Chrome finally arrives on Android

[DKT27]

Google today released a beta version of its Chrome browser for Android, a momentous step that marries two of Google's most important programming projects.

Chrome for Android overlays multiple tabs if you tap the tab button in the upper right.

The new browser, unlike the stock Android browser, is available in the Android Market so that people don't have to wait for handset makers to offer it through an operating system upgrade. But its reliance on newer hardware acceleration interfaces means it only works on Ice Cream Sandwich, which despite emerging last year on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone remains a rarity in the real world.

Chrome for Android includes the desktop version's V8 JavaScript engine, has gesture-based controls for moving among multiple tabs, synchronizes with the desktop version of Chrome, and shuts out plug-ins including Adobe Systems' Flash Player and Google's own Native Client. With its performance and features, Google expects Android users to increase their browser activity.

Chrome comes to Android, but only ICS

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"In general, we have seen usage go up," said Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Chrome and Apps. "I expect to see more people use the mobile Web."

It's unfortunate that it's limited to Ice Cream Sandwich, but Chrome doubtless will take off widely among those with Android 4.0. Even in beta, it's a compelling browser at least on the Galaxy Nexus I tried it on, and it's and a much better match for Apple's Safari on iOS. And eventually, its success is all but assured when it simply becomes what ships with Android.

Google tried to examine every aspect of browsing and if necessary adapt it for the mobile world. "The intent was to reinvent mobile browsers," said Arnaud Weber, engineering manager for Chrome. "We went through every feature of Chrome and brainstormed every feature."

Peas in a pod

Android and Chrome are made for each other. Each arrived for the public to use in the closing months of 2008. Each started as small, rough projects that exploded in usage and became top priorities for the company.

Each project isn't actually an end in itself, but rather a means to an end: get more people to use the Internet and Google's services on it. Android and Chrome are vehicles to carry people to Google search, YouTube, Google Docs, Google Maps, Google+, and doubtless many future online services. Not coincidentally, Chrome and Android are set up to work better if you're signed into a Google account.

With so much to gain from each other, it's somewhat surprising that it took more than three years for the Chrome chocolate to get stuck in the Android peanut butter. But Google wanted to make sure Chrome for Android would be good enough, Pichai said.

Chrome for Android runs only on Google's Ice Cream Sandwich version of the mobile operating system.

"We really wanted to get the full capabilities of a desktop browser--stuff like V8--in a highly capable browser that's optimized for the mobile experience," Pichai said. "It was a challenge."

And Google didn't want to brand the stock Android browser with the Chrome name. It wasn't based on Chromium, the open-source foundation of Chrome, and Google wanted to ensure the "underlying mobile platform could run things you're used to in desktops," Pichai said.

Feature frenzy

Among the features in the browser:

• The browser shows multiple tabs like overlapping pages when you tap the tabs button. Swiping one of the pages to one side or the other close it in much the same way that you can sweep away notifications on Ice Cream Sandwich. Once you click a page, it expands to fill the whole screen, at which point you can switch to new pages by sliding your finger from one edge or the other.

• The browser can preload pages in advance when Google has high confidence that you'll likely tap its link. That means pages don't have to wait so much for the network.

• Chrome for Android has hardware acceleration for tasks such as scrolling. It also uses it for slick visual feedback effects like browser tabs.

• It supports a wide range of Web standards, including Web Workers for multiple computing processes, Web Sockets for fast server-browser communciations, HTML5 video and audio, and IndexedDB for offline storage.

• The browser is rejiggered for tablets. "On tablets, we realize consumers expect a similar experience to what they get on a laptop," Pichai said, so for example the tab strip looks like what you'd see on a personal computer.

• You can synchronize data such as bookmarks and Web address autocomplete suggestions with your desktop browser, with passwords arriving in a later upgrade. As with Firefox for Android, tabs you had open on your laptop or desktop can be opened from a list in Chrome for Android. To use sync, you must be signed into your Google account.

• The browser has incognito mode that doesn't leave traces such as cached images, cookies, and browsing history on the phone. It's walled off into a separate stack of tabs; if any incognito tabs are open, you can move between them and the ordinary stack of tabs by tapping the tab button and then tapping the appropriate stack.

