“When it comes to software and services, Google tends to take its sweet time. Gmail has been around since 2004, and open to the public for nearly two years now, but it’s still officially a Beta release — software still in testing before being considered production-worthy. The Picasa image organizer only recently lost its Beta tag after four years in limbo. According to Web-monitoring company Pingdom, 45% of the company’s products are in beta at the moment,” Anders Bylund writes for The Motley Fool.
“Actually, that figure just dropped a tiny bit,” Bylund writes. “The Chrome browser moved out of beta and into full production mode last night.”
After 15 version updates in just three months, the browser is now ready to get supported like a real business application and bundled with computer systems… Taking the little ‘beta’ label off a browser might not sound like a big move, but I think it does unlock a whole new world of sales opportunities,” Bylund writes.
“Chrome has come a long way since branching off from the WebKit platform that also powers Apple’s Safari browser,” Bylund writes. “And it’s done so in a very short time, by Google standards. Now let’s watch the bundling agreements roll in — and then, the money.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Google’s Chrome is currently for Windows Vista/XP SP2 only, but Google does invite Mac users to sign up to get news about development for Mac here.
Net Applications’ browser market share figures for November 2008:
And the Mac version is …
Personally, I use Safari on Windows. I like how it renders the pages a lot better than FireFox. I can’t think of the last time I used IE on Windows………*shutters*
Plus, being a .Mac subscriber, I can sync my bookmarks between multiple computers and iPhone, including my Windows computer.
So, unless Chrome can do that hat trick as easily as Safari does, I’ll be sticking with Safari all around.
Since the browser is the central part of most OS’s and the main tool for a desktop, this likely indicates that Google is pushing Chrome development in order to add it to their rumoured new operating system.
As far as I am concerned, it’s still beta until they release a Mac version anyway. How could anyone seriously make a browser that only runs on one OS in today’s world and call it “done” in any menaingful way?
What’s unique or would make me want to use it when a Leopard version does come out?
The browser wars are on again. If they manage to close some major bundling agreements, making Crome the default browser on Windows boxes, the numers are going to change very quickly. Current erosion of IE share was mainly due to the grassroots FireFox movement (and Safari helped as well). The next big wave of erosion will come when all these new PCs, bundled with Crome, end up on consumers’ desktops.
This can only be good. Neither Firefox, Nor Safari require any special development considerations in order to be fully cross-browser and cross-platform compatible. The only guilty party is still, as we all know, IE. As soon as IE drops below 60%, there will be no web sites of any consequence that require only IE (and therefore, only Windows).
A Chrome plated turd perhaps?
google operating system? um they already have one. I guess people still think android is only for phones
Acid 3 Tests
Opera: 85
Chrome: 79
Safari: 77
Firefox: 71
IE 6: 12
Not Bad Google.
I can’t think of the last time I used IE on Windows………*shutters*
I think they should shutter IE as well as Windows. Of course, you probably meant “shudders”…
I think another round of browser wars is definitely in order. Let Firefox, Safari, and Chrome battle it out all they want. Hopefully it will garner enough press that people that only use IE will start paying attention to the REAL browsers.
(Being a web developer, the fewer people using IE, the better my job is…)
Whaaaa? No. The browser is the ‘central’ part of only ONE OS: Windows.
And since IE is borged into the OS like that, Windows machines are the most malware-ridden things since $2 shanghai hookers.
on all other OSes OS X included, the web browser is just another program.
How can any browser beat out IE on a Windows machine. You need IE for Windows updates. It has to be used forever.
Believe me, you really need those Windows updates unless you run Windows completely sand boxed in a virtual machine.
Chrome? Google Chrome? The browser with the draconic EULA? The browser that stores all your online activity on Google’s servers and makes it Google’s property?
I hope they never release a Mac version.
One browser that’s never mentioned, and I use it from time to time, is the one that is part of Real Player.
I doubt Google would put serious effort into the mac version of it. They’d need to compete against Safari…
And they know, that competing against Apple today, can be suicidal…
‘How can any browser beat out IE on a Windows machine. You need IE for Windows updates. It has to be used forever.’
Do you still use IE for updates on Vista? Vista has a similar feature to OS X now, where you click software update, and a control panel appears, rather than it open up in IE.
WebKit: The other Mac browser I know of that uses WebKit is my current favorite: OmniWeb. Well worth paying for. Bells and whistles deluxe.
IE: Like it or not, Microsoft are still on the same old trail of making the Internet proprietary. They still perpetrate their own non-standard HTML and scripting (versus LiveScript/JavaScript). There are places on the net where it is the only browser you can use if you want to render a page correctly or use a particular service. An example, for the moment, is NetFlix where ONLY IE on Windows will play streamed movies. This may well change when NetFlix go all SilverLight.
Will Chrome deal sufficiently with the Microsoft net code factor?
Regarding the Acid 3 Tests:
The only browser I know of that currently gets 100/100 is the development version of WebKit:
http://nightly.webkit.org/
@derekcurrie
First, Didn’t Netflix just drop Silverlight? Or was that MLB.com? or both?
Second, if not, then why would NetFlixs’ adoption of silverlight cause LESS IE only websites? Isn’t Silverlight an MS product, therefore IE only?