. Agreed... And, if you load new tabs, Chrome loads it as a separate process; fire up Task Manager and you'll see several chrome.exe processes... That's not good. Hopefully that's corrected. I mean, it's hella early still.... So.... I have faith still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLlamaLlama Posted September 4, 2008 Share Posted September 4, 2008 This thing doesn't display some pages properly. In firefox, go to www.thegtaplace.com/rss.php Now try in Chrome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaz The Great Posted September 4, 2008 Share Posted September 4, 2008 I get 404..... Anyways.... Yeah, it's pretty fast.... But I doubt I could give up my extensions just yet.... Too use to my personalized tabbed browsing. Alright, should've noticed the problem immediately. But yeah, that definitely isn't showing up properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris82 Posted September 4, 2008 Share Posted September 4, 2008 oh wait lol WebKit Rendering engine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charger Posted September 6, 2008 Share Posted September 6, 2008 Is pretty nice. Like the layout, but the scroll bar doesn't work for me. I can only scroll up and down, but never hold the button and get an image of the scroll.But yeah, this is most likely to get fixed. Agreed... And, if you load new tabs, Chrome loads it as a separate process; fire up Task Manager and you'll see several chrome.exe processes... That's actually good, if one of your Tabs crashes, the others remain open. It also does not use lots of memory. Its a great feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustADummy Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Yeah, the browser is pretty fast... But that seems like a mix of FF and Opera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claude-5 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 better than i expected it to be, fast, reliable, but not 2 great to use, it always puts itself into fullscreen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustADummy Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Oh, and it lags on "heavy" javascript sites Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaz The Great Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 Is pretty nice. Like the layout, but the scroll bar doesn't work for me. I can only scroll up and down, but never hold the button and get an image of the scroll.But yeah, this is most likely to get fixed. Agreed... And, if you load new tabs, Chrome loads it as a separate process; fire up Task Manager and you'll see several chrome.exe processes... That's actually good, if one of your Tabs crashes, the others remain open. It also does not use lots of memory. Its a great feature. Ummm... It could end up using more memory. And tab crashes are no problem... I have Tab Mixer Plus..... If Firefox crashes I can just open it right back up to everything I had open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted September 13, 2008 Share Posted September 13, 2008 I'll try this out some time next week and see what it's like. I can't see myself giving up Firefox though. Too many valuable extensions I use every day. 75% still use IE? So 75% of Internet users are idiots. Though, looking at it an alternative way. 75% of Internet users are keeping IT support employees secure in their jobs! Guess that's good for everyone's economy. IE usage on TGTAP is down to about 50% though which is great to see. It's good that we've been able to promote the usage of alternative browsers in forum topics and such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claude-5 Posted September 13, 2008 Share Posted September 13, 2008 i only use IE on this site when msn directs me to my email which directs me here, all other times i use firefox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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