Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or "chrome", of web browsers. As of November 2011, Chrome is the second most widely used browser with 25.69% worldwide usage share of web browsers and the most popular browser in South America, according to StatCounter.

In September 2008, Google released a large portion of Chrome's source code, including its V8 JavaScript engine, as an open source project entitled Chromium. This move enabled third-party developers to study the underlying source code and to help port the browser to the Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. Google also expressed hope that other browsers would adopt the V8 JavaScript engine to improve web application performance. The Google-authored portion of Chromium is released under the permissive BSD license, which allows portions to be incorporated into both open source and closed source software programs. Other portions of the source code are subject to a variety of open source licenses. Chromium implements a similar feature set as Chrome, but lacks built-in automatic updates, built-in PDF reader and Google branding, and most noticeably has a blue-colored logo in place of the multicolored Google logo.

Release:
The browser was first publicly released for Microsoft Windows (XP and later versions) on September 2, 2008 in 43 languages, officially a beta version.Chrome quickly gained about 1% market share despite being only available for Microsoft Windows at that time. After the initial surge, usage share dropped until it hit a low of 0.69% in October 2008. It then started rising again and by December 2008, Chrome again passed the 1% threshold.
In early January 2009, CNET reported that Google planned to release versions of Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux in the first half of the year. The first official Chrome Mac OS X and Linux developer previews[24] were announced on June 4, 2009 with a blog post saying they were missing many features and were intended for early feedback rather than general use.

In December 2009, Google released beta versions of Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux. Google Chrome 5.0, announced on May 25, 2010, was the first stable release to support all three platforms.

Chrome was one of the twelve browsers offered to European Economic Area users of Microsoft Windows in 2010.