Google to launch Chrome, a Webkit-based browser

Yesterday Google confirmed that it would be releasing a new browser in beta today, named Chrome. Everything there is to know about this new open source browser for now, can be found in an online comic.
Based on that publication, the most important features seem to be;

  • each tab runs its own sandboxed process (limiting the damage one tab or plugin within a tab) can do (as is also the case in MSIE 8 beta with what they call “Loosely coupled IE”)
  • it is based on webkit (remember khtml and Apple’s Safari and all those mobile browsers)
  • it features a new javascript virtual machine, build by v8, a Danish company
  • the ‘omnibox’ (cfr. the ‘awesomebar‘ in Firefox) is located on the tab-level instead of the window and is thightly integrated with (you guessed it) google
  • a new tab shows you your 9 most visited sites and your 3 most uses search-engines (a bit like Opera Speeddial)
  • it features a ‘icognito’ mode in which nothing is logged (cfr. InPrivate browsing in IE 8 beta 2)
  • google gears comes prebaked
  • it is not clear if Google used Mozilla’s XUL/chrome to build the UI elements, but the name might be an indication that they did and the comic does state that Google “owes a great debt to other open source browser projects, especially Mozilla and Webkit”, so …

Looks very interesting, i’ll download is as soon as it’s available later today. But I’m curious what the Mozilla-guys think of what must be a double dent in their ego with a friend gone foo (well, to a certain extent) and with Google not using Mozilla’s Gecko as html-rendering engine.
Update; a screenshot of the new browser: