Google Chrome
Encyclopedia
Google Chrome is a web browser
developed by Google
that uses the WebKit
layout engine
. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows
on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface
frame, or "chrome", of web browsers. As of November 2011, Chrome is the second most widely used browser with 25.69% worldwide usage share of web browsers
and the most popular browser in South America
, according to StatCounter
.
In September 2008, Google released a large portion of Chrome's source code, including its V8 JavaScript engine
, as an open source
project entitled Chromium
. This move enabled third-party developers to study the underlying source code and to help port the browser to the Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. Google also expressed hope that other browsers would adopt the V8 JavaScript engine
to improve web application performance. The Google-authored portion of Chromium is released under the permissive BSD license, which allows portions to be incorporated into both open source and closed source software programs. Other portions of the source code are subject to a variety of open source licenses. Chromium implements a similar feature set as Chrome, but lacks built-in automatic updates, built-in PDF reader and Google branding, and most noticeably has a blue-colored logo in place of the multicolored Google logo.
was against the idea of building an independent web browser. He stated that "At the time, Google was a small company", and he did not want to go through "bruising browser wars". However, after co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page hired several Mozilla Firefox
developers and built a demonstration of Chrome, Schmidt admitted that "It was so good that it essentially forced me to change my mind".
was to be sent to journalists and bloggers explaining the features for the new browser. Copies intended for Europe were shipped early and German blogger Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped
made a scanned copy of the 38-page comic available on his website after receiving it on September 1, 2008. Google subsequently made the comic available on Google Books and mentioned it on their official blog along with an explanation for the early release.
The browser was first publicly released for Microsoft Windows (XP and later versions) on September 2, 2008 in 43 languages, officially a beta version. Chrome quickly gained about 1% market share despite being only available for Microsoft Windows at that time. After the initial surge, usage share dropped until it hit a low of 0.69% in October 2008. It then started rising again and by December 2008, Chrome again passed the 1% threshold.
In early January 2009, CNET
reported that Google planned to release versions of Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux in the first half of the year. The first official Chrome Mac OS X and Linux developer previews were announced on June 4, 2009 with a blog post saying they were missing many features and were intended for early feedback rather than general use.
In December 2009, Google released beta versions of Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux. Google Chrome 5.0, announced on May 25, 2010, was the first stable release to support all three platforms.
Chrome was one of the twelve browsers offered to European Economic Area
users of Microsoft Windows
in 2010.
's Netscape Portable Runtime
, Network Security Services
, NPAPI
, as well as SQLite
and a number of other open-source projects. The JavaScript
virtual machine
was considered a sufficiently important project to be split off (as was Adobe
/Mozilla
's Tamarin
) and handled by a separate team in Denmark
coordinated by Lars Bak
at Aarhus
. According to Google, existing implementations were designed "for small programs, where the performance and interactivity of the system weren't that important", but web application
s such as Gmail
"are using the web browser to the fullest when it comes to DOM
manipulations and JavaScript
", and therefore would significantly benefit from a JavaScript engine that could work faster.
Chrome uses the WebKit
rendering engine to display web pages, on advice from the Android team. Like most browsers, Chrome was extensively tested internally before release with unit testing, "automated user interface testing of scripted user actions", and fuzz testing
, as well as WebKit's layout tests (99% of which Chrome is claimed to have passed). New browser builds are automatically tested against tens of thousands of commonly accessed websites inside the Google index within 20–30 minutes.
The Windows version of Chrome includes Gears
, which adds features for web developer
s typically relating to the building of web applications (including offline support). However, Google is phasing out Gears in favor of HTML5.
In December 2010 Google announced that to make deploying Chrome easier in a business environment they would provide an official Chrome MSI package
. The normal downloaded Chrome installer puts the browser in the user's home directory and provides invisible background updates, but the MSI package will allow installation at the system level, providing system administrators control over the update process. – it was formerly possible only when Chrome was installed using Google Pack
. Google also created Group Policies
to fine tune the behavior of Chrome in the business environment, for example setting automatic updates interval, a home page etc.
On January 11, 2011 the Chrome Product manager, Mike Jazayeri, announced that Chrome will no longer support H.264 video codec
for its HTML 5 player, citing the desire to bring Google Chrome more inline with the currently available open codecs available in the Chromium project, which Chrome is based on.
is the parent project of Google Chrome, there are some key differences that set the two apart. Chromium, unlike the pre-release versions of Chrome, is updated almost every day, but does not include the built-in Flash Player (it has to be downloaded separately) and Google Auto-updater found in Chrome. Chromium also has a less restrictive end user license than the compiled builds of Chrome, and does not implement user RLZ tracking, a privacy
concern.
Note: Old development builds are not shown here after they go through beta and become stable releases.
feeds. Chrome's strength is its application performance and JavaScript
processing speed, both of which were independently verified by multiple websites to be the swiftest among the major browsers of its time. Many of Chrome's unique features had been previously announced by other browser developers, but Google was the first to implement and publicly release them. For example, its most prominent graphical user interface
(GUI) innovation, the merging of the address bar and search bar (the Omnibox), was first announced by Mozilla
in May 2008 as a planned feature for Firefox
. Such a feature was already implemented in Konqueror
in 2004.
and Acid2
tests. Beginning with version 4.0, Chrome passed all aspects of the Acid3
test.
's ECMAScript
standards conformance Test 262 (version ES5 of 2011-11-04), Chrome version 15.0.874.120 scores 418/11029. The beta version, 16.0.912.36, scored 417/11029. The dev version, 17.0.938.0, scores 262/11029. Lower scores are better, as the figure represents the number of failed tests out of the total number of tests.
On the official CSS 2.1 test suite by standardization organization W3C, WebKit, the Chrome rendering engine, passes 89.75% (89.38% out of 99.59%) of covered CSS 2.1 tests.
(one for phishing
and one for malware
), and warns users when they attempt to visit a harmful site. This service is also made available for use by others via a free public API called "Google Safe Browsing API". Google notifies the owners of listed sites who may not be aware of the presence of the harmful software.
Chrome will typically allocate each tab
to fit
into its own process
to "prevent malware from installing itself" and prevent what happens in one tab from affecting what happens in another; however, the actual process-allocation model is more complex. Following the principle of least privilege
, each process is stripped of its rights and can compute, but cannot write files or read from sensitive areas (e.g. documents, desktop)—this is similar to the "Protected Mode" used by Internet Explorer on Windows Vista
and Windows 7. The Sandbox Team is said to have "taken this existing process boundary and made it into a jail
"; for example, malicious software running in one tab is supposed to be unable to sniff credit card numbers entered in another tab, interact with mouse inputs, or tell Windows to "run an executable on start-up" and it will be terminated when the tab is closed. This enforces a simple computer security model
whereby there are two levels of multilevel security
(user and sandbox) and the sandbox can only respond to communication requests initiated by the user. On Linux sandboxing uses the seccomp
mode.
Typically, plugins such as Adobe Flash Player
are not standardized and as such, cannot be sandboxed as tabs can be. These often must run at, or above, the security level of the browser itself. To reduce exposure to attack, plugins are run in separate processes that communicate with the renderer, itself operating at "very low privileges" in dedicated per-tab processes. Plugins will need to be modified to operate within this software architecture
while following the principle of least privilege
. Chrome supports the Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI), but does not support the embedding of ActiveX
controls. On March 30, 2010 Google announced that the latest development version of Chrome would include Adobe Flash as part of the browser, eliminating the need to download and install it separately. Flash would be kept up to date as part of Chrome's own updates. Java applet
support is available in Chrome with Java 6 update 12 and above. Support for Java under Mac OS X was provided by a Java Update released on May 18, 2010.
A private browsing
feature called Incognito mode is provided that prevents the browser from storing any history
information or cookies
from the websites visited. Google Chrome erases the non privacy browsing history periodically to ensure the fastest browsing session possible. Default is set to be done once a month, but can be changed in settings to do more or less frequent.
Incognito mode is similar to the private browsing feature in Internet Explorer 8
(and up), Mozilla Firefox 3.5
(and up), Opera 10.5 (and up) and Safari
.
No security vulnerabilities in Chrome have been successfully exploited in three years of Pwn2Own
.
virtual machine
used by Chrome, the V8 JavaScript engine, has features such as dynamic code generation
, hidden class transitions, and precise garbage collection. Tests by Google in September 2008 showed that V8 was about twice as fast as Firefox 3.0
and the WebKit nightlies.
Several websites performed benchmark tests using the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark tool as well as Google's own set of computationally intense benchmarks, which include ray tracing and constraint solving. They unanimously reported that Chrome performed much faster than all competitors against which it had been tested, including Safari
(for Windows), Firefox 3.0
, Internet Explorer 7
, Opera
, and Internet Explorer 8
. However in more recent independent tests of JavaScript performance, Chrome has been scoring just behind Opera's
Presto
engine since it was updated in version 10.5.
On September 3, 2008, Mozilla responded by stating that their own TraceMonkey JavaScript engine (then in beta), was faster than Chrome's V8 engine in some tests. John Resig
, Mozilla's JavaScript evangelist, further commented on the performance of different browsers on Google's own suite, commenting on Chrome's "decimating" (sic
) of the other browsers, but he questioned whether Google's suite was representative of real programs. He stated that Firefox 3.0 performed poorly on recursion
-intensive benchmarks, such as those of Google, because the Mozilla team had not implemented recursion-tracing yet.
Two weeks after Chrome's launch, the WebKit team announced a new JavaScript engine, SquirrelFish Extreme, citing a 36% speed improvement over Chrome's V8 engine.
Chrome uses DNS
prefetching to speed up website lookups, as do Firefox and Safari. This feature is available in Internet Explorer as an extension, and in Opera
as a UserScript.
