The Google Chrome pre-beta roundup

Brian Ambrozy (primesuspect) All the latest on Google Chrome

September 2, 2008 9:08 AM ET in News, , ,

The tech universe is all a-titter about Google Chrome this morning. Apparently, when one of the largest, richest tech companies on Earth decides to launch a fundamental and critical piece of desktop software in direct competition with another of the largest, richest tech companies on Earth, it’s what we in the industry call “big news” o.O

Instead of rehashing the news, I’ll summarize and provide roundup info. We like doing that here.

  • First, the source: Screenshots were nabbed from the Google Gears site (which has since been taken down). This from Blogoscoped, the original scooper.
  • Second, the “official” word from Google. Looks like an oopsie. German post was faster than intended, and the comic wasn’t supposed to get there yet. Too late. Spin away.
  • TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington seems to think Chrome is really “a coat of paint on top of a monumental hatred of Microsoft”. Lulz.
  • David Damore from Admore Solutions says Press Conference at 11am PDT (2pm EST) for beta release, which will be Windows only today.

We’ll keep you updated.

Lunchtime update

Alright, here’s more, as promised…

Next update will be after the webcast.

17 Comments:

  1. primesuspect
    2 Sep '08, 4:08 pm

    Lunchtime update posted.

    Lunchtime update
    Alright, here's more, as promised...

    Next update will be after the webcast.

  2. jared
    2 Sep '08, 7:04 pm

    No mac release. Lame.

  3. Zanthian
    2 Sep '08, 7:18 pm

    Download Link:
    http://www.google.com/chrome

  4. Buddy J
    2 Sep '08, 7:23 pm

    Doesn't work for me. Chrome fails.

  5. Shorty
    3 Sep '08, 5:49 am

    So far working great for me. I am liking it a lot and it seems extremely stable to me for a beta browser

  6. NiGHTS
    3 Sep '08, 6:22 am

    Snappy as hell. I've never believed anyone who's said FF/IE/Safari is "faster" than whatever else they were previously using - now I know what they mean.

  7. manuleka
    4 Sep '08, 12:54 am

    chromes working fine for me... what do you guys do with it that make it so unstable?

    do you guys run tweaks of some sort or something? I hope Chrome will be a success because i love GOOGLE so much

  8. Thrax
    4 Sep '08, 12:56 am

    There are no tweaks for it yet. It crashes because it's super-beta.

  9. tmh88
    4 Sep '08, 1:22 am

    I'm still getting used to chrome. I'm on my old laptop so I can't really tell much of a difference in speed yet.

  10. chiaz
    4 Sep '08, 4:19 am
    There are no tweaks for it yet. It crashes because it's super-beta.

    Just a thought, what would gmail classify under? It's been a beta for a long time.

    Anyway, Chrome works fine for me...in fact I'm writing from Chrome right now....

  11. Thrax
    4 Sep '08, 5:09 am

    Gmail would qualify as a service nearing the end of its beta stages. Clearly it has had ample time to be vetted, tested and stabilized.

    Chrome has not.

  12. Shorty
    4 Sep '08, 8:21 am

    Hasn't crashed yet on me

  13. bothered
    4 Sep '08, 12:06 pm

    Oops.
    http://www.itpro.co.uk/605898/securi...oogle-s-chrome

  14. Thrax
    4 Sep '08, 12:23 pm
    Quoting bothered

    Oops.
    http://www.itpro.co.uk/605898/securi...oogle-s-chrome

    They're about 16 hours late: http://icrontic.com/news/security_fl...ds_more_polish

  15. Preacher
    7 Sep '08, 10:25 pm

    Is it better than Firefox? After switching years ago from IE, I have found Firefox to be head and shoulders above IE.

  16. primesuspect
    8 Sep '08, 7:48 am

    I don't know about better - I like it better, it's definitely faster and I prefer the "google way" of doing things intuitively instead of having everything categorized and delineated for me. Your mileage may vary - it's a matter of opinion. Give it a shot, it can't hurt.

    It's VERY fast.

  17. Thrax
    8 Sep '08, 12:08 pm
    Quoting Preacher

    Is it better than Firefox? After switching years ago from IE, I have found Firefox to be head and shoulders above IE.

    I still prefer Firefox. I stole all of Chrome's good features for FF with addons, and upcoming FF 3.1 is already faster than Chrome, so there's no real need to switch.

Troll-free since 2003 ®