What’s your browser of choice?

Firefox? Safari? Internet Explorer?

Well, if you’re like some of the Reputation.com crew you utilize multiple browsers to take advantage of new features and fun tech stuff. Today Google has thrown its hat into the browser ring, announcing their new web browser, Chrome.

The new Google browser  is only in Beta at the moment, but as of Tuesday the 2nd of September it will be released in 100 countries. Unlike Google’s all-powerful, all-knowing algorithm, it’s also open-source.

News of the browser came out via comic, and it gives a lot of insight into what Google was thinking and wanted to achieve with a browser built from scratch.

Here’s a quick break down of features:

The browser incorporates a JavaScript Virtual Machine called V8.

A team in Denmark built it from scratch and made it open-source so other browsers could include it. V8 was intended to speed up JavaScript performance in the browser, given the ubiquity of that important component on the web today. According to the Google comic, they’re using a “multi-process design” which they say means, “a bit more memory up front” but over time also “less memory bloat.” Chrome will have a task manager so you will be able to tell at a glance when web pages or plug-ins use a lot of memory and “plac[e] blame where blame belongs.”

Google Chrome uses special tabs.

Unlike the “traditional” tabs seen in Firefox, Chrome puts the tab buttons on the upper side of the window, not below the address bar.

Google Chrome has auto-completion features.

Google rolls out something they call ’omnibox’, that offers search suggestions, top pages you’ve visited, pages you didn’t visit but which are popular and more.

Speed Dial for the Web

The default homepage Chrome presents is a kind of “speed dial” feature, similar to the one in the Opera browser. The page displays your most visited webpages as 9 screenshot thumbnails. On the your recent searches and your recently bookmarked pages, as well as recently closed tabs are displayed.

Added Privacy

Chrome has a privacy mode; according to Google you can create an “incognito” window “and nothing that occurs in that window is ever logged on your computer.” Safari offers this as Private Browsing, the latest version of Internet Explorer calls this InPrivate.

App Integration

Web apps are launchable in their own browser window without the address bar or toolbar. Mozilla has been working on a similar project they call Prism that is supposed to do similar things.

Smart Security

Chrome constantly downloads lists of harmful sites to help fight against malware and phishing attempts. Google says that whatever information runs in a tab is sandboxed so that it won’t affect your machine and can be safely closed.

Could Google’s search dominance be bolstered by their innovative smart browser? Stay tuned for all the latest from the Reputation.com Blog.
This could get interesting.