RedHerring.com ~ The Business of Technology

Google is rolling out a new web browser that will take on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari, the online search giant acknowledged Monday.

The software, dubbed Google Chrome, will launch Tuesday in beta mode and will introduce features to speed up browsing and simplify the process of entering web addresses, according to a Google blog posting.

Google Blogoscoped, which received an e-mail sent prematurely by Google, was the first to dislcose details about the project.

"As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit 'send' a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome," the Official Google Blog said.

The new browser will be backed by Google but available for open-source development and modification like Mozilla’s Firefox, the No. 2 browser behind Microsoft’s IE. Apple’s Safari is a distant third in the browser race.

Internet Explorer, whose version 8 was recently released in public beta, continues to dominate the browser market despite inroads by Firefox.

"Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go," said the Google Blog.

Among the features listed by Google Blogoscoped:

--An address bar, dubbed omnibox, that offers search suggestions and web pages visited in the past;
--A "speed dial" feature offering up to nine screenshot thumbnails like those found on the Opera browser;
--A “porn mode” akin to a new feature on IE8 that lets users create a window which leaves no history or traces on the computer after it is closed.

Tuesday's release of Chrome will be limited to computers that use Microsoft's Windows operating system, but Google said that versions of Linux and Apple computers are under development.

Google Rolls Out Web Browser