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Google shook up the Internet earlier today with an announcement of their own browser to be called Google Chrome (announced via a cartoon). While the browser is not yet available for download, there has been some basic information released:

• The rendering engine will be WebKit, which is the same engine as Apple’s Safari and originally descended from the Linux KDE Project’s Konqueror browser. It is interested to note that Google is snubbing Mozilla’s Gecko considering their historical support for Mozilla.
• The Javascript engine will be a new faster engine from Denmark-based team called V8 (contrast with Safari’s upcoming SquirrelFish and Firefox’s planned TraceMonkey that focus on the same goal)
• Each tab will run in its own process, insulating the other tabs from crashes (somewhat like IE’s “Launch browser windows in a new process”)
• Open source but no word on what type of license (interestingly enough there is a Google code project called “chrome” which is currently forbidden for access). Mozilla and Konqueror are open source, but Safari, IE and Opera are not (while Safari’s rendering engine, WebKit, is open source, there are many parts of the browser that aren’t).
• Includes a list of malware sites which will auto-synchronize from Google (probably the safe browsing API that Firefox uses and similar to Opera’s feature)
• Lots of nifty visual tricks

Two additional very important points:

• Bundled with Google Gears which lets web application take data offline
• Lets web application launch in their own window (similar to Mozilla’s Prism and Opera’s Widgets)

The overall impression seems to be that Google wants a browser that is faster, specifically on Javascript performance which is important for today’s AJAX heavy web apps like Google’s own, more stable (especially with tendency of the same web apps to crash browsers more often), desktop/offline integration features for web apps and security. Of course one cannot miss the promotion of Google’s own Gears and Safe Browsing API.

This of course happens while Microsoft is working on IE8, Mozilla is making plans for its next version of the browser with faster Javascript, Apple’s is preping Safari 4, and Opera is working on version 10). There is also talk of HTML 5 support before official approval by the W3C, in browsers. So the browser wars are heating up again.

The offline/online intergration is particulary interesting in the light of the fact that Adobe is beginning to push its Flash and AIR technologies for richer offline/online web app intergration, while Microsoft’s Silverlight is pushing in the same direction as well. Google Gears seems to be pushing in the same direction while staying within the conventional HTML / Javascript standards used today.

Of course the basic question with Google is that of motivation. Google is not a software company like Microsoft, Apple, Opera or Adobe which sells auxiliary software, hardware and services around their free browser or plugins. Nor is it a non profit like Mozilla which has an inherent mission to develop a better browser.

When it boils down to it, Google derives virtually all of its revenue from advertising within its search engine and other applications like the free version of Gmail. But, majority of its revenue is delivered via a channel that it cannot control - the browser. Microsoft’s IE currently controls majority of the browser market with Mozilla’s Firefox second largest. The next version of IE, IE8, has some planned features that may block advertising including a possibility of blocking Google’s own ads. Firefox has a famous AdBlock extensions which blocks ads as well.

Perhaps Google simply wants to secure a beach head in the browser market that will allow an unencumbered way to deliver its advertising as well as auxiliary web applications that draw people back to its search engine. Only time will tell.