Exploring Google Chrome

The Internet is full of fast moving, competitive technology. Amazing new products and software are constantly being developed, and the competition between companies to create the best and most attractive product is fierce. The smallest things can make or break a company, and keeping that competitive edge is essential to success on the Internet, even for such a stable web fixture as the search engine giant, Google. Recently Google introduced one of its newest developments, Google Chrome.

What is it?

Developed in tandem with the Google Chrome Operating System, Google Chrome is an Internet browser created to compete with other popular and upcoming browsers like Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Google Chrome was released as a beta system for Windows in September of 2008, and then went live in December of 2008, with beta releases for Linux and Mac in June of 2009. Coming from the search engine giant of the Internet, Google Chrome has the potential to offer a serious challenge to Microsoft IE and Mozilla Firefox, the two browsers that currently have the largest market audience.

Features

The goal of Google Chrome was to improve browser speed, security, and stability. Chrome has been touted as the fastest browser on the Internet, outpacing even Firefox for overall browser speed. Its security has been recently enhanced to patch holes that had the potential for exploitation by malware. Performance speed decreased slightly with the enhanced security, but Google Chrome remains at a very competitive speed. It also downloads updates of blacklists for phishing and malware on a periodic basis, to protect the user from malicious websites.

Google Chrome has innovative features that give it a competitive edge over other browsers, such as the merging of the address and search bars, desktop Web applications by the integration with Google Gears, and unique implementation of tabs different from their competitor's tabbing style. Chrome's tabs are easily adjusted and allow for several options when clicking a link, plus the user has the ability to drag tabs outside of the browser to open a new window.

Google Chrome lacks some features that are the standard that users have come to expect from a browser, like customizing the browser and defining its settings, plus abilities like highlighting text within web pages. However, the fledgling browser is still considered a work in progress and Google will undoubtedly have more updates and improvements in the future.

Offering Choice

Google Chrome has its good and bad points, but the best aspect of this new browser is its ability to offer Internet users another browsing choice. There are as many preferences and different Internet needs as there are people, and having a variety of product choices gives Internet users gratifying diversity. Google Chrome offers a different browser style and function, and promises to become a contender in the race for new Internet technology.