The wars for internet browser dominance have come a long way from the early struggle between netscape and internet explorer which was plagued by a lack of design standards and an emphasis on adding proprietary features over fixing bugs.  That fight ended with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer becoming the de facto web browser of choice and the slow demise of Netscape.  For years Microsoft’s IE browser has held dominance and the vast majority of web surfers don’t even realize there are alternative browsers available to them.  That has slowly been changing with the growing success of Mozilla’s Firefox browser, followed by other would be contenders like Apple’s Safari and Opera Software’s less creatively named Opera browser.

Now a new contender enters the fray.  Originally intended to launch on September 3rd, the beta of Google’s entrant into the battle for browser dominance, Chrome, leaked a day early and has created a firestorm of interest among internet users, due in no small part to the popularity of Google’s search engine.

Like the other new contenders for Microsoft’s throne, Google’s new browser is open source, which means that the program code is available to internet users so that they can add to the code in an effort to improve performance and add features or utility.

In many regards Chrome is a natural progression of the open source browsers that went before it and is largely an evolution of the browser rather than a revolution, though it does have few revolutionary features.  Overall, the user interface is clean and simple, incorporating elements that have become standard to other browsers.  The greatest difference of note is that tabs for tabbed browsing are placed on top of the browser rather than below the address bar, a placement common for other browsers.

Most of the improvements implemented by Chrome would go largely unnoticed to the uninitiated or uninformed.  The most notable of which is the JavaScript V8 engine that is purported to enhance browsing speed and make it the fastest browser available.  From my own testing I can confirm that Chrome is indeed faster and more responsive than Firefox version 3, which had been the leader in browsing speed.

Snappiness aside, the next most noteworthy feature of the new browser is that each tab opened in Chrome is separate or “sandboxed.”  This similar to Internet Explorer 7’s “Protected Mode”.  What this effectively does is segregate any processes or scripts that run in a tab from the rest of the computer.  Though I haven’t had the chance to experience this first hand, this should significantly improve the safety of internet surfing, as mal-ware and spy-ware have become a growing threat to computer users and were one of the primary factors behind users looking for alternatives to the weak security of Internet Explorer’s earlier iterations.

Perhaps the most novel addition to the feature list is “incognito” mode, which enables you to browse the web in complete privacy.  In incognito mode no traces of your web surfing activities (such as cookies, cached pages or browsing history) are saved.  Score another hit to dwindling workplace productivity.

No beta release escapes public scrutiny unscathed, though, and there are already a handful of complaints about the new browser.  The earliest noted issue is a flaw in chrome that can trick users into launching malicious executables directly from the browser and bypassing the sandboxing feature.  Supposedly, this has already been addressed in Java and this will likely be patched quickly.

Perhaps of more significance, is reports from users that upon uninstalling Chrome, the HKCU:Run registry and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/gusvc keys are not deleted, along with the updater.  This has lead to some inconveniences for those who have deleted the program, as they still receive update notices even after the program has supposedly been removed from their computer.  This can be alleviated by deleting the left over directory and making a few simple changes with window’s registry editor, but, honestly, this is an issue that Google should address in later iterations of the browser.

With the amount of positive buzz it has generated, one can safely call the launch of Google Chrome an unparalleled success.  It remains to be seen what share of the browser market Chrome will ultimately steal away from its competitors, but the burgeoning browser is off to a good start.  With the improvements that are sure to come out of its beta phase, Chrome has potential to be the new king of the web browser hill.