Lookout Internet Explorer and Firefox: Google’s Chrome is coming

Google, the company that has made its name synonymous with searching the Internet, has taken aim at the browser market with Google Chrome (beta mode), launched in a beta version Tuesday. The new Internet browser, which Google is billing as a “better Web experience”, adds a new dimension to a market dominated by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which accounts for more than 70 per cent of browsers, followed by Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and Opera, trailing with less than one per cent of the browser market.

Downloading Chrome and installing it takes seconds. It will connect with all your bookmarks and settings, and once installed it offers an easy and intuitive walkthrough of its features. Chrome uses tabs, but unlike other browsers, if one crashes, it doesn’t bring down the entire program. Each tab can be an application on its own, making Chrome faster and more efficient as a browser.

It has a one-box-fits-all approach to calling up websites or searching on the Web. Instead of having users enter URLs in a box along the top while putting search request terms into a search engine box, Chrome has one box that does both. Each time you open a new tab – which you can do by hitting the plus sign along the top of the screen – Chrome gives you the lowdown on your most-visited sites, the search engines you use most, plus recently bookmarked pages and tabs you have closed.

An interesting new feature called the “incognito” mode keeps Chrome from storing information about websites you have visited, and reminds you that you’re incognito with a little “spy guy” icon . It’s a feature you access simply by clicking on the current page icon on the top right hand of the screen and opting for “new incognito window.” Useful for keeping your searches under wraps when you are shopping for Christmas presents.

Chrome is a “smart, innovative” product, and as it is still in beta mode, Google left out some features that are
common in other browsers but without doubt, will be added later. Clean and relatively faster than IE and Firefox, it is yet another “attack” form Mr. G’s already dominant position on the internet. What’s next?