It shows off application's features in challenge to Microsoft's Explorer
By
Alfred Siew, Technology Correspondent
Chrome boasts faster loading times and a privacy mode that will allow users to surf the Internet without leaving tracks. A beta version is out for testing now. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN
Google is eyeing much more: In the same way users access their e-mail on the Web now, it wants them to do their word processing and spreadsheets on a more advanced browser in future, forgoing the need to install Microsoft software.
A trial version of Chrome became available for download on Google's website, www.google.com/chrome, on Tuesday, after the company inadvertently leaked information about it days ahead of time.
In a demonstration to reporters yesterday, Google showed off Chrome's smart features. For example, its Omnibox can predict what search term or Web address the user wants based on his past surfing patterns and those of other users online.
A user looking for Amazon, the online bookstore, may need to type no more than 'Am' to bring up the link to the site.
The new browser also comes with a privacy mode that lets a user surf the Internet without leaving a trail on a computer, a feature handy for those who share computers with others at home.
With Chrome, Google is taking aim at Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, the browser of choice for three-quarters of Internet users and which is pre-loaded on computers running on Windows.
The last browser war, which pitted Microsoft's Explorer against Netscape in the 1990s, left Netscape beaten.
Battle lines have been drawn now between Microsoft, which made its fortune selling software for personal computers, and Google, which wants to overturn that dominance with online alternatives.
By developing its own browser, Google says it is ensuring that its online applications - alternatives to Microsoft's Word, Excel and Powerpoint - can be run optimally in future.
To show that Chrome was faster than its rivals, Google yesterday set up a computer and compared the time it took to download two Java Web pages using Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Chrome streaked ahead, completing the download ahead of its rivals. A webpage with, say, a 3D drawing loaded several seconds faster.
In a video conference with reporters at Google's offices, director of engineering Linus Upson said he expected power users to be Chrome's early adopters.
'But they will tell their friends...and we are confident it will get into the hands of millions of people,' he said.
He noted that the browser, using open-source software code, would benefit from add-ons and updates created by the online community.
The question for Google now is whether users will bite. Early adopters such as undergraduate Chin Su Yuen, 22, are already sold.
Noting that the software is faster, she said: 'I have opened Facebook with 2,000 items on it, and it took a longer time to load on older browsers.'
Before Chrome, the alternatives to Internet Explorer have been Apple's Safari, Opera from Opera Software and Firefox from the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, which Google helps fund.
