New Open Source Browser Combines Simple User-Interface with
Sophisticated Technology
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) today launched Google ChromeTM,
a new open source browser intended to create a better web experience for
users around the world. Available in beta in more than 40 languages,
Google Chrome is a new approach to the browser that’s
based on the simplicity and power that users have come to expect from
Google products.
In the early days of the Internet, web pages were frequently little more
than text. But today the web has evolved into a powerful platform that
enables users to collaborate with friends and colleagues through email
and other web applications, edit documents, watch videos, listen to
music, manage finances and much more. Google Chrome was built for
today's web and for the applications of tomorrow.
“We think of the browser as the window to the
web – it’s a tool
for users to interact with the web sites and applications they care
about, and it’s important that we don’t
get in the way of that experience," said Sundar Pichai, Vice President
of Product Management, Google Inc. "Just like the classic Google
homepage, Google Chrome has a simple user interface with a sophisticated
core to enable the modern web."
Making the web experience better for users
Google Chrome was designed to make it easy for users to search and
navigate the web for the content they’re
looking for.
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A combined search and address bar quickly takes users where they want
to go, often in just a few keystrokes.
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When users open a new tab in Google Chrome, they'll see a page that
includes snapshots of their most-visited sites, recent searches and
bookmarks, making it even easier to navigate the web.
Google Chrome was engineered to deliver a seamless web experience for
users. At its core is a multi-process platform that helps provide users
with enhanced stability and security.
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Each browser tab operates as a separate process; by isolating tabs,
should one tab crash or misbehave, others remain stable and
responsive, and users can continue working without having to restart
Google Chrome.
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Google also built a new JavaScript engine, V8, which not only speeds
up today's web applications, but enables a whole new class of web
applications that couldn't exist on today's browsers.
Contributing to the innovation of browsers through openness
"While we see this as a fundamental shift in the way people think about
browsers, we realize that we couldn’t have
created Google Chrome on our own,” said Linus
Upson, Director of Engineering, Google Inc. “Google
Chrome was built upon other open source projects that are making
significant contributions to browser technology and have helped to spur
competition and innovation.”
To further advance the openness of the web, Google Chrome is being
released as an open source project under the name Chromium. The intent
is that Google will help make future browsers better by contributing the
underlying technology in Google Chrome to the market, while continuing
to develop additional features.
How to get Google Chrome
Google Chrome can be downloaded at www.google.com/chrome.
It is being released in beta for Windows in over 100 countries in the
following languages: Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Dutch,
French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Portugal),
Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Spanish (Latin America), Turkish,
English (US), English (UK), Arabic, Czech, Danish, Hebrew, Hindi,
Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Indonesian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Catalan,
Croatian, Filipino, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian,
Romanian, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Estonian.
Google Chrome for Mac and Linux users will be available in the coming
months. For more information on the open source project, Chromium, visit www.chromium.org.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For screen shots or b-roll, visit www.google.com/chrome/press.
About Google Inc.
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people
around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford
Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top Web
property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising
program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while
enhancing the overall Web experience for users. Google is headquartered
in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.
For more information, visit www.google.com.
Google and Google Chrome are a trademark of Google Inc. All other
company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies
with which they are associated.
Google Inc.
Erin Fors, 650-930-3555
press@google.com
