Google defies history, releases product

DEFYING ITS usual practice of leaving products in beta for... well, ever, Google has announced that Chrome, its web browser, will be officially released, er... imminently.

Chrome was first released to the public just over three months ago, and is Google's attempt at gaining some market share in the browser wars, which are still as open as they ever have been. Although the Vole's Internet Exploder still owns more than half of the market, the absolute dominance of Firefox amongst those with half a brain has taken a large slice out of IE's zombie audience. The increasing popularity of Macs has also seen Safari use rise, and Google is hoping that this will keep the door wedged open for new switchers to Chrome.

What is unclear is whether Chrome can take any action from IE, or whether it will merely attract disaffected or curious Firefox and Opera fans.

It's clear that Google wants to offer Chrome to PC vendors to pre-install on the desktop, along with Google Toolbar and Google Apps. Although there is no official information, it seems likely that PC vendors will get kickbacks in the form of Adsense cuts for putting Chrome on desktops.

Chrome is currently only available for Windows, and no date for a Mac version has been given. There's not even a rumour of a Linux version of Chrome either, which is passing strange because Google's zillions of networked systems run Linux.

The release of Chrome is part of Google's larger strategy to overthrow its Volish competitor. Chrome includes a large offline component, allowing users to operate Google's Office apps whilst not connected to the Internet. In a bid to redefine the browser as the OS, Google is also pushing its Native Client, which is its open sauce platform for hybrid local and server-side processing of browser-based applications.

Windows users can get the beta-for-a-few-more-days-yet version of Chrome right here. µ