Update: Google has announced that Chrome is no longer a beta. Chrome 1.0 is now available for download for Windows; Google says it is working on support for Mac OS X and Linux.
When Google first began to expand beyond search, the company pioneered a new release management strategy that—to put it diplomatically—challenges the conventional definition of "beta." Although some of Google's most prominent and widely-used web services still bear the beta designation long after their public debut, its new Chrome web browser is heading for a full release and won't remain in beta for much longer.
Chrome is an open source web browser that leverages Apple's WebKit HTML renderer and a unique JavaScript virtual machine called v8. It offers a number of advanced features, such as the Incognito privacy mode and integrated search capabilities in its URL bar. The browser also has a few very impressive innovations under the hood and is designed to isolate individual tabs in separate processes.
When we reviewed it following the first public beta release in September, we liked what we saw, but we also identified some key limitations, such as the lack of support for a full bookmark manager and RSS feeds, and proper tab overflow behavior. Google has worked to address some of those weaknesses in subsequent releases. Several new features have also been introduced in unstable developer builds that are made available through a special update channel.
Google's plan to push Chrome out of beta was first revealed last month when Google VP Sundar Pichai announced that the browser would enter full release status in January and that Google could pursue partnerships with major OEMs in a bid to get Chrome shipped on new PCs. On Wednesday, other sites reported on similar statements made by Google's Marissa Mayer at the Le Web 08 conference.
Chrome is an increasingly viable contender in the browser market, but it will face a major uphill battle as it attempts to sway the masses. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is definitely in decline and that has created an unprecedented opportunity for alternative browsers. Firefox has grabbed a big chunk of the pie and continues to gain momentum. It's still unclear whether Chrome can achieve the same level of success. Among our readers, Chrome hovers around 4.6 percent compared to Firefox's 51.3 percent (IE is around 22 percent).
Can Google repeat Mozilla's success?
Google is practically a household name and has a lot more resources at its disposal, but that might not be enough. A major factor that has contributed to Mozilla's success is its vibrant community of enthusiasts who will go to extreme lengths to encourage adoption of the product with innovative grass-roots evangelism. Another aspect of Firefox that contributes to its appeal is the browser's add-on system, which delivers a degree of flexibility that Chrome can't yet match.
Firefox's add-on system is made possible by XUL and some of the other rich underlying technologies on which the browser is built. Practically the entire Firefox user interface can be styled and manipulated with XML, CSS, and JavaScript. This is a fundamental design difference that sets it apart from Chrome. Google will have to find a way to provide comparable extensibility without the benefit of having XUL.
The Chrome developers have already started to formulate plans for a new extension system that will allow independent developers to bring richer functionality to the browser.
"The feature needs of one person often conflict directly with those of another. Further, one of the design goals of Chromium is to have a minimal light-weight user interface, which itself conflicts with adding lots of features. User-created extensions have been proposed to solve these problems," the developers wrote in a Chromium design document. "We should start by building the infrastructure for an extension system that can support different types of extensibility."
The plans laid out in the design document are a big step in the right direction, but it's going to take time for the new extension system to be constructed and made ready for deployment. In theory, Google's process isolation model could be more conducive to robust extensibility than the approach taken by Firefox, so there is chance that the final product could offer an even better add-on system than the one in Firefox if the developers really take advantage of Chrome's underlying technical strengths. The recent addition of a full bookmark manager also closes one of the big functionality gaps and helps make Chrome a stronger contender.
Chrome has a big opportunity to shine after its official release, but Google will have to learn from Firefox's successes if the company wants to take on the big blue "e." But regardless of who gets the marketshare, increased competition in the browser market is going to be a huge win for everybody.
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