Chrome Browser Turns 10 (theverge.com)

Google first released its Chrome browser 10 years ago today. Marketed as a "fresh take on the browser," Chrome debuted with a web comic from Google to mark the company's first web browser. From a report: It was originally launched as a Windows-only beta app before making its way to Linux and macOS more than a year later in 2009. Chrome debuted at a time when developers and internet users were growing frustrated with Internet Explorer, and Firefox had been steadily building momentum. Google used components from Apple's WebKit rendering engine and Mozilla's Firefox to help bring Chrome to life, and it made all of Chrome's source code available openly as its Chromium project. Chrome focused on web standards and respected HTML5, and it even passed both the Acid1 and Acid2 tests at the time of its release. This was a significant step as Microsoft was struggling to adhere to open web standards with its Internet Explorer browser.

Another significant part of Chrome's first release was the idea of "sandboxing" individual browser tabs so that if one crashed it wouldn't affect the others. This helped improve the speed and stability of Chrome in general, alongside Google's V8 JavaScript engine that the company constantly tweaked to try and push the web forwards. After a decade of Chrome, this browser now dominates as the primary way most people browse the web. Chrome has secured more than 60 percent of browser market share on desktop, and Google's Chrome engineers continue to improve it with new features and push the latest web standards. To mark the milestone, Google said it would make a surprise announcement on Tuesday -- some improvements coming to Chrome.

Comments

Say Nice Things about Chrome

[AlanObject]

I don't have much to add, but I will say that Chrome provides very nice developer tools for building and debugging client-side web applications. It is almost as if the people behind it had a vision or something.

Sort of related: I went to a movie yesterday (Crazy Rich Asians) and saw an ad before the movie pushing Chromebook. If you want to see floorboss-level trolling of Microsoft go see that. Oh, and the movie was pretty good too.

This is the factual inaccuracy in the summary...

[bogaboga]

Chrome focused on web standards and respected HTML5, and it even passed both the Acid1 and Acid2 tests at the time of its release. This was a significant step as Microsoft was struggling to adhere to open web standards with its Internet Explorer browser.

I must assert: Microsoft did not even try to adhere to web standards at the time.

For a company of Microsoft's stature with thousands of [capable & competent] programmers, this would be cake walk. They chose not to try.

Unfortunately, it's Google.

[IGnatius T Foobar]

I used the Chrome browser for about seven years. It's a great browser -- fast, snappy, good looking, responsive. Unfortunately, it's controlled by Google, an organization that can no longer be trusted. This sent me back into the welcoming arms of Firefox (and yes, my search engine is DuckDuckGo).

Re:Unfortunately, it's Google.

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

it's controlled by Google, an organization that can no longer be trusted.

You're amusing: when was Google ever trustworthy?

Struggling to what?

[Zero__Kelvin]

No, Microsoft was not "struggling to comply (with standards)" They were struggling to embrace, extend, and extinguish said standards.

And after 8 Years

[DatbeDank]

I went back to Firefox. I don't trust Google and their ad ecosystem.

Firefox has its problems, but it doesn't have a multi-billiondollar neoliberal fascist enterprise backing it.

Apple's WebKit ?

[quax]

WebKit came from the KDE browser. And because it was LGPL code Apple and Google were forced to keep it Open Source.

Would be nice if these details would at least get some attention on a site like /..

amazing how quick

[bobmagicii]

amazing how quick the fresh take on the browser became mundane and bloated.