Chrome utilizes the faster SPDY
protocol designed to augment HTTP when communicating with Google services, such as Google Search
, Gmail
, Chrome sync and when serving Google's ads. Google acknowledges that the use of SPDY is enabled in the communication between Chrome and Google's SSL-enabled servers.
team implemented a multi-process architecture in Chrome where, by default, a separate process is allocated to each site instance and plugin. This procedure is termed process isolation
, and it prevents tasks from interfering with each other, raising security and stability. An attacker successfully gaining access to one application gains access to no others, and failure in one instance results in a Sad Tab screen of death, similar to the well-known Sad Mac, but only one tab crashes instead of the whole application. This strategy exacts a fixed per-process cost up front, but results in less memory bloat overall as fragmentation is confined to each instance and no longer needs further memory allocations. This architecture is being adopted in upcoming versions of Safari and Firefox. Thus, in the near future most common browsers will use a multi-process architecture.
Chrome includes a process management
utility called Task Manager which lets users see what sites and plugins are using the most memory
, downloading the most byte
s and overusing the CPU
and provides the ability to terminate them.
includes back, forward, refresh/cancel and menu buttons. A home button is not shown by default, but can be added through the preferences menu to take the user to the new tab page or a custom home page.
Tabs
are the main component of Chrome's user interface and as such, have been moved to the top of the window rather than below the controls. This subtle change contrasts with many existing tabbed browsers which are based on windows
and contain tabs. Tabs, with their state, can be transferred seamlessly between window containers by dragging. Each tab has its own set of controls, including the Omnibox.
The Omnibox is the URL box at the top of each tab, which combines the functions of both the address bar and search box. If a user enters the URL of a site previously searched from, Chrome allows pressing Tab to search the site again directly from the Omnibox. When a user starts typing in the Omnibox, Chrome provides suggestions for previously visited sites (based on the URL or in-page text), popular websites (not necessarily visited before – powered by Google Suggest), and popular searches. Although Google Suggest can be turned off, suggestions based on previously visited sites cannot be turned off. Chrome will also autocomplete
the URLs of sites visited often. If a user types several keywords into the Omnibox and press enter, Chrome will conduct the search using the default search engine.
When Google Chrome is not maximized, the tab bar appears directly under the title bar. When maximized, the tabs become flush with the top of the titlebar. Like other browsers, it has a full-screen mode that hides the operating system's interface as well as the browser chrome.
One of Chrome's differentiating features is the New Tab Page, which can replace the browser home page and is displayed when a new tab is created. Originally, this showed thumbnails of the nine most visited web sites, along with frequent searches, recent bookmarks, and recently closed tabs; similar to Internet Explorer
and Firefox with Google Toolbar
6, or Opera's
Speed Dial. In Google Chrome 2.0, the New Tab Page was updated to allow users to hide thumbnails they did not want to appear.
Starting in version 3.0, the New Tab Page was revamped to display thumbnails of the eight most visited web sites. The thumbnails could be rearranged, pinned, and removed. Alternatively, a list of text links could be displayed instead of thumbnails. It also features a "Recently closed" bar that shows recently closed tabs and a "tips" section that displays hints and tricks for using the browser.
Chrome includes a bookmark manager that can be opened from a menu. Adding the command-line
option: --bookmark-menu adds a bookmarks button to the right of the Omnibox that can be used in place of the bookmarks bar. , this function was unavailable on the Linux and Mac platforms.
Popup
windows are associated with the tab they came from and will not appear outside the tab unless the user explicitly drags them out.
Google Chrome's preferences page has four parts: Basic, Personal Stuff, Under the Hood, and as of Chrome 15, a Downloads part. The Basic part includes options for the home page, search engine, and default browser. The Personal Stuff part lets users configure synchronization, saved passwords, form autofill, browsing data, and themes. The Under the Hood part allows changing network, privacy, download, and security settings. The Downloads part was a separate page at one time showing previous and active downloads but as of Chrome 15 is incorporated into Preferences.
Like Firefox, Chrome does not have a status bar, but displays loading activity and hover-over information via a status bubble that pops up at the bottom left of the relevant page, excluding hovering over links in image maps.
For web developer
s, Chrome features an element inspector similar to the one in Firebug
.
As part of Google's April Fools' Day jokes, a special build of Chrome was released on April 1, 2009 with the added feature of being able to render pages in anaglyph 3D
.
Chrome has special URLs that load application-specific pages instead of websites or files on disk. Chrome also has a built-in ability to enable experimental features. Originally called about:labs, the address was changed to about:flags to make it less obvious to casual users.
In March 2011, Google introduced a new simplified logo to replace the previous 3D logo that had been used since the project's inception. Google designer Steve Rura explained the company reasoning for the change, "Since Chrome is all about making your web experience as easy and clutter-free as possible, we refreshed the Chrome icon to better represent these sentiments. A simpler icon embodies the Chrome spirit – to make the web quicker, lighter, and easier for all."
that open web application
s in the browser. The browser, when opened in this way, contains none of the regular interface except for the title bar, so as not to "interrupt anything the user is trying to do." This allows web applications to run alongside local software (similar to Mozilla Prism
and Fluid).
This feature, according to Google, will be enhanced with the Chrome Web Store
, a one-stop web-based web applications directory which opened in December 2010.
allows users to install web applications as extensions to the browser, although most of these function simply as links to popular web pages and/or games, but some of the apps like Springpad
do provide extra features like offline access. The themes and extensions have also been tightly integrated into the new store, allowing users to search the entire catalog of Chrome extras. The Chrome Web Store now acts as an App Store for Chromebooks.
Criticism of the idea came quickly. Ryan Paul of Ars Technica
wrote on December 9, 2010: "The way that users consume applications in the desktop and mobile world is fundamentally different than they (sic) way that they do it on the Web—where paywalls are often reviled and there is little distinction between content and software. In such an environment, does the application store model make any sense? We are not convinced...Aside from gaming, the idea of an application store in a Web browser—where installation is little more than bookmarking—seems counterintuitive and leaves us with the impression that the entire exercise is a solution in search of a problem."
The Chrome Web Store was opened on February 11, 2011 with the stable, non-beta, release of Google Chrome 9.0.597.98.
Negative responses from beta users on the inefficiency of aero peek tabs implementation in Chrome lead Google to exclude this as a default function.
Along with Google Chrome 4.0, the extension gallery was officially launched on January 25, 2010, containing over 1500 extensions.
Google became leaders in the field of Search engine optimization
and have even published an SEO Starter Guide which provides valuable information on how to optimize your site in the Google era. Matt Cutts
who works for the Search Quality group in Google, specializing in search engine optimization issues, is well known in the SEO community for enforcing the Google Webmaster Guidelines and advising the public on how to get better website visibility in Google. Thanks to Google's cooperation with the SEO industry, Google Chrome became a valuable browser for developers in the SEO business who developed many SEO extensions for Google Chrome
, Chrome web store also enables many SEO tools.
As of February 4, 2011, the extension gallery featured over 11500 extensions, including official extensions from The Independent
, CEOP, Transport for London
, Cricinfo
, WOT: Web of Trust
and FIFA
.
On October 2011, the Chrome webstore aka Extension gallery received a major upgrade, along with new extensions and better organization.
Many Chrome extensions, once installed, have access to your data. According to the Chrome Web Store Help, there are three levels of permissions that an app or extension may request:
Many seemingly simple extensions, such Google's own Screen Capture Tool, require High Alert permissions.
. Translation is currently available for 52 languages.
The Developer channel is where ideas get tested (and sometimes fail) and can be very unstable at times. On July 22, 2010 Google announced it will ramp up the speed it will release new stable versions; they will shorten the release cycles from quarterly to 6 weeks. The faster release cycle brought a fourth channel: the "Canary" release; the name refers to using canaries in coal mines, so if a change "kills" Chrome Canary, they will block it from the developer build. Canary will be "the most bleeding-edge official version of Chrome and somewhat of a mix between Chrome dev and the Chromium snapshot builds". Canary releases run side-by-side with any other channel; it is not linked to the other Google Chrome installation and can therefore run different synchronization profiles, themes, and browser preferences. It cannot be set as the default browser. Canary was Windows-only at first, a Mac OS X
version was released on May 3, 2011.
Chrome automatically keeps itself up to date. The details differ by platform.
On Windows, it uses Google Updater, and autoupdate can be controlled via Group Policy
, or users can download a standalone version that does not autoupdate. On Mac, it uses Google Update Service, and autoupdate can be controlled via the Mac OS X "defaults" system. On Linux, it lets the system's normal package management system
supply the updates.
Google uses its Courgette algorithm to provide the binary difference of the user's current version in relation to the new version that's about to be automatically updated to. These tiny updates are well suited to minor security fixes and allow Google to push new versions of Chrome to users quickly, thereby reducing the window of vulnerability of newly discovered security flaws.
through both optional and non-optional user tracking mechanisms.
Some of the tracking mechanisms can be optionally enabled and disabled through the installation interface and through the browser's options dialog. Unofficial builds, such as SRWare Iron
and ChromePlus, seek to remove these features from the browser altogether. The RLZ feature is not included in the Chromium
browser either.
In March 2010, Google devised a new method to collect installation statistics: the unique ID token included with Chrome is now only used for the first connection that Google Update makes to its server. This sole remaining non-optional user tracking mechanism is removed following the server ping.
builds are available for Linux, with only 32-bit available for Mac OS X and Windows.
s Matthew Moore summarizes the verdict of early reviewers: "Google Chrome is attractive, fast and has some impressive new features, but may not—yet—be a threat to its Microsoft rival."
Initially, Microsoft reportedly played down the threat from Chrome and predicted that most people will embrace Internet Explorer 8
. Opera Software
said that "Chrome will strengthen the Web as the biggest application platform in the world." But by February 25, 2010, BusinessWeek had reported that "For the first time in years, energy and resources are being poured into browsers, the ubiquitous programs for accessing content on the Web. Credit for this trend—a boon to consumers—goes to two parties. The first is Google, whose big plans for the Chrome browser have shaken Microsoft out of its competitive torpor and forced the software giant to pay fresh attention to its own browser, Internet Explorer. Microsoft all but ceased efforts to enhance IE after it triumphed in the last browser war, sending Netscape to its doom. Now it's back in gear." Mozilla said that Chrome's introduction into the web browser market comes as "no real surprise", that "Chrome is not aimed at competing with Firefox", and furthermore that it should not affect Google's revenue relationship with Mozilla.
