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Google to Launch Webkit Based Web Browser Called 'Chrome'
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Though any features they implement that are new will certainly be cool...I think Google has waited a long time for other browsers (and by other browsers, I mean 98% Opera) to do all the innovation, now it's going to come in and add a useful feature or two and make themselves look like they've done something really amazing.
It's no Opera.
It's no Opera.
Sure, if you're looking at it fresh in the last few years. It is, of course, an Apple project which was then open-sourced, and is still guided by folks at Apple. It's more than just a tweaked KHTML.
You're actually being a bit of a pillock here. If it's Webkit-based, it's the same as Safari. And if it gains popularity that is good news for Safari users, who will see more websites built with Webkit compatibility in mind.
Myself, I hope this takes off. I trust they'll be being good OSS citizens; the stuff about javascript scares me, and I hope they're just talking about current Webkit projects (and not something new they want to bring to the table to create division); or at least, if it's new that it's so much better it becomes the new hotness in Webkit over all platforms.
As for a new browser on the Mac, I'm pretty much in the "What's the point?" group. Seems like it'd have to be pretty decent to drag me from Safari; but if it's much better I'd switch without hesitation. It's Webkit I love, not Safari (sorry guys).
Why not Gecko? Gecko is a beast, and hard to deal with. Webkit is designed to be lightweight, and (these days) relatively platform-agnostic. Why do you think so many Webkit ports (iPhone, Android, Qt, etc etc) have sprung up? It's comparatively easy, and the fastest-improving of all the rendering engines (my completely subjective opinion).
Well then now is their time to shine. Again, wait until you've used it to judge.
Significant industry news that could change much. Get out if you don't like it.
I'm guessing the chances of getting adblock on a google browser are pretty slim? I need adblock (or something similar) on my browser.
I think you miss the point. More and more people are starting to use online applications, and Google should know, they host one of the most popular suites, Google Docs. Maybe you haven't heard of it yet?
So you don't use Gmail? Personally, I preferred it so much to Hotmail and the paid hosting service I was using that I dropped them both.
As far as video is concerned, I thought Google Video was better than YouTube but I guess that's just one of those Beta/VHS scenarios.
ha ha, unusually mature sarcasm for these forums
ibjoshua
I can see what Scooby is saying, but I am more on Arn's side here.
We are all speculating at this point, but the RIA market is growing very quickly and Adobe has recently (within the last 8 months) grabbed significant market share with Flex and AIR. Flex development is exploding rather quickly and as I am sure Adobe planned well in advance for this, their platform is already mature.
MS, Google and Apple are not going to sit on the sidelines and let Adobe take control of this rather lucrative vertical.
MS is working very hard with Silverlight and although is several major releases behind and lacking fundamental features, they are at least providing something for their developer base and promised features in the near future. They are not out of the fight, they have a large base of developers and a brand that will carry them.
Apple has their own proprietary markup language similar to Flex based on their Quicktime platform, and although it is internal and not published, we can probably expect something shortly from them.
Google is of course the one we do expect to be more interested in this area as they are working very hard to be king of browser applications.
This could be a significant change if they are more likely to deploy Chrome (mentioned earlier) more as a cross-platform runtime rather than just another browser.
I am not sure how they will compete or provide Google only features, but we'll see.
Maybe it's time for Google's G++, Objective-G or Gava. ;-)
Apple puts a lot of resources into developing webkit. Google will be a major player her, it is very much related to Apple. Not to mention Google is likely to devote some resources to help the development of webkit which will only make Safari a better browser.
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I really hope this is a firefox killer! I hate gecko, and look forward to the day it is gone. Firefox needs to be rewritten using Cocoa and use webkit as the engine!
As unlikely as many people think this sounds, you are probably right. Aside from OS X Leopard and OS X iPhone, Webkit is found in the following places:
Nokia/Symbain S60 Webkit
Google Android Webkit
Google Chrome Webkit
Adobe Air Webkit
Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Live View Webkit
http://blogoscoped.com/google-chrome/13
Does Google think that Denmark has expanded to include Germany, Switzerland and the Benelux countries? (And parts of Austria and Hungary)
Does Google think that Denmark has expanded to include Germany, Switzerland and the Benelux countries? (And parts of Austria and Hungary)
I'm not calling in a dirty conspiracy, or even a clean one. Google is all about information, having their own browser that will record how many times you visit a site, etc, will 'help' them improve how their software works.
Google's mission is "to organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful." source
Having their own browser, to me, is the superstar of gathering that information.
That's funny! Can't wait to develop in GTML and GSS. Okay, that didn't work as well as yours did.
Assuming they really do keep the Mac (and Linux) end up to date with the Windows version - I think this is a good thing. I'd love to see a Firefox-like extensible browser that uses Webkit rather than Gecko. Having one "problem" page crash only one tab rather than taking the whole browser down is a good thing as well. The new security model seems, at the surface, to be a smart idea too.
Webkit is open source. How do you think Google, Nokia and Samsung would be able to use it to base browsers around otherwise?
I will wait to see and use before I make a judgment if I like it or not. This is very interesting thou. Google, has some good ideas but has a hard time making them come to light. IE google mail. Can we get out of the beta already............
The point is, who cares? There are more mobiles than computers, its all about mobiles and ipods, not PC's and windows. Windows was yesterdays war.
Though I agree competition is good, this is getting out of hand. There is too much time spent reinventing the wheel instead of improving it when you look at the big picture of web development at the moment. Everyone wants to be the guy to go to for everything. Too much time and effort is wasted in the software industry repeating what has already been done. We would be surfing on a much livelier web if there wasn't so much effort wasted. They should have simply contributed their "additions" to firefox or opera. The rest is just fluff.
Looks fugly in the screenshot. I don't really think we need another browser as the current batch is quite good and early indications are that IE8 might actually be pretty decent (*gasp!*). Oh well, can't hurt to have more ideas and competition out there as long as they don't start screwing up standards as previously M$ did, bring it on!
