Google Chrome
is a freeware web browser
developed by Google. It used the WebKit layout
engine until version 27 and, with the exception of its iOS releases,
from version 28 and beyond uses the WebKit fork Blink. It was first released as a beta
version forMicrosoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and
as a stable public release on December 11, 2008.
As of 2013, StatCounter estimates
that Google Chrome has a 39% worldwide usage share of web browsers, making it
the most widely used web browser in the world.
In September 2008, Google released the majority of Chrome's
source code as an open source project called Chromium on which Chrome releases are
still based. Notable components that are not open source are the built-in PDF
viewer and the built-in Flash player.
Google's Eric Schmidt opposed
the development of an independent web browser for six years. He stated that
"at the time, Google was a small company," and he did not want to go
through "bruising browser wars." After co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page hired
several Mozilla Firefox developers and built a
demonstration of Chrome, however, Schmidt admitted that "It was so good
that it essentially forced me to change my mind."
Announcement
The release announcement was originally scheduled for
September 3, 2008, and a comic by Scott
McCloud was to be sent to journalists and bloggers explaining the
features within the new browser. Copies intended for Europe were shipped
early and German blogger Philipp
Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped made a scanned copy of
the 38-page comic available on his website after receiving it on September 1,
2008. Google subsequently made the comic available on Google
Books and mentioned it on their official blog along with an
explanation for the early release.
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