According to StatCounter, Chrome was the most used web browser in Argentina
, Chile
, Uruguay
, Philippines
, Malaysia, Pakistan
, Mauritania
, Tunisia
, Albania
, Republic of Macedonia
, Moldova
, Jamaica
and Armenia
in July 2011.
Due to a faulty virus definition update on September 30, 2011, Microsoft Security Essentials incorrectly identified Google Chrome as malware and began deleting it from user's systems.
news item drew attention to a passage in the Terms of Service statement for the initial beta release, which seemed to grant to Google a license to all content transferred via the Chrome browser. The passage in question was inherited from the general Google terms of service. On the same day, Google responded to this criticism by stating that the language used was borrowed from other products, and removed the passage in question from the Terms of Service. Google noted that this change would "apply retroactively to all users who have downloaded Google Chrome." There was subsequent concern and confusion about whether and what information the program communicates back to Google. The company stated that usage metrics are only sent when users opt in by checking the option "help make Google Chrome better by automatically sending usage statistics and crash reports to Google" when the browser is installed.
The optional suggestion service included in Google Chrome has been criticized because it provides the information typed into the Omnibox to the search provider before the user even hits return. This allows the search engine to provide URL suggestions, but also provides them with web usage information tied to an IP address
. The feature can be selected off in the preferences-under the hood-privacy box.
feature for Chrome that is being incorporated in most other modern web browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera. Critics pointed out that a new patent Google was granted in April 2011, for greatly enhanced user tracking though web advertising, will provide much more detailed information on user behavior and that do not track will hurt Google's ability to exploit this. Software reviewer Kurt Bakke of Conceivably Tech wrote, "Google said that it intends charge advertisers based on click-through rates, certain user activities and a pay-for-performance model. The entire patent seems to fit Google's recent claims that Chrome is critical for Google to maintain search dominance through its Chrome web browser and Chrome OS and was described as a tool to lock users to Google's search engine and – ultimately – its advertising services. So, how likely is it that Google will follow the do-not-track trend? Not very likely." Mozilla developer Asa Dotzler noted, "It seems pretty obvious to me that the Chrome team is bowing to pressure from Google's advertising business and that's a real shame. I had hoped they'd demonstrate a bit more independence than that."
Google argued that the technology is useless at the present time, as advertisers are not required to obey the user's tracking preference and as it is still unclear on what constitutes tracking (as opposed to storing statistical data or user preferences). As an alternative, Google offers an extension called "Keep My Opt-Outs", which permanently bars ad companies from installing cookies on the user's computer.
The reaction to this extension was mixed. Paul Thurrott of Windows IT Pro called the extension "much, much closer to what I've been asking for—i.e. something that just works and doesn't require the user to figure anything out—than the IE or Firefox solutions" while lamenting the fact that the extension is not included as part of the browser itself.
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
developed by Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
that uses the WebKit
WebKit
WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook...
layout engine
Layout engine
A web browser engine, , is a software component that takes marked up content and formatting information and displays the formatted content on the screen. It "paints" on the content area of a window, which is displayed on a monitor or a printer...
. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
frame, or "chrome", of web browsers. As of November 2011, Chrome is the second most widely used browser with 25.69% worldwide usage share of web browsers
Usage share of web browsers
The usage share of a web browser is the proportion, often expressed as a percentage, of users of all web browsers who use that particular browser. This figure can only be estimated, typically by determining the proportion of visitors to a group of websites that use a particular web browser...
and the most popular browser in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, according to StatCounter
StatCounter
StatCounter is a web traffic analysis tool. Access to basic services is free and advanced services can cost between $9 and $119 a month. The company is based in Dublin. The statistics from StatCounter are used to compute web usage share for example....
.
In September 2008, Google released a large portion of Chrome's source code, including its V8 JavaScript engine
V8 (JavaScript engine)
The Google V8 JavaScript Engine is an open source JavaScript engine developed by Google and ships with the Google Chrome web browser. Lars Bak is the head programmer....
, as an open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
project entitled Chromium
Chromium (web browser)
Chromium is the open source web browser project from which Google Chrome draws its source code. The project's hourly Chromium snapshots appear essentially similar to the latest builds of Google Chrome aside from the omission of certain Google additions, most noticeable among them: Google's...
. This move enabled third-party developers to study the underlying source code and to help port the browser to the Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. Google also expressed hope that other browsers would adopt the V8 JavaScript engine
V8 (JavaScript engine)
The Google V8 JavaScript Engine is an open source JavaScript engine developed by Google and ships with the Google Chrome web browser. Lars Bak is the head programmer....
to improve web application performance. The Google-authored portion of Chromium is released under the permissive BSD license, which allows portions to be incorporated into both open source and closed source software programs. Other portions of the source code are subject to a variety of open source licenses. Chromium implements a similar feature set as Chrome, but lacks built-in automatic updates, built-in PDF reader and Google branding, and most noticeably has a blue-colored logo in place of the multicolored Google logo.
History
For six years, Google's Chief Executive Eric SchmidtEric E. Schmidt
Eric Emerson Schmidt is an American software engineer and the current executive chairman of Google. From 2001 to 2011, he served as the chief executive officer of Google....
was against the idea of building an independent web browser. He stated that "At the time, Google was a small company", and he did not want to go through "bruising browser wars". However, after co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page hired several Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
developers and built a demonstration of Chrome, Schmidt admitted that "It was so good that it essentially forced me to change my mind".
Announcement
The release announcement was originally scheduled for September 3, 2008, and a comic by Scott McCloudScott McCloud
Scott McCloud is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium...
was to be sent to journalists and bloggers explaining the features for the new browser. Copies intended for Europe were shipped early and German blogger Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped
Google Blogoscoped
Google Blogoscoped is a blog authored by Philipp Lenssen covering the search engine company Google since 2003.Blogoscoped reports mainly on product releases but also offers tips and tutorials and tracks any projects of the Mountain View, California company...
made a scanned copy of the 38-page comic available on his website after receiving it on September 1, 2008. Google subsequently made the comic available on Google Books and mentioned it on their official blog along with an explanation for the early release.
Public release
In early January 2009, CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
reported that Google planned to release versions of Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux in the first half of the year. The first official Chrome Mac OS X and Linux developer previews were announced on June 4, 2009 with a blog post saying they were missing many features and were intended for early feedback rather than general use.
In December 2009, Google released beta versions of Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux. Google Chrome 5.0, announced on May 25, 2010, was the first stable release to support all three platforms.
Chrome was one of the twelve browsers offered to European Economic Area
European Economic Area
The European Economic Area was established on 1 January 1994 following an agreement between the member states of the European Free Trade Association and the European Community, later the European Union . Specifically, it allows Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to participate in the EU's Internal...
users of Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
in 2010.
Development
Chrome was assembled from 25 different code libraries from Google and third parties such as MozillaMozilla
Mozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the Mozilla.org project and the Mozilla Foundation, their defunct commercial predecessor Netscape Communications Corporation, and their related application software....
's Netscape Portable Runtime
Netscape Portable Runtime
In computing, the Netscape portable runtime, or NSPR, a platform abstraction library, makes all operating systems it supports appear the same to Mozilla-style web-browsers. NSPR provides platform independence for non-GUI operating system facilities...
, Network Security Services
Network Security Services
In computing, Network Security Services comprises a set of libraries designed to support cross-platform development of security-enabled client and server applications. NSS provides a complete open-source implementation of crypto libraries supporting SSL and S/MIME...
, NPAPI
NPAPI
Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface is a cross-platform plugin architecture used by many web browsers.It was first developed for the Netscape family of browsers starting with Netscape Navigator 2.0 but was subsequently implemented by many other browsers, including all of the browsers...
, as well as SQLite
SQLite
SQLite is an ACID-compliant embedded relational database management system contained in a relatively small C programming library. The source code for SQLite is in the public domain and implements most of the SQL standard...
and a number of other open-source projects. The JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
virtual machine
Virtual machine
A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
was considered a sufficiently important project to be split off (as was Adobe
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
/Mozilla
Mozilla
Mozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the Mozilla.org project and the Mozilla Foundation, their defunct commercial predecessor Netscape Communications Corporation, and their related application software....
's Tamarin
Tamarin (JavaScript engine)
Tamarin is a free virtual machine with just-in-time compilation support intended to implement the fourth edition of the ECMAScript standard....
) and handled by a separate team in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
coordinated by Lars Bak
Lars Bak (computer programmer)
Lars Bak is a Danish computer programmer who currently works for Google where he has contributed to the Chrome browser by developing the V8 JavaScript engine...
at Aarhus
Aarhus
Aarhus or Århus is the second-largest city in Denmark. The principal port of Denmark, Aarhus is on the east side of the peninsula of Jutland in the geographical center of Denmark...
. According to Google, existing implementations were designed "for small programs, where the performance and interactivity of the system weren't that important", but web application
Web application
A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...
s such as Gmail
Gmail
Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
"are using the web browser to the fullest when it comes to DOM
Document Object Model
The Document Object Model is a cross-platform and language-independent convention for representing and interacting with objects in HTML, XHTML and XML documents. Aspects of the DOM may be addressed and manipulated within the syntax of the programming language in use...
manipulations and JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
", and therefore would significantly benefit from a JavaScript engine that could work faster.
Chrome uses the WebKit
WebKit
WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook...
rendering engine to display web pages, on advice from the Android team. Like most browsers, Chrome was extensively tested internally before release with unit testing, "automated user interface testing of scripted user actions", and fuzz testing
Fuzz testing
Fuzz testing or fuzzing is a software testing technique, often automated or semi-automated, that involves providing invalid, unexpected, or random data to the inputs of a computer program. The program is then monitored for exceptions such as crashes or failing built-in code assertions...
