The SEO Blog

guest blogger: Megan Jeffery

I know that this blog is usually a great place to find tips on SEO, the latest news on our domain switch, and to find out what is happening in the Social Media world, but I thought this was a great place to discuss Google’s latest project. After all, what is Search Engine Optimization with out a search engine, especially one that has decided to build it’s own browser? If you haven’t heard already, today is the release date for Google’s much rumored new browser project - “Google Chrome”. Google’s “Chrome” is available for Windows only download sometime today.

According to Tech Crunch, Google introduced this project with a cartoon! If you would like to read some of the more technical aspects, Google Blogoscoped has some great information. The cartoon is now up on Google’s official blog. I read through it, and followed it for the most part, but I must admit, I am not a software engineer, and they officially lost me somewhere in the middle. So, let me just give you the aspects of this new browser that stuck in my mind. To me, one of the advantages of this browser will be that it will be more “application friendly”. Google wants this product to be able to seemlessly integrate the web applications users like most. The whole point behind building thier own browser seems to be that they feel that other browsers are old fashioned. They don’t work with video, games, chat, etc. as well as they should. Haven’t we all experienced the crash of a browser right in the middle of something important? This frustration will supposedly be remedied by the fact that Google Chrome will allow for each action inside the browser to have it’s own process. It will no longer require that one process finish before the user can begin a new one.

A few of the main features that I thought were interesting:

• The “Omnibox” (URL box) will have memory, so if you were looking at a particular page at some point, all you have to do is type a keyword from the page and it takes you back. The Omnibox also offers suggestions.
• Each tab has all it’s own unique functions, including the URL box.
• Because of the new technology Google has built, it is supposed to be FAST!
• The default page will show your nine most visited pages, and on the side show the site you search on the most, creating a personalized experience every time you open your browser.
• It has a privacy mode: the browser is in read only, when this feature is enabled nothing you are viewing is being saved in the history - such as when you are shopping for gifts for loved ones!
• Created a new way to discourage malware by “sandboxing” them - the browser will not allow writing files to your harddrive or reading of documents on your desktop.
• When you arrive at a possible phishing site, Google Chrome will alert you, as Google has built a database of “bad sites” and the browser will have the ability to alert you when you land on one.
• Google Chrome has incorporated “Gears”, an effort to make browsers better for developers, and increase all web standards.

These are just a few of the many new features Google Chrome is offering. I am sure many of you are wondering why Google would build it’s own browser when it essentially funds Firefox. According to Google, they want all browsers to be better, they want competition and creativity. They have taken ideas from other browsers, and hope that others will use thier ideas as well, so they have made the entire Google Chrome Project Open Source.