Google Chrome launch on 2 September

Google has surprised the industry with the launch of its new Chrome browser. Google Chrome, newest product is scheduled to be launched on 2 September 2008. It is a Browser! (read Google announcement in their blog: A fresh take on the browser)

After having spent much of Google's time for apps that work from inside the browser, Google has come up to launch its own Browser to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox. In August 2008, Internet Explorer market share was 50.5% (26% IE 7 + 24.5% IE 6) against Firefox's 43.7%. With the entry of Google Chrome, these two top browsers will be feeling the heat and might come up with some new ideas and renovate their browsers to stay ahead of go Google Chrome.

Google will launch Google Chrome in over 100 countries. Its features discussed in a comic book (30+ pages) which you can find it here!

One of the features in Google Chrome include an auto-suggest function that will throw up suggestions for searches, as well as the top pages a user has visited before, and popular sites.

There is also full-text search functionality for browsing history, removing the need for bookmarks, and when a user opens a new tab they will be presented with their nine most visited pages alongside the most searched-for sites.

"We realised that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser," wrote Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director, on the Google Blog.

"What we really needed was not just a browser, but a modern platform for web pages and applications. That's what we set out to build."

[01 September 2008]