, as well as WebKit's layout tests (99% of which Chrome is claimed to have passed). New browser builds are automatically tested against tens of thousands of commonly accessed websites inside the Google index within 20–30 minutes.
The Windows version of Chrome includes Gears
Gears (software)
Gears, formerly Google Gears, is software offered by Google that "enables more powerful web applications, by adding new features to your web browser. It allows some online files to be used offline"...
, which adds features for web developer
Web developer
A web developer is a software developer or software engineer who specializes in, or is specifically engaged in, the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over HTTP from a web server to a web browser....
s typically relating to the building of web applications (including offline support). However, Google is phasing out Gears in favor of HTML5.
In December 2010 Google announced that to make deploying Chrome easier in a business environment they would provide an official Chrome MSI package
Windows Installer
The Windows Installer is a software component used for the installation, maintenance, and removal of software on modern Microsoft Windows systems...
. The normal downloaded Chrome installer puts the browser in the user's home directory and provides invisible background updates, but the MSI package will allow installation at the system level, providing system administrators control over the update process. – it was formerly possible only when Chrome was installed using Google Pack
Google Pack
Google Pack was a collection of software tools offered by Google to download in a single archive. It was announced at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, on January 6. Google Pack is currently only available for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7...
. Google also created Group Policies
Group Policy
Group Policy is a feature of the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems. Group Policy is a set of rules that control the working environment of user accounts and computer accounts. Group Policy provides the centralized management and configuration of operating systems, applications, and...
to fine tune the behavior of Chrome in the business environment, for example setting automatic updates interval, a home page etc.
On January 11, 2011 the Chrome Product manager, Mike Jazayeri, announced that Chrome will no longer support H.264 video codec
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video...
for its HTML 5 player, citing the desire to bring Google Chrome more inline with the currently available open codecs available in the Chromium project, which Chrome is based on.
Pre-releases
In addition to the stable build of Google Chrome, Google makes several pre-release versions, or "early release channels" available. These are referred to as channels because the browser is dynamically updated and are designated "Beta" "Dev" and "Canary". The Chrome Beta build is intended to be tested by anyone and is slightly newer than the stable version of chrome. The Dev, or developer build, is intended for users with software testing or programming experience. The Canary build is an automatically created version of the latest software from the parent Chromium project, which is not tested prior to release. As a result Google blocks the ability to set the Canary build as the user's default browser and allows it to be installed alongside another version of Chrome.Chromium
While ChromiumChromium (web browser)
Chromium is the open source web browser project from which Google Chrome draws its source code. The project's hourly Chromium snapshots appear essentially similar to the latest builds of Google Chrome aside from the omission of certain Google additions, most noticeable among them: Google's...
is the parent project of Google Chrome, there are some key differences that set the two apart. Chromium, unlike the pre-release versions of Chrome, is updated almost every day, but does not include the built-in Flash Player (it has to be downloaded separately) and Google Auto-updater found in Chrome. Chromium also has a less restrictive end user license than the compiled builds of Chrome, and does not implement user RLZ tracking, a privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
concern.
Release history
Legend:| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red | Old release |
| Green | Current stable release |
| Blue | Current beta release |
| Purple | Current dev release |
| Major version | Release date | WebKit WebKit WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook... version |
V8 engine version | Operating system support | Significant changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.2.149 | 2008-09-02 | 522 | 0.3 | Windows | First release. |
| 0.3.154 | 2008-10-29 | Improved plugin performance and reliability. Spell checking for input fields. Improved web proxy performance and reliability. Tab and window management updates. | |||
| 0.4.154 | 2008-11-24 | 525 | Bookmark manager with import and export support. Privacy section added to the application options. New blocked popup notification. Security fixes. | ||
| 1.0.154 | 2008-12-11 | 528 | First stable release. | ||
| 2.0.172 | 2009-05-24 | 530 | 0.4 | 35% faster JavaScript JavaScript JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.... on the SunSpider benchmark. Mouse wheel support. Full-screen mode. Full-page zoom. Form autofill. Sort bookmarks by title. Tab docking to browser and desktop edges. Basic Greasemonkey Greasemonkey Greasemonkey is a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to HTML web page content on the DOMContentLoaded event, which happens immediately after it is loaded in the browser .As Greasemonkey scripts are persistent, the changes made to the web... support. |
|
| 3.0.195 | 2009-10-12 | 532 | 1.2 | New "new tab" page for improved customization. 25% faster JavaScript. HTML5 video and audio tag support. Lightweight theming. | |
| 4.0.249 | 2010-01-25 | 532.5 | 1.3 | Extensions. Bookmark synchronization. Enhanced developer tools. Improved HTML5 support. Performance improvements. Full ACID3 pass. HTTP byte range support. Increased security. Experimental new anti-reflected-XSS feature called "XSS Auditor". | |
| 4.1.249 | 2010-03-17 | Translate infobar. New privacy features. Disabled XSS Auditor. | |||
| 5.0.375 | 2010-05-21 | 533 | 2.1 | Windows Mac Linux |
Improved JavaScript performance. Browser preference synchronizing. Increased HTML5 support (Geolocation APIs W3C Geolocation API The W3C Geolocation API is an effort by the World Wide Web Consortium to standardize an interface to retrieve the geographical location information for a client-side device... , App Cache, web sockets, and file drag-and-drop). Revamped bookmark manager. Adobe Flash Player Adobe Flash Player The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications and streaming video and audio, on a computer web browser or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other... integrated. |
| 6.0.472 | 2010-09-02 | 534.3 | 2.2 | Updated and more streamlined UI with simplified Omnibox. New tab page. Merged menu buttons. Form Autofill. Expanded synchronization support to include extensions and Autofill data. Support for WebM WebM WebM is an audio-video format designed to provide a royalty-free, open video compression format for use with HTML5 video. The project's development is sponsored by Google.... videos. Improvements for performance and stability. Built-in PDF support (disabled by default). |
|
| 7.0.517 | 2010-10-21 | 534.7 | 2.3.11.22 | Primarily a stabilizing release with hundreds of bug fixes. Implemented HTML5 parsing algorithm. File API. Directory upload via input tag. Mac OS X version gained AppleScript AppleScript AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. and built into Macintosh operating systems since System 7. The term "AppleScript" may refer to the scripting system itself, or to particular scripts that are written in the AppleScript language.... support for UI automation. Late binding enabled for SSL sockets Transport Layer Security Transport Layer Security and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer , are cryptographic protocols that provide communication security over the Internet... : High priority SSL requests are now always sent to the server first. New options for managing cookies. Updated New Tab Page to enable featuring of web applications. |
|
| 8.0.552 | 2010-12-02 | 534.10 | 2.4.9.19 | Chrome Web Store. Built-in PDF viewer that works inside Chrome's sandbox for increased security. Expanded synchronization support to include web applications. Improved plug-in handling. This release added "about:flags" to showcase experimental features such as Chrome Instant, side tabs on Windows, Tabbed Settings, Click to Play, background web applications, Remoting, Disable outdated plug-ins, XSS Auditor, Cloud Print Proxy, GPU Accelerated Compositing, WebGL support for the Canvas element, and a "Tab Overview" mode (like Exposé Exposé (Mac OS X) Exposé is a feature of the Mac OS X operating system. First previewed on 23 June 2003 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a feature of the then forthcoming Mac OS X v10.3, Exposé allows a user to quickly locate an open window, or to hide all windows and show the desktop without the need... ) for Mac OS Mac OS Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface... . |
|
| 9.0.597 | 2011-02-03 | 534.13 | 2.5.9.6 | WebGL enabled by default. Adobe Flash Adobe Flash Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast... sandboxing on Windows and Chrome Instant (à la Google Instant) option. WebP WebP WebP is an image format that employs lossy compression. It is developed by Google, based on technology acquired with the purchase of On2 Technologies.As a derivative of the video format VP8, it is a sister project to the multimedia container format WebM... support. New flags: Print Preview, GPU Accelerated Compositing, GPU Accelerated Canvas 2D, Google Native Client Google Native Client Google Native Client is a sandboxing technology for running a subset of Intel x86 or ARM native code using software-based fault isolation... , CRX-less Web Apps, Web Page Prerendering, Experimental Extension APIs, Disable hyperlink auditing. |
|
| 10.0.648 | 2011-03-08 | 534.16 | 3.0.12.30 | Google Cloud Print Google Cloud Print Google Cloud Print is a Google service aiming to enable any application on any device in the network cloud to print to any printer – without Google having to create and maintain printing subsystems for all the hardware combinations of client devices and printers, and without the users having to... sign-in interface enabled by default. Partially implemented sandboxing of the GPU process. Faster JavaScript performance due to incorporation of Crankshaft, an improved compiler for V8. Settings pages that open in a tab, rather than a dialog box. Malware reporting and disabling outdated plugins. Password sync added to Chrome Sync and enabled by default. GPU Accelerated Video. Background WebApps. webNavigation extension API. |
|
| 11.0.696 | 2011-04-27 | 534.24 | 3.1.8.16 | HTML5 Speech Input API. Updated icon. | |
| 12.0.742 | 2011-06-07 | 534.30 | 3.2.10.21 | Hardware accelerated 3D CSS. New Safe Browsing protection against downloading malicious files. Ability to delete Flash cookies from inside Chrome. Launch Apps by name from the Omnibox. Integrated Sync into new settings pages. Improved screen reader support. New warning when hitting Command-Q on Mac. New flags: P2P API. Existing tab on foreground on open. Experimental new tab page. Add grouping to tab context menu. Run PPAPI Flash in the renderer process. Multiple Profiles. Removed Google Gears. Print and Save buttons in the PDF viewer. | |
| 13.0.782 | 2011-08-02 | 535.1 | 3.3.10.30 | Instant Pages (pre-rendering of webpages). Native print interface and preview (Linux and Windows only). New chrome://flags experiments: Experimental new tab page, Restrict Instant To Search. | |
| 14.0.835 | 2011-09-16 | 3.4.14.21 | Native Client (NaCl) enabled for apps in the Chrome Web Store. Web Audio API. Additional Mac OS X Lion feature support. Sync Encryption for all data. Print Preview on Mac. Experimental Web Request extension API. Experimental Content Settings extension API. DNSSEC validation of HTTPS sites. | ||
| 15.0.874 | 2011-10-25 | 535.2 | 3.5.10.24 | Faster print preview. Redesigned new tab page on by default. JavaScript fullscreen API enabled by default, allowing for full-screen HTML5 video. Inline installation of Chrome Web Store items by verified sites. Omnibox History synchronization. Switched to FFmpeg FFmpeg FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line... native VP8 decoder. Extensions integrated into settings pages. GPU Accelerated Canvas 2D disabled. |
|
| 16.0.912 | 2011-10-18 | 535.7 | 3.6.6.5 | Multiple profiles on by default. Search engine settings synchronization. | |
| 17.0.942 | 2011-11-17 | 535.8 | 3.7.7.0 | Prompt the user if they want to cancel downloads occurring when the last Incognito Window of a profile is closed. Panels are enabled by default. Adjustable margins supported in Print Preview. Mouse Lock “Allow” permission (given via a prompt) is now saved in content settings per domain. Limited support for touch gestures. Small UI updates include: The absence of a "+" symbol in the New Tab Button. |
Note: Old development builds are not shown here after they go through beta and become stable releases.
