Jim Barraud

Yesterday Google formally announced it’s long rumored browser, Google Chrome. The rumor that Google has been working on it’s own internet browser has been around for quite a while, but it’s mostly been based on Google’s relationship with Mozilla. It’s been thought that the fabled Google Browser would either be based of the Gecko engine or a retooled and rebranded version Firefox. But it turns out neither was correct.

Google Chrome was built from the ground up to handle the hefty demands of today’s web applications. Some of it was built in-house, other parts based on current open source software. The rendering engine is based on Apple’s Webkit. The same rendering engine that’s used in Apple’s Safari web browser as well as the browser used in Google upcoming mobile Android OS.

One of the biggest selling points of the browser is how it works under the hood. Each tab in Google Chrome runs it’s own process. Meaning if there’s a bug encountered in one tab, it won’t crash your entire browser and all the other tabs you may have open. Which is essential in this day and age with increased usage of web based apps. Other browser manufacturers have gotten around this issue by remembering which tabs were open when your browser crashed, then reloading them all when you relaunched your browser.

Another rumor that’s been around for quite some time is the Google OS. That Google is developing it’s own operating system to compete with Windows and OSX. While they have created their own open source mobile OS with Android, I’ve never pictured them creating their own PC based OS.

My theory is that Google Chrome is the Google OS. With the majority of Google’s applications being internet based, it makes a certain kind of sense that it’s “OS” would be a browser. A browser they can optimize to make the user experience of their applications more enjoyable as well engineer to be more secure and stable then other browsers on the market. And while they’re at it, make it open source. Allowing other browser manufactures to learn from and improve on Google’s advances, making the internet experience as whole more rewarding while integrating standards Google is promoting or has developed. As development progresses I would imagine Google will be tying it’s properties in even more into Google Chrome. Built in Gmail and Google Calendar services, native support for Google Gadgets, and integration with Google Docs.

You can read more about Google Chrome in this online comic Google put together. Google Chrome will be available later today in Beta for Windows only, with OSX and Linux versions coming soon.

Update: The beta (Windows only) of Google Chrome is now available.

Shaun Inman has an interesting blog post proposing CSS parent selectors. Something a lot of people (including me) have been begging for. The proposal on the surface looks good and sound, but when you dig into the comments, apparently it’s a lot more complicated. Take particular note of the responses from Dave Hyatt, he’s the lead developer on Webkit. You find out why it’s not something that will be implemented, and surprisingly (at least to me), how CSS selectors in general can get expensive in terms of performance. Especially for large scale web apps.

I was always with the understanding that CSS selectors were the most optimal route for CSS definitions, since your getting very specific about the element you want to style and not adding a ton of IDs and classes to your HTML. Apparently when it comes to performance the opposite is true. While it seems this performance hit isn’t noticeable on smaller scale sites, it can become a performance bottleneck on larger scale web-apps. The problem is I don’t know what the degree of the performance hit is and how complicated your site needs to be for it to be noticeable. I’m also not clear on if this is a browser specific issue. Browsers that are referenced include Safari and Firefox, but does IE or Opera suffer from this as well?

If this issue gets any more prominence, I’m sure some performance tests strictly dealing with CSS will start to emerge. As of right now, it’s something take note and of and keep on eye on.

Update: One of my partners in crime at Media-Hive, Mr. Jon Sykes, has posted a 3 part series on testing the above issue. Testing CSS Performance, Testing CSS Performance pt.2, and More CSS Performance Testing.