google browser

For quite some time now, Mozilla Firefox has been the web browser of choice in the desktop market. The open source browser is widely supported by a huge mass of developers and is known for its excellent extendability architecture. This fall however, the browser is going to meet its true match, and no its not Internet Explorer 8.

On September 1, 2008, leaked scans surfaced on the Internet of what appeared to be a comic book called Google on Google Chrome, drawn by Scott McCloud and released under the Creative Commons license. The comic showcased the Google Chrome team talking about the various features of the new web browser. The browser being designed with today’s sophisticated RIAs in mind, unlike the legacy browsers that we have grown so fond of. Its major features include it multi-process architecture, meaning that each component (including tabs and plugins) would run as a separate process, managed by the Chrome Process Manager.

The V8 JavaScript engine is probably one of the fastest JavaScript rendering technologies and it features a JavaScript compiler instead of an interpreter. Another major feature is its new UI, which will feature the Tab as the main component container, and acting as a parent to all other controls. Tabs would be fully detachable and would have an independent address space in memory.

Google has also stated that it would rather make an application with one less cool feature than to make an application that could break. The WebKit rendering engine being employed on the suggestion of the Android development team was also developed mostly by Google, Apple, and Nokia and is known for its simple and easy to use architecture. While the overall architecture of the browser makes it clear that it will need a bit more resources than the existing browsers, it also suggests that it would result in very much less memory clutter over time stopping persistent memory leaks as seen on Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Official word from Google on the browser is expected to come tomorrow, when the browser is expected to make its public beta debut. I’ll also be doing a report on the detailed features of the browser so stay in touch. Don’t forget to share your thoughts on this new technology.