Features
Google Chrome aims to be secure, fast, simple and stable. There are extensive differences from its peers in Chrome's minimalistic user interface, which is atypical of modern web browsers. For example, Chrome does not render RSSRSS
-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...
feeds. Chrome's strength is its application performance and JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
processing speed, both of which were independently verified by multiple websites to be the swiftest among the major browsers of its time. Many of Chrome's unique features had been previously announced by other browser developers, but Google was the first to implement and publicly release them. For example, its most prominent graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
(GUI) innovation, the merging of the address bar and search bar (the Omnibox), was first announced by Mozilla
Mozilla Corporation
The Mozilla Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates and integrates the development of Internet-related applications such as the Mozilla Firefox and SeaMonkey Navigator web browsers and the Mozilla Thunderbird email client by a growing global community of...
in May 2008 as a planned feature for Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
. Such a feature was already implemented in Konqueror
Konqueror
Not to be confused with the Conqueror web browser.Konqueror is a web browser and file manager that provides file-viewer functionality for file systems such as local files, files on a remote ftp server and files in a disk image. It is a core part of the KDE desktop environment...
in 2004.
Acid tests
The first release of Google Chrome passed both the Acid1Acid1
Acid1, originally called the Box Acid Test, is a test page for web browsers. It was developed in October 1998 and was important in establishing baseline interoperability between early web browsers, especially for the Cascading Style Sheets 1.0 specification...
and Acid2
Acid2
Acid2 is a test page published and promoted by the Web Standards Project to expose web page rendering flaws in web browsers and other applications that render HTML. Named after the acid test for gold, it was developed in the spirit of Acid1, a relatively narrow test of compliance with the Cascading...
tests. Beginning with version 4.0, Chrome passed all aspects of the Acid3
Acid3
Acid3 test is a web test page from the Web Standards Project that checks a web browser's compliance with elements of various web standards, particularly the Document Object Model and JavaScript....
test.
Web standards conformance tests
On Ecma InternationalEcma International
Ecma International is an international, private non-profit standards organization for information and communication systems. It acquired its name in 1994, when the European Computer Manufacturers Association changed its name to reflect the organization's global reach and activities...
's ECMAScript
ECMAScript
ECMAScript is the scripting language standardized by Ecma International in the ECMA-262 specification and ISO/IEC 16262. The language is widely used for client-side scripting on the web, in the form of several well-known dialects such as JavaScript, JScript, and ActionScript.- History :JavaScript...
standards conformance Test 262 (version ES5 of 2011-11-04), Chrome version 15.0.874.120 scores 418/11029. The beta version, 16.0.912.36, scored 417/11029. The dev version, 17.0.938.0, scores 262/11029. Lower scores are better, as the figure represents the number of failed tests out of the total number of tests.
On the official CSS 2.1 test suite by standardization organization W3C, WebKit, the Chrome rendering engine, passes 89.75% (89.38% out of 99.59%) of covered CSS 2.1 tests.
Security
Chrome periodically retrieves updates of two blacklistsBlacklist (computing)
In computing, a blacklist or block list is a basic access control mechanism that allows everyone access, except for the members of the black list . The opposite is a whitelist, which means allow nobody, except members of the white list...
(one for phishing
Phishing
Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT...
and one for malware
Malware
Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming that is designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, or gain unauthorized access to system resources, or that otherwise exhibits abusive behavior...
), and warns users when they attempt to visit a harmful site. This service is also made available for use by others via a free public API called "Google Safe Browsing API". Google notifies the owners of listed sites who may not be aware of the presence of the harmful software.
Chrome will typically allocate each tab
Tab (GUI)
In the area of graphical user interfaces , a tabbed document interface is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window, using tabs as a navigational widget for switching between sets of documents...
to fit
Sandbox (computer security)
In computer security, a sandbox is a security mechanism for separating running programs. It is often used to execute untested code, or untrusted programs from unverified third-parties, suppliers, untrusted users and untrusted websites....
into its own process
Process (computing)
In computing, a process is an instance of a computer program that is being executed. It contains the program code and its current activity. Depending on the operating system , a process may be made up of multiple threads of execution that execute instructions concurrently.A computer program is a...
to "prevent malware from installing itself" and prevent what happens in one tab from affecting what happens in another; however, the actual process-allocation model is more complex. Following the principle of least privilege
Principle of least privilege
In information security, computer science, and other fields, the principle of least privilege, also known as the principle of minimal privilege or just least privilege, requires that in a particular abstraction layer of a computing environment, every module must be able to access only the...
, each process is stripped of its rights and can compute, but cannot write files or read from sensitive areas (e.g. documents, desktop)—this is similar to the "Protected Mode" used by Internet Explorer on Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
and Windows 7. The Sandbox Team is said to have "taken this existing process boundary and made it into a jail
Operating system-level virtualization
Operating system-level virtualization is a server virtualization method where the kernel of an operating system allows for multiple isolated user-space instances, instead of just one. Such instances may look and feel like a real server, from the point of view of its owner...
"; for example, malicious software running in one tab is supposed to be unable to sniff credit card numbers entered in another tab, interact with mouse inputs, or tell Windows to "run an executable on start-up" and it will be terminated when the tab is closed. This enforces a simple computer security model
Computer security model
A computer security model is a scheme for specifying and enforcing security policies.A security model may be founded upon a formal model of access rights, a model of computation, a model of distributed computing, or no particular theoretical grounding at all....
whereby there are two levels of multilevel security
Multilevel security
Multilevel security or Multiple Levels of Security is the application of a computer system to process information with different sensitivities , permit simultaneous access by users with different security clearances and needs-to-know, and prevent users from obtaining access to information for...
(user and sandbox) and the sandbox can only respond to communication requests initiated by the user. On Linux sandboxing uses the seccomp
Seccomp
seccomp is a simple sandboxing mechanism for the Linux kernel.It allows a process to make a one-way transition into a "secure" state where it cannot make any system calls except exit, sigreturn, read and write to already-open file descriptors...
mode.
Typically, plugins such as Adobe Flash Player
Adobe Flash Player
The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications and streaming video and audio, on a computer web browser or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other...
are not standardized and as such, cannot be sandboxed as tabs can be. These often must run at, or above, the security level of the browser itself. To reduce exposure to attack, plugins are run in separate processes that communicate with the renderer, itself operating at "very low privileges" in dedicated per-tab processes. Plugins will need to be modified to operate within this software architecture
Software architecture
The software architecture of a system is the set of structures needed to reason about the system, which comprise software elements, relations among them, and properties of both...
while following the principle of least privilege
Principle of least privilege
In information security, computer science, and other fields, the principle of least privilege, also known as the principle of minimal privilege or just least privilege, requires that in a particular abstraction layer of a computing environment, every module must be able to access only the...
. Chrome supports the Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI), but does not support the embedding of ActiveX
ActiveX
ActiveX is a framework for defining reusable software components in a programming language-independent way. Software applications can then be composed from one or more of these components in order to provide their functionality....
controls. On March 30, 2010 Google announced that the latest development version of Chrome would include Adobe Flash as part of the browser, eliminating the need to download and install it separately. Flash would be kept up to date as part of Chrome's own updates. Java applet
Java applet
A Java applet is an applet delivered to users in the form of Java bytecode. Java applets can run in a Web browser using a Java Virtual Machine , or in Sun's AppletViewer, a stand-alone tool for testing applets...
support is available in Chrome with Java 6 update 12 and above. Support for Java under Mac OS X was provided by a Java Update released on May 18, 2010.
A private browsing
Privacy mode
Privacy mode, sometimes informally referred to as "porn mode", or "private browsing" is a term that refers to privacy features in some web browsers. Historically speaking, web browsers store information such as browsing history, images, videos and text within cache...
feature called Incognito mode is provided that prevents the browser from storing any history
Web browsing history
In computing, the web browsing history refers to the list of web pages a user has visited recently—and associated data such as page title and time of visit—which is recorded by web browser software as standard for a certain period of time...
information or cookies
HTTP cookie
A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is used for an origin website to send state information to a user's browser and for the browser to return the state information to the origin site...
from the websites visited. Google Chrome erases the non privacy browsing history periodically to ensure the fastest browsing session possible. Default is set to be done once a month, but can be changed in settings to do more or less frequent.
