Google's new browser chrome

Google has revealed plans today to release an innovative new open source web browser called Chrome that includes some extraordinary and unprecedented features. Google says that its new browser will move the web forward and provide a stronger platform for emerging web standards.

The browser is built on top of Apple's WebKit HTML rendering engine, a lightweight renderer that is known for its clean code base, good performance, and excellent standards-compliance. WebKit's versatility and the ease with which it can be embedded in applications has led to its adoption in numerous contexts, including Google's Android web browser. Alongside WebKit, Google will be using its own JavaScript virtual machine called V8, which was designed for high performance and has some compelling features.

Security is also clearly an area where Google plans to push forward web innovation. Chrome has a sophisticated sandboxing system that is designed to protect against malware by restricting access to the underlying system functionality. Google will also be leveraging its malware blacklists (the same ones it uses to protect users from clicking through harmful search results) to warn users when they attempt to visit a site that is known to be infected.

There are many other nice features in Chrome too, including a rich autocompletion, tightly integrated Google Gears, a site-specific browser framework like Prism, and a private browsing function called Incognito that resembles Microsoft's recently announced InPrivate functionality.