Google will today release the beta version of their first foray into the browser arena with Google Chrome. Apart from a pretty lame name, what is the search giant offering in the first of its planned iterative product release?

• Proper multi-processing, allowing JavaScript (for example) within tabs to execute separately from other tabs and processes within the browser
• Intelligent memory management
• Runs on the open source WebKit engine already used in Google’s Android mobile handset operating system
• Automated compatibility testing across millions of existing web pages
• Shortcuts to common browser functions, such as custom search
• Decent popup management
• Web applications given their own chrome to feel more like desktop apps
• Intuitive security model providing proper process sand-boxing
• Always-active phishing signature updates

All in all this sounds like a pretty promising package but I’ll remain dubious until the beta is released later today and we can have a play ourselves. One does wonder how Google Chrome may affect the great work of the Mozilla project but they seem pretty satisfied by the new Firefox competitor.

The next version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer looks like it will be the most ‘compliant’ yet, with full CSS 2.1 even partial CSS 3 support promised in IE8.

But the general public don’t really care about Acid2 and the like. What they want are USPs such as Visual Search, which actually looks quite smart.