Incognito mode is similar to the private browsing feature in Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 8
Windows Internet Explorer 8 is a web browser developed by Microsoft in the Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are available...
(and up), Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is a version of the Firefox web browser released in June 2009, adding a variety of new features to Firefox. Version 3.5 was touted as being twice as fast as 3.0...
(and up), Opera 10.5 (and up) and Safari
Safari (web browser)
Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and included with the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. First released as a public beta on January 7, 2003 on the company's Mac OS X operating system, it became Apple's default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther". Safari is also the...
.
Security vulnerabilities
On January 12, 2011 versions of Chrome prior to version 8.0.552.237 were identified by US-CERT as "contain[ing] multiple memory corruption vulnerabilities...By convincing a user to view a specially crafted HTML document, PDF file, or video file, an attacker can cause the application to crash or possibly execute arbitrary code." The vulnerability was subsequently patched and a new stable version was released to the public with Chrome's auto-update mechanism.No security vulnerabilities in Chrome have been successfully exploited in three years of Pwn2Own
Pwn2Own
Pwn2Own is a computer hacking contest held at the annual CanSecWest security conference, beginning in 2007. Contestants are challenged to exploit specific software / computing platform targets with previously unknown vulnerabilities...
.
Malware blocking
Statistics show that users are four times more likely to be tricked into downloading malware than be compromised by an exploit. In a recent study, Chrome 10 blocked only 13% of malicious URLS, tied for third place with Safari and Firefox. In contrast, Internet Explorer 9 blocked 92% of malware with its URL-based filtering, and 100% with application-based filtering enabled. Internet Explorer 8, in second place, blocked 90% of malware. Exploits that install malware without the user being aware (also referred to as "clickjacking" and "drive-by downloads") were not included in this particular study.Speed
The JavaScriptJavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
virtual machine
Virtual machine
A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
used by Chrome, the V8 JavaScript engine, has features such as dynamic code generation
Just-in-time compilation
In computing, just-in-time compilation , also known as dynamic translation, is a method to improve the runtime performance of computer programs. Historically, computer programs had two modes of runtime operation, either interpreted or static compilation...
, hidden class transitions, and precise garbage collection. Tests by Google in September 2008 showed that V8 was about twice as fast as Firefox 3.0
Mozilla Firefox 3
Mozilla Firefox 3.0 is a version of the Firefox web browser released on June 17, 2008 by the Mozilla Corporation.Firefox 3.0 uses version 1.9 of the Gecko layout engine for displaying web pages. This version fixes many bugs, improves standard compliance, and implements many new web APIs compared to...
and the WebKit nightlies.
Several websites performed benchmark tests using the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark tool as well as Google's own set of computationally intense benchmarks, which include ray tracing and constraint solving. They unanimously reported that Chrome performed much faster than all competitors against which it had been tested, including Safari
Safari (web browser)
Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and included with the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. First released as a public beta on January 7, 2003 on the company's Mac OS X operating system, it became Apple's default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther". Safari is also the...
(for Windows), Firefox 3.0
Mozilla Firefox 3
Mozilla Firefox 3.0 is a version of the Firefox web browser released on June 17, 2008 by the Mozilla Corporation.Firefox 3.0 uses version 1.9 of the Gecko layout engine for displaying web pages. This version fixes many bugs, improves standard compliance, and implements many new web APIs compared to...
, Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer 7
Windows Internet Explorer 7 is a web browser released by Microsoft in October 2006. Internet Explorer 7 is part of a long line of versions of Internet Explorer and was the first major update to the browser in more than 5 years...
, Opera
Opera (web browser)
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...
, and Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 8
Windows Internet Explorer 8 is a web browser developed by Microsoft in the Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are available...
. However in more recent independent tests of JavaScript performance, Chrome has been scoring just behind Opera's
Opera (web browser)
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...
Presto
Presto (layout engine)
Presto is the layout engine for later versions of the Opera web browser . After several public betas and technical previews, it was released on January 28, 2003 in Opera 7 for Windows, and as of Opera 11 it is still in use. Presto is dynamic: the page or parts of it can be re-rendered in response...
engine since it was updated in version 10.5.
On September 3, 2008, Mozilla responded by stating that their own TraceMonkey JavaScript engine (then in beta), was faster than Chrome's V8 engine in some tests. John Resig
John Resig
John Resig is an application developer at Khan Academy. He was a JavaScript tool developer for the Mozilla Corporation. He is also the creator and lead developer of the jQuery JavaScript library. This library's goal is to simplify the process of writing cross-browser JavaScript code...
, Mozilla's JavaScript evangelist, further commented on the performance of different browsers on Google's own suite, commenting on Chrome's "decimating" (sic
Sic
Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
) of the other browsers, but he questioned whether Google's suite was representative of real programs. He stated that Firefox 3.0 performed poorly on recursion
Recursion
Recursion is the process of repeating items in a self-similar way. For instance, when the surfaces of two mirrors are exactly parallel with each other the nested images that occur are a form of infinite recursion. The term has a variety of meanings specific to a variety of disciplines ranging from...
-intensive benchmarks, such as those of Google, because the Mozilla team had not implemented recursion-tracing yet.
Two weeks after Chrome's launch, the WebKit team announced a new JavaScript engine, SquirrelFish Extreme, citing a 36% speed improvement over Chrome's V8 engine.
Chrome uses DNS
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
prefetching to speed up website lookups, as do Firefox and Safari. This feature is available in Internet Explorer as an extension, and in Opera
Opera (web browser)
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...
as a UserScript.
Chrome utilizes the faster SPDY
SPDY
SPDY is a networking protocol for transporting web content developed by Google and used in accessing Google web services from their browser Google Chrome. Google promotes the protocol in the open-source project Chromium to augment the Hypertext Transfer Protocol protocol, achieving higher...
protocol designed to augment HTTP when communicating with Google services, such as Google Search
Google search
Google or Google Web Search is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. Google Search is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, receiving several hundred million queries each day through its various services....
, Gmail
Gmail
Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
, Chrome sync and when serving Google's ads. Google acknowledges that the use of SPDY is enabled in the communication between Chrome and Google's SSL-enabled servers.
Stability
The GearsGears (software)
Gears, formerly Google Gears, is software offered by Google that "enables more powerful web applications, by adding new features to your web browser. It allows some online files to be used offline"...
team implemented a multi-process architecture in Chrome where, by default, a separate process is allocated to each site instance and plugin. This procedure is termed process isolation
Process isolation
Process isolation is a set of different hardware and software technologies designed to protect each operating system process from other processes...
, and it prevents tasks from interfering with each other, raising security and stability. An attacker successfully gaining access to one application gains access to no others, and failure in one instance results in a Sad Tab screen of death, similar to the well-known Sad Mac, but only one tab crashes instead of the whole application. This strategy exacts a fixed per-process cost up front, but results in less memory bloat overall as fragmentation is confined to each instance and no longer needs further memory allocations. This architecture is being adopted in upcoming versions of Safari and Firefox. Thus, in the near future most common browsers will use a multi-process architecture.
Chrome includes a process management
Process management (computing)
Process management is an integral part of any modern day operating system . The OS must allocate resources to processes, enable processes to share and exchange information, protect the resources of each process from other processes and enable synchronisation among processes...
utility called Task Manager which lets users see what sites and plugins are using the most memory
Random-access memory
Random access memory is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order with a worst case performance of constant time. Strictly speaking, modern types of DRAM are therefore not random access, as data is read in...
, downloading the most byte
Byte
The byte is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the basic addressable element in many computer...
s and overusing the CPU
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
and provides the ability to terminate them.
User interface
By default, the main user interfaceUser interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
includes back, forward, refresh/cancel and menu buttons. A home button is not shown by default, but can be added through the preferences menu to take the user to the new tab page or a custom home page.
Tabs
Tab (GUI)
In the area of graphical user interfaces , a tabbed document interface is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window, using tabs as a navigational widget for switching between sets of documents...
are the main component of Chrome's user interface and as such, have been moved to the top of the window rather than below the controls. This subtle change contrasts with many existing tabbed browsers which are based on windows
Window (computing)
In computing, a window is a visual area containing some kind of user interface. It usually has a rectangular shape that can overlap with the area of other windows...
and contain tabs. Tabs, with their state, can be transferred seamlessly between window containers by dragging. Each tab has its own set of controls, including the Omnibox.
The Omnibox is the URL box at the top of each tab, which combines the functions of both the address bar and search box. If a user enters the URL of a site previously searched from, Chrome allows pressing Tab to search the site again directly from the Omnibox. When a user starts typing in the Omnibox, Chrome provides suggestions for previously visited sites (based on the URL or in-page text), popular websites (not necessarily visited before – powered by Google Suggest), and popular searches. Although Google Suggest can be turned off, suggestions based on previously visited sites cannot be turned off. Chrome will also autocomplete
Autocomplete
Autocomplete is a feature provided by many web browsers, e-mail programs, search engine interfaces, source code editors, database query tools, word processors, and command line interpreters. Autocomplete involves the program predicting a word or phrase that the user wants to type in without the...
the URLs of sites visited often. If a user types several keywords into the Omnibox and press enter, Chrome will conduct the search using the default search engine.
When Google Chrome is not maximized, the tab bar appears directly under the title bar. When maximized, the tabs become flush with the top of the titlebar. Like other browsers, it has a full-screen mode that hides the operating system's interface as well as the browser chrome.
One of Chrome's differentiating features is the New Tab Page, which can replace the browser home page and is displayed when a new tab is created. Originally, this showed thumbnails of the nine most visited web sites, along with frequent searches, recent bookmarks, and recently closed tabs; similar to Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
and Firefox with Google Toolbar
Google Toolbar
Google Toolbar is an Internet browser toolbar only available for Internet Explorer and Firefox .-Google Toolbar 1.0 December 11, 2000:New features:*Direct access to the Google search functionality from any web page*Web Site search...
6, or Opera's
Opera (web browser)
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...
