Google’s new “Chrome” browser to be launched tomorrow

Google has accidentally leaked a comic strip that talks about “Chrome”, their new web browser.  Google has confirmed that a browser is coming, and will be lauched tomorrow (Tuesday).  So what’s the scoop on the new browser?  Here’s what we know so far (from TechCrunch and Google Blogoscoped):

• Windows only.  Mac and Linux support coming soon.
• It’s open source, based on Webkit.
• It will support Google Gears.
• It will be running a new JavaScript VM called “V8”, which will supposedly be MUCH faster than what we’re seeing with current browsers.
• Tabs will look much different.  Rather than being at the top of the content, they will be at the top of the entire window.
• It will have an “omnibox”, similar to Firefox’s “awesome bar”, with autocomplete and similar things.
• The default home page will look a lot like Opera 9, with thumbnails of your favorite sites.
• Each tab will live in its own “sandbox”, and each will have its own process.  Not only will this help the browser to run more quickly, but if a tab crashes it won’t take down the entire browser.
• It will have a task manager to help you determine how much memory is being used by each tab and by each plugin.
• You can open a new tab as an “incognito” window that doesn’t record anything you do there, which is very similar to a similar feature introduced in Internet Explorer 8 beta 2.
• Chrome will maintain a list of phishing and malware sites to help protect you.  Site owners will get notification if they’re added to the list, to help fix false positives.

All in all, it sounds pretty slick.  Personally, speed and stability are my main concerns with a browser and both of those have improved greatly with Firefox 3.  If Chrome can take it even further, great!

We’ll find out tomorrow…