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Tuesday evening saw the release of Google’s new open source browser, Chrome, and I thought I would spend some time checking it out.

Chrome is Google’s attempt to move users away from traditional browsers and onto their own platform which works seamlessly with their own web applications. Google’s existing web applications consist of Gmail, Picas, Maps, Calender, Docs and a few others. Their main concentration seems to have been on enabling JavaScript to run quickly. Without fast reliable JavaScript, the hope that all computing will move to the web will come to nothing, as it will always be quicker to use a locally stored program.

But, will it be enough to persuade companies to install Chrome and replace Microsoft Office with Google apps? They can’t have a situation where a spreadsheet crashing in one tab brings down JavaScript everywhere else: their email, that half written document, etc. Well, they do seem to have made big steps in the right direction.

Existing browsers often have problems with JavaScript. If you have JavaScript executing in one tab/window then it will keep going, and going, and the browser isn’t able to do anything else until JavaScript returns control to it. Developers then have to write APIs that are asynchronous so that each operation will only be started after the preceding operation is completed. Every so often the browser will crash because JavaScript is struggling over something. The Chrome developers have attempted to overcome this by creating tabs that allow for multiple processes, each having its own memory allocation and separate JavaScript threads. When one tab crashes, it doesn’t bring down the entire browser, it’s just that tab.

Chrome also allows the user to look at an equivalent to a task manager that you might find in your OS. The task manager allows you to see which sites, or plug-ins, are using the most memory. It then enables the user to eliminate them accordingly.

Chrome also introduces a search feature that can be likened to Firefox’s “Awesome Bar”. The search and URL bar have been combined so that when you start to type in the URL box, Chrome makes suggestions for searches and top pages you’ve visited before. For example if you visit the BBC homepage regularly and you were to type “b” and press return, you might go straight to bbc.co.uk.

Another clever search feature captures search bars from pages that you have searched on before. For example, if you had previously been to Amazon.co.uk and completed a search, you would then be able to search the same site with a different term later, straight from the address bar. Just type in “Amazon” and press “tab” and then your search term, e.g. music, and you’re able to search on that site without being on the site itself.

The homepage of your browser is made up of the new Chrome “tab page”, clearly inspired by Opera’s ‘Speed Dial’. This consists of nine of your most visited pages and a few of the sites that you have visited recently, making it easy to navigate to your most frequently viewed pages.

Switching to “Incognito” sets the Chrome Browser to read-only mode or “Porn Mode” as I believe it should really be called. This stops any data, such as cookies from being stored on your computer, ultimately meaning that any future user won’t be able to see what you have been looking at.

Time will tell as to whether Chrome will rival Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox, but my initial experience with it has been good. One aspect I do question is any form of ad-blocking, as after all, Google makes its money by delivering advertising to the user and it obviously isn’t going to be in their best interest to introduce this.

I noticed that initial discussions about chrome on the web seem to be about security worries rather than the functionality. This is an area that also concerned me. One of the things I wondered about Chrome was what kind of data would the company use the browser to collect. After all, Google’s lifeblood is data.

My initial worries started when I read the Terms and Conditions (http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html), specifically point 11.1:

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

I’m no legal expert, but does that mean Google owns my bank details if I bank online? My photos if I send them privately to a friend using Chrome? And all of the personal information that I enter online?

Update: At this point, I would like to add that after checking back on the Terms and Conditions that this section has now been replaced with:

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

I will leave you to make you own conclusions.