Speed Dial. In Google Chrome 2.0, the New Tab Page was updated to allow users to hide thumbnails they did not want to appear.
Starting in version 3.0, the New Tab Page was revamped to display thumbnails of the eight most visited web sites. The thumbnails could be rearranged, pinned, and removed. Alternatively, a list of text links could be displayed instead of thumbnails. It also features a "Recently closed" bar that shows recently closed tabs and a "tips" section that displays hints and tricks for using the browser.
Chrome includes a bookmark manager that can be opened from a menu. Adding the command-line
Command-line interface
A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks...
option: --bookmark-menu adds a bookmarks button to the right of the Omnibox that can be used in place of the bookmarks bar. , this function was unavailable on the Linux and Mac platforms.
Popup
Pop-up ad
Pop-up ads or pop-ups are a form of online advertising on the World Wide Web intended to attract web traffic or capture email addresses. Pop-ups are generally new web browser windows to display advertisements...
windows are associated with the tab they came from and will not appear outside the tab unless the user explicitly drags them out.
Google Chrome's preferences page has four parts: Basic, Personal Stuff, Under the Hood, and as of Chrome 15, a Downloads part. The Basic part includes options for the home page, search engine, and default browser. The Personal Stuff part lets users configure synchronization, saved passwords, form autofill, browsing data, and themes. The Under the Hood part allows changing network, privacy, download, and security settings. The Downloads part was a separate page at one time showing previous and active downloads but as of Chrome 15 is incorporated into Preferences.
Like Firefox, Chrome does not have a status bar, but displays loading activity and hover-over information via a status bubble that pops up at the bottom left of the relevant page, excluding hovering over links in image maps.
For web developer
Web developer
A web developer is a software developer or software engineer who specializes in, or is specifically engaged in, the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over HTTP from a web server to a web browser....
s, Chrome features an element inspector similar to the one in Firebug
Firebug (Firefox extension)
Firebug is a web development tool that facilitates the debugging, editing, and monitoring of any website's CSS, HTML, DOM, XHR, and JavaScript; it also provides other web development tools. Firebug's JavaScript panel can log errors, profile function calls, and enable the developer to run arbitrary...
.
As part of Google's April Fools' Day jokes, a special build of Chrome was released on April 1, 2009 with the added feature of being able to render pages in anaglyph 3D
Anaglyph image
Anaglyph images are used to provide a stereoscopic 3D effect, when viewed with glasses where the two lenses are different colors, such as red and cyan. Images are made up of two color layers, superimposed, but offset with respect to each other to produce a depth effect...
.
Chrome has special URLs that load application-specific pages instead of websites or files on disk. Chrome also has a built-in ability to enable experimental features. Originally called about:labs, the address was changed to about:flags to make it less obvious to casual users.
In March 2011, Google introduced a new simplified logo to replace the previous 3D logo that had been used since the project's inception. Google designer Steve Rura explained the company reasoning for the change, "Since Chrome is all about making your web experience as easy and clutter-free as possible, we refreshed the Chrome icon to better represent these sentiments. A simpler icon embodies the Chrome spirit – to make the web quicker, lighter, and easier for all."
Desktop shortcuts and apps
Chrome allows users to make local desktop shortcutsComputer shortcut
A file shortcut in Microsoft Windows is a small file containing a target URI or GUID to an object, or the name of a target program file that the shortcut represents. The shortcut might additionally specify parameters to be passed to the target program when it is run. Each shortcut can have its own...
that open web application
Web application
A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...
s in the browser. The browser, when opened in this way, contains none of the regular interface except for the title bar, so as not to "interrupt anything the user is trying to do." This allows web applications to run alongside local software (similar to Mozilla Prism
Mozilla Prism
Mozilla Prism is a product which integrates web applications with the desktop, allowing web applications to be launched from the desktop and configured independently of the default web browser. As of November 2010, Prism is listed as an inactive project at the Mozilla labs website.Prism is based...
and Fluid).
This feature, according to Google, will be enhanced with the Chrome Web Store
Chrome Web Store
The Chrome Web Store is an online store from Google. It was announced at the Google I/O conference on May 19, 2010 by Vic Gundotra and released on December 6, 2010...
, a one-stop web-based web applications directory which opened in December 2010.
Chrome Web Store
Announced on December 7, 2010, the Chrome Web StoreChrome Web Store
The Chrome Web Store is an online store from Google. It was announced at the Google I/O conference on May 19, 2010 by Vic Gundotra and released on December 6, 2010...
allows users to install web applications as extensions to the browser, although most of these function simply as links to popular web pages and/or games, but some of the apps like Springpad
Springpad
Springpad is a free online application and web service that allows its registered users to save, organize, and share collected ideas and information. A personal organizer and information capturing service, Springpad is designed to help its users remember content...
do provide extra features like offline access. The themes and extensions have also been tightly integrated into the new store, allowing users to search the entire catalog of Chrome extras. The Chrome Web Store now acts as an App Store for Chromebooks.
Criticism of the idea came quickly. Ryan Paul of Ars Technica
Ars Technica
Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...
wrote on December 9, 2010: "The way that users consume applications in the desktop and mobile world is fundamentally different than they (sic) way that they do it on the Web—where paywalls are often reviled and there is little distinction between content and software. In such an environment, does the application store model make any sense? We are not convinced...Aside from gaming, the idea of an application store in a Web browser—where installation is little more than bookmarking—seems counterintuitive and leaves us with the impression that the entire exercise is a solution in search of a problem."
The Chrome Web Store was opened on February 11, 2011 with the stable, non-beta, release of Google Chrome 9.0.597.98.
Aero peek capability
Google has included aero peek capability for each tab on Windows 7. This has not been added by default but can be user enabled, resulting in a displayed thumbnail image of the tab. This will create similar functioning to that which is already included in IE8, Firefox and other browsers.Negative responses from beta users on the inefficiency of aero peek tabs implementation in Chrome lead Google to exclude this as a default function.
Extensions
On September 9, 2009, Google enabled extensions by default on Chrome's Dev channel, and provided several sample extensions for testing. In December, the Google Chrome extension gallery beta began with over 300 extensions.Along with Google Chrome 4.0, the extension gallery was officially launched on January 25, 2010, containing over 1500 extensions.
Google became leaders in the field of Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid search results...
and have even published an SEO Starter Guide which provides valuable information on how to optimize your site in the Google era. Matt Cutts
Matt Cutts
Matt Cutts works for the Search Quality group in Google, specializing in search engine optimization issues. In an interview with USA Today in June 2008, Cutts provided advice on how to optimize search results on Google.-Career:...
who works for the Search Quality group in Google, specializing in search engine optimization issues, is well known in the SEO community for enforcing the Google Webmaster Guidelines and advising the public on how to get better website visibility in Google. Thanks to Google's cooperation with the SEO industry, Google Chrome became a valuable browser for developers in the SEO business who developed many SEO extensions for Google Chrome
Google Chrome Extensions
Google Chrome Extensions are small programs that modify the Google Chrome browser. These extensions are written using web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Google Chrome Extensions are downloadable through the Google Chrome Extensions Gallery. So far, over 2,200 extensions have...
, Chrome web store also enables many SEO tools.
As of February 4, 2011, the extension gallery featured over 11500 extensions, including official extensions from The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, CEOP, Transport for London
Transport for London
Transport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England. Its role is to implement the transport strategy and to manage transport services across London...
, Cricinfo
Cricinfo
ESPNcricinfo is believed to be the largest cricket-related website on the World Wide Web. Content includes news,articles, live scorecards,live text commentary and a comprehensive and searchable database called 'StatsGuru', of historical matches and players from the 18th century to the present...
, WOT: Web of Trust
WOT: Web of Trust
Web of Trust is a community-based website reputation rating tool that uses a traffic-light style rating system to give Internet users additional information about a website before they visit it...
and FIFA
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
.
On October 2011, the Chrome webstore aka Extension gallery received a major upgrade, along with new extensions and better organization.
Many Chrome extensions, once installed, have access to your data. According to the Chrome Web Store Help, there are three levels of permissions that an app or extension may request:
- High Alert - "plug-ins can do almost anything, in or outside of your browser. For example, they could use your webcam, or they could read your personal files."
- Medium Alert - "This item can read every page that you visit -- your bank, your web email, your Facebook page, and so on." And, "Besides seeing all your pages, this item could use your credentials (cookies) to request or modify your data from websites."
- Low Alert - "This item can read data that you copy into your operating system clipboard, which might include sensitive or private information." Among other things.
Many seemingly simple extensions, such Google's own Screen Capture Tool, require High Alert permissions.
Themes
Starting with Google Chrome 3.0, users can install themes to alter the appearance of the browser. Many free third-party themes are provided in an online gallery, accessible through a "Get themes" button in Chrome's options.Automatic web page translation
Starting with Google Chrome 4.1 the application added a built-in translation bar using Google TranslateGoogle Translate
Google Translate is a free statistical machine translation service provided by Google Inc. to translate a section of text, document or webpage, into another language.The service was introduced in April 28, 2006 for the Arabic language...
. Translation is currently available for 52 languages.
Release channels and updates
On January 8, 2009 Google introduced a new release system with three distinct channels: Stable, Beta, and Developer preview (called the "Dev" channel). Before this change there were only two channels: Beta and Developer preview. All previous Developer channel users were moved to the Beta channel. The reason given by Google is that the Developer channel builds are less stable and polished than those that Developer channel users were getting during Google Chrome's Beta period. The stable channel will be updated with features and fixes once they have been thoroughly tested in the Beta channel, and the Beta channel will be updated roughly monthly with stable and complete features from the Developer channel.The Developer channel is where ideas get tested (and sometimes fail) and can be very unstable at times. On July 22, 2010 Google announced it will ramp up the speed it will release new stable versions; they will shorten the release cycles from quarterly to 6 weeks. The faster release cycle brought a fourth channel: the "Canary" release; the name refers to using canaries in coal mines, so if a change "kills" Chrome Canary, they will block it from the developer build. Canary will be "the most bleeding-edge official version of Chrome and somewhat of a mix between Chrome dev and the Chromium snapshot builds". Canary releases run side-by-side with any other channel; it is not linked to the other Google Chrome installation and can therefore run different synchronization profiles, themes, and browser preferences. It cannot be set as the default browser. Canary was Windows-only at first, a Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
version was released on May 3, 2011.
