Google Chrome is an open source web browser developed by Google using the WebKit rendering engine. The beta release date is scheduled for September 2, 2008.

Features:
- An address bar with auto-completion features called “omnibox.”
- The V8 JavaScript Virtual Machine.
- A privacy mode.
- Web applications can be launched in their own browser window without an address bar and toolbar.
- Chrome includes an automatically updated phishing and malware blacklist using the Google Safe Browsing API.
- Uses the WebKit Rendering Engine.
- Puts individual tabs and plug-ins into separate processes.
- Integration of Gears.

*** FAST FACTS ***
Gears, formerly Google Gears, is open source software offered by Google to enable offline access to services that normally only are available online. It installs a database engine, based on SQLite, on the client system to cache the data locally. Gears-enabled pages use data from this local cache rather than from the online service. Using Gears, a web application may periodically synchronize the data in the local cache with the online service. If a network connection is not available, the synchronization is deferred until a network connection is established. Thus Gears enables web applications to work even though access to the network service is not present.
WebKit is an open source application framework that provides a foundation upon which to build a web browser. WebKit was originally derived from the Konqueror browser’s KHTML software library by Apple, Inc. for use as the engine of Mac OS X’s Safari web browser, and has now been further developed by Apple, Nokia, Google and others. The framework is now used by Omniweb, Shiira, iCab, Adobe AIR, mobile phones (including the iPhone), Nokia’s Series 60 browser, Google Chrome, and Google’s Android platform.

The tensions between Microsoft and Google now seem likely to escalate with Google’s foray into Web browsing.
Until now, Google had been trying to undermine Internet Explorer by supporting Firefox, a Web browser developed by the open-source Mozilla Foundation. Bolstered by an advertising partnership with Google’s search engine, Firefox ranks as the second most popular browser, with a market share of more than 10 percent. Google recently extended its advertising alliance with Firefox through 2011.
Bearing the stamp of Google’s renowned brand, Chrome could be an even more formidable rival to Explorer.

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