Is Google trying to outfox the Fox?
Thomas Papenfuhs
Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: Entertainment
On September 2nd, 2008, Google did something that will change the Internet, and how we browse it, forever. At least, that is the hope they have for Chrome. Chrome is a brand new open source browser created by Google to better handle the Internet's ever-changing landscape. Google has long supported Mozilla's Firefox browser, but has now decided to enter the arena of the Browser Wars with it's own Chrome. However, both Google and Mozilla have made statements that the partnership that they have had for the past few years will continue for many more into the future.
The primary reason that Google gives for creating this new browser is to make a browser that can properly handle what the modern Internet can throw at it. All of our browsers before Chrome were written originally when the primary thing a webpage had to do is show text, and occasionally a picture or two. However, today's modern internet is much different. We run full applications on a daily basis on our browsers, and yet, underneath it all, they were only made to handle simpler text and pictures from the early days of the Internet. Google asked "What if we were to make a browser from the ground up, knowing that it is going to be running applications, and all this other stuff that we currently use it for?" Chrome is their solution to this question.
Chrome is an Open Source project, much like the popular Firefox and Opera browsers. In fact, much of Chrome is based on Firefox's concepts. Also, Chrome was built using WebKit, which many will recognize, since Apple's popular browser, Safari, has WebKit as its own backbone. If it seems that Chrome is borrowing a lot from other browsers, that is true. It is Open Source like Firefox, so has freely taken from other Open Source projects such as Firefox, and Google encourages other similar projects to take from Chrome as well, as that is the whole idea behind the Open Source movement. However, Chrome adds some unique features of it's own that are very intrigueing. The primary one that I find interesting is that each individual item running in Chrome, whether it be a plug-in, or just a simple tab with a Google search in it, every item is it's own individual process. This makes everything completely independent from each other, so if one tab encounters something that slows it up, only that tab is affected, not the entire browser. Anything else that you may have been doing will still continue to work exactly as before, as it is completely separate.
The primary reason that Google gives for creating this new browser is to make a browser that can properly handle what the modern Internet can throw at it. All of our browsers before Chrome were written originally when the primary thing a webpage had to do is show text, and occasionally a picture or two. However, today's modern internet is much different. We run full applications on a daily basis on our browsers, and yet, underneath it all, they were only made to handle simpler text and pictures from the early days of the Internet. Google asked "What if we were to make a browser from the ground up, knowing that it is going to be running applications, and all this other stuff that we currently use it for?" Chrome is their solution to this question.
Chrome is an Open Source project, much like the popular Firefox and Opera browsers. In fact, much of Chrome is based on Firefox's concepts. Also, Chrome was built using WebKit, which many will recognize, since Apple's popular browser, Safari, has WebKit as its own backbone. If it seems that Chrome is borrowing a lot from other browsers, that is true. It is Open Source like Firefox, so has freely taken from other Open Source projects such as Firefox, and Google encourages other similar projects to take from Chrome as well, as that is the whole idea behind the Open Source movement. However, Chrome adds some unique features of it's own that are very intrigueing. The primary one that I find interesting is that each individual item running in Chrome, whether it be a plug-in, or just a simple tab with a Google search in it, every item is it's own individual process. This makes everything completely independent from each other, so if one tab encounters something that slows it up, only that tab is affected, not the entire browser. Anything else that you may have been doing will still continue to work exactly as before, as it is completely separate.
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