Chrome automatically keeps itself up to date. The details differ by platform.
On Windows, it uses Google Updater, and autoupdate can be controlled via Group Policy
Group Policy
Group Policy is a feature of the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems. Group Policy is a set of rules that control the working environment of user accounts and computer accounts. Group Policy provides the centralized management and configuration of operating systems, applications, and...
, or users can download a standalone version that does not autoupdate. On Mac, it uses Google Update Service, and autoupdate can be controlled via the Mac OS X "defaults" system. On Linux, it lets the system's normal package management system
Package management system
In software, a package management system, also called package manager, is a collection of software tools to automate the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing software packages for a computer's operating system in a consistent manner...
supply the updates.
Google uses its Courgette algorithm to provide the binary difference of the user's current version in relation to the new version that's about to be automatically updated to. These tiny updates are well suited to minor security fixes and allow Google to push new versions of Chrome to users quickly, thereby reducing the window of vulnerability of newly discovered security flaws.
Usage tracking
Chrome sends details about its usage to GoogleGoogle
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
through both optional and non-optional user tracking mechanisms.
| Method | Information sent | When | Optional? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Installation | Randomly generated token included in installer. Used to measure success rate of Google Chrome. | On installation |
|
| RLZ identifier | Encoded Code A code is a rule for converting a piece of information into another form or representation , not necessarily of the same type.... string, according to Google, contains non-identifying information how Chrome was downloaded and its install week, and is used to measure promotional campaigns. Google provides the source code to decode this string. |
|
|
| clientID | Unique identifier along with logs of usage metrics and crashes. | ||
| Suggest | Text typed into the address bar | While typing | |
| Page not found | Text typed into the address bar | Upon receiving "Server not found" response | |
| Bug tracker | Details about crashes and failures | ||
| Google Updater | Details about Chrome version |
Some of the tracking mechanisms can be optionally enabled and disabled through the installation interface and through the browser's options dialog. Unofficial builds, such as SRWare Iron
SRWare Iron
SRWare Iron, or simply Iron, is a free and open-source web browser implementation of the Chromium source code which primarily aims to eliminate usage tracking and other privacy-compromising functionality that the Google Chrome browser includes...
and ChromePlus, seek to remove these features from the browser altogether. The RLZ feature is not included in the Chromium
Chromium (web browser)
Chromium is the open source web browser project from which Google Chrome draws its source code. The project's hourly Chromium snapshots appear essentially similar to the latest builds of Google Chrome aside from the omission of certain Google additions, most noticeable among them: Google's...
browser either.
In March 2010, Google devised a new method to collect installation statistics: the unique ID token included with Chrome is now only used for the first connection that Google Update makes to its server. This sole remaining non-optional user tracking mechanism is removed following the server ping.
System requirements
The recommended requirements for optimal performance of Chrome are:- Windows: XP Service Pack 2+ / Vista / 7, Intel Pentium 4 or later, 100MB Hard Disk, 128MB memory
- Mac OS X: 10.5.6 or later, Intel (not PPC), 100MB Hard Disk, 128MB memory
- Linux: Ubuntu 8.04 or later / Debian 5 / OpenSuse 11.1 , Intel Pentium 3 / Athlon 64 or later, 100MB Hard Disk, 128MB memory
64-bit builds
As of 2011, 64-bit64-bit
64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...
builds are available for Linux, with only 32-bit available for Mac OS X and Windows.
Reception
In 2008, The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
s Matthew Moore summarizes the verdict of early reviewers: "Google Chrome is attractive, fast and has some impressive new features, but may not—yet—be a threat to its Microsoft rival."
Initially, Microsoft reportedly played down the threat from Chrome and predicted that most people will embrace Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 8
Windows Internet Explorer 8 is a web browser developed by Microsoft in the Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are available...
. Opera Software
Opera Software
Opera Software ASA is a Norwegian software company, primarily known for its Opera family of web browsers with over 220 million users worldwide. Opera Software is also involved in promoting Web standards through participation in the W3C. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is...
said that "Chrome will strengthen the Web as the biggest application platform in the world." But by February 25, 2010, BusinessWeek had reported that "For the first time in years, energy and resources are being poured into browsers, the ubiquitous programs for accessing content on the Web. Credit for this trend—a boon to consumers—goes to two parties. The first is Google, whose big plans for the Chrome browser have shaken Microsoft out of its competitive torpor and forced the software giant to pay fresh attention to its own browser, Internet Explorer. Microsoft all but ceased efforts to enhance IE after it triumphed in the last browser war, sending Netscape to its doom. Now it's back in gear." Mozilla said that Chrome's introduction into the web browser market comes as "no real surprise", that "Chrome is not aimed at competing with Firefox", and furthermore that it should not affect Google's revenue relationship with Mozilla.
According to StatCounter, Chrome was the most used web browser in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Malaysia, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
, Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
and Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
in July 2011.
Due to a faulty virus definition update on September 30, 2011, Microsoft Security Essentials incorrectly identified Google Chrome as malware and began deleting it from user's systems.
User tracking
Concern about Chrome's optional usage collection and tracking have been noted in several publications. On September 2, 2008, a CNETCNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
news item drew attention to a passage in the Terms of Service statement for the initial beta release, which seemed to grant to Google a license to all content transferred via the Chrome browser. The passage in question was inherited from the general Google terms of service. On the same day, Google responded to this criticism by stating that the language used was borrowed from other products, and removed the passage in question from the Terms of Service. Google noted that this change would "apply retroactively to all users who have downloaded Google Chrome." There was subsequent concern and confusion about whether and what information the program communicates back to Google. The company stated that usage metrics are only sent when users opt in by checking the option "help make Google Chrome better by automatically sending usage statistics and crash reports to Google" when the browser is installed.
The optional suggestion service included in Google Chrome has been criticized because it provides the information typed into the Omnibox to the search provider before the user even hits return. This allows the search engine to provide URL suggestions, but also provides them with web usage information tied to an IP address
IP address
An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
. The feature can be selected off in the preferences-under the hood-privacy box.
Do Not Track
In April 2011, Google was criticized for not signing onto the Do Not TrackDo not track header
The do not track header is a proposed HTTP header field that would request a web application to disable their tracking of a user. The "Do Not Track" standard was created by researchers at Stanford University and is under discussion in the United States Congress and the Federal Trade Commission...
feature for Chrome that is being incorporated in most other modern web browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera. Critics pointed out that a new patent Google was granted in April 2011, for greatly enhanced user tracking though web advertising, will provide much more detailed information on user behavior and that do not track will hurt Google's ability to exploit this. Software reviewer Kurt Bakke of Conceivably Tech wrote, "Google said that it intends charge advertisers based on click-through rates, certain user activities and a pay-for-performance model. The entire patent seems to fit Google's recent claims that Chrome is critical for Google to maintain search dominance through its Chrome web browser and Chrome OS and was described as a tool to lock users to Google's search engine and – ultimately – its advertising services. So, how likely is it that Google will follow the do-not-track trend? Not very likely." Mozilla developer Asa Dotzler noted, "It seems pretty obvious to me that the Chrome team is bowing to pressure from Google's advertising business and that's a real shame. I had hoped they'd demonstrate a bit more independence than that."
Google argued that the technology is useless at the present time, as advertisers are not required to obey the user's tracking preference and as it is still unclear on what constitutes tracking (as opposed to storing statistical data or user preferences). As an alternative, Google offers an extension called "Keep My Opt-Outs", which permanently bars ad companies from installing cookies on the user's computer.
The reaction to this extension was mixed. Paul Thurrott of Windows IT Pro called the extension "much, much closer to what I've been asking for—i.e. something that just works and doesn't require the user to figure anything out—than the IE or Firefox solutions" while lamenting the fact that the extension is not included as part of the browser itself.
Bundling practices
On Windows, Chrome comes bundled with the installers of various other applications such as the Adobe Flash Player plug-in (when installing it for Firefox, Opera, or Safari) and Skype. In the case of Skype, the installer makes Chrome the default browser unless the user explicitly opts out. This has since changed.See also
- Browser warsBrowser warsBrowser wars is a metaphorical term that refers to competitions for dominance in usage share in the web browser marketplace. The term is often used to denote two specific rivalries: the competition that saw Microsoft's Internet Explorer replace Netscape's Navigator as the dominant browser during...
- Chromium (web browser)Chromium (web browser)Chromium is the open source web browser project from which Google Chrome draws its source code. The project's hourly Chromium snapshots appear essentially similar to the latest builds of Google Chrome aside from the omission of certain Google additions, most noticeable among them: Google's...
- Comparison of web browsersComparison of web browsersThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of web browsers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.-Historical web browsers:...
- Google Chrome FrameGoogle Chrome FrameGoogle Chrome Frame is a plug-in designed for Internet Explorer based on the open-source Chromium project. It went stable on September 2010, on the first birthday of the project....
- Google Chrome OSGoogle Chrome OSGoogle Chrome OS is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google to work exclusively with web applications. Google announced the operating system on July 7, 2009 and made it an open source project, called Chromium OS, that November....
- List of web browsers
- SRWare IronSRWare IronSRWare Iron, or simply Iron, is a free and open-source web browser implementation of the Chromium source code which primarily aims to eliminate usage tracking and other privacy-compromising functionality that the Google Chrome browser includes...
- Timeline of web browsers
External links
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- Offline installer: for Windows / for Mac
- Google Chrome feature list
- Google Chrome official blog
- Chromium project page at Google Code
- The Chromium blog from Google
- Google Chrome Comic Book