Chrome Ditches Chrysalis

One of Google's enduring quirks is the company's stubborn insistence on keeping products in "beta," or test, mode for years while its engineers tweak them over and over; Gmail, for example, is still in beta, believe it or not. So when Google announced yesterday that its new browser Chrome had come out of beta, after just months of test runs with the public, you could tell it considers the browser key to its fight with Microsoft. The software company's browser Internet Explorer accounts for some 70 percent of the market, and while anything Google does generates plenty of initial buzz, Chrome has stalled at just 1 percent—yes, 1 percent—of market share. Google's apps business, which offers a suite of word-processing and spreadsheet programs, is aimed squarely at the Microsoft Office software line, designed to replace software-based office programs with a cloud computing model. Microsoft, in turn, would like nothing better than to gobble up Yahoo and challenge Google for dominance in search advertising. Chrome is part of Google's multifront war with Microsoft, so you can imagine how eager engineers are to put a reliable version on the market.

But is Google's new post-beta browser really ready for prime time, or is this just a public-relations move? The company claims that Chrome's bugs have largely been fixed; video and audio plug-in glitches have been resolved, and the browser has new features to fight viruses, malware, and phishing software. With these bugs out of the way, Chrome's advanced loading speed may finally lure users away from Internet Explorer and make Chrome more than just a novel experiment among tech junkies.

At least, that's what they want you to think. All around the world, geeks and tech experts are playing with the new version, and we'll let you know what they conclude as soon as they make up their minds. ComputerWorld has an initial roundup of the first critics, but, frankly, no one has had enough time to properly evaluate the new browser. ZDNet's Sam Diaz thinks that regardless of whether Google has dropped the beta label, the company will keep tweaking the browser as issues come up in real time, rather than wait for a new version and implement changes in one fell swoop. Meanwhile, where's Chrome for Mac? That, apparently, will have to wait until sometime next year.