Google Chrome emerges

It appears that the announcement of Google’s new Web browser, Chrome, was sent out bit early in comic book form. What got my attention, being a comic geek, was that the comic was drawn by none other than the awesome Scott McCloud, creator of Understanding Comics.

You can read the official word about it on Google’s blog. You can also read the comic and get a more detailed rundown at Google Blogoscoped. I recommend reading the comic. McCloud does such a good job at explaining complex concepts and breaks down everything into easily understood pieces.

At first glance, it appears to be open source using the Webkit rendering engine with a brand-spanking-new JavaScript engine called V8. There’s also the standard stuff other browsers have like plug-in support, tabs and phishing protection. The focus on the project seems to be on making the browser faster, more efficient with memory and more secure.

I know what everyone is thinking: “Great. Now we’ve got another browser to test in.” Don’t fret yet. Since it’s based on the Webkit rendering engine, your sites should look just fine. (You test in Safari, right?) If you have a Web application, it remains to be seen how it will handle existing JavaScript code. Chrome is in beta and currently only available for Windows, with Mac and Linux versions on the way, so you have some time to see how things sort out.