• Programmers can use their PCs to remotely debug Web pages that don't work properly on Chrome for Android. A command on the PC will open the mobile browser's Web pages for scrutiny.

Chrome for Android synchronizes with Chrome for personal computers.

Web apps or native apps?

Chrome for Android increases a certain tension within Google: should software run natively on a particular computing device or as a Web app within a browser?

For Android, the answer clearly has been largely the former as Google has pushed the Android Market and worked to improve programming tools and interfaces. But part of Chrome's raison d'etre has been to spur Web-app innovation, a subject near and dear to Google's heart. Because browsers run on so many devices, Web apps span them and at least theoretically offer programmers the promise of cross-platform development.

Naturally, with Chrome on board, Android becomes a much more powerful foundation for Web applications. That's especially true since Chrome will be on the Android Market and therefore Android users will be able to upgrade it even when their handset manufacturers can't be bothered to keep up with newer Android releases.

But Chrome's arrival doesn't herald a new age when Web apps rule on Android.

"The mobile ecosystem is evolving at such a rapid pace that native apps will always be there, while the Web works its way there," Pichai said.

Chrome for Android doesn't yet overwrite the stock Android browser. The latter is still used, for example, by other Android apps that need a browser engine.

Android 4.0 only

Google stuck required Ice Cream Sandwich because it has necessary interfaces such as those for hardware acceleration. It sure is convenient, though, that it means Google doesn't have to worry about a lot of problems with compatibility and performance of a lot of older phones.

In fact, Google passing over earlier Android versions is almost exactly what Microsoft chose to do with Internet Explorer 9 when it dropped Windows XP support, in part because it lacks newer graphics interfaces. That cuts off a lot of people but simplifies engineering and support.

"ICS represesnts a big leap forward," Pichai said of Google's choice. "It made sense to aim there, to build for the future."

Likewise, don't expect Chrome on other mobile operating systems, most notably iOS. Apple permits other browsers on iOS only if they use its WebKit engine to render Web pages; although Chrome stems from the same WebKit lineage, it's a different bundle of bits with, for example, a different JavaScript engine.

"On iOS, we can't run V8 or our multiprocess architecture," Pichai said. "There are a lot of limitations."

Chrome for Android is based on Chrome 16, the current stable release of the browser for computers. Google plans to update Chrome for Android every six weeks, just like the desktop version, and eventually the browser version numbers will sync up, Pichai said.

Net Applications' January 2012 numbers show the gradual rise of the unbranded Android browser to third place after Apple's Safari and Opera Mini in terms of usage. Expect Chrome for Android to steadily supplant the unbranded browser as Android 4.0 spreads.

"Our intent is to have the smallest possible gap" between the desktop and mobile versions of Chrome, Weber said.

Chrome for Android won't support Flash, Pichai said. Google has been a tight Flash ally with its creator, Adobe Systems, but Google was spared a tough choice when Adobe scuppered its attempt to extend Flash from desktop to mobile last year.

Google's own Native Client, for running Web apps compiled to run at native speeds, also isn't an option, said Dave Burke, the Android engineering director. For that sort of software, programmers will simply write native Android apps, he said.

But Google loves the mobile Web--and it's a big deal financially.

"We believe one in every seven searches on Google comes from a mobile device," said JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth in a research report yesterday.

Advertisers pay only a half to a quarter the amount for each ad when people click on them compared to what they pay on personal computers right now, but more mobile usage likely will mean more advertisers bidding and therefore higher cost-per-click payment rates for Google, he said.

But overall, a lot of Google's excitement seems to be just about finally giving a top company brand a prominent place in a fast-moving, important market.

"I think mobile browsing is in its infancy. As phones are getting more powerful, as screen sizes are getting larger and higher-resolution, and as connectivity is getting better going from 3G to 4G, I think mobile browsing can be huge," Pichai said. Now using Chrome on Android, "my browser usage has sky rocketed."

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[DKT27]

Google (finally) brings Chrome to Android

Google is finally bringing Chrome to the Android platform. A beta release of the increasingly popular Web browser was published this morning in the Android Market and is available to users who are running Android 4. The port includes Chrome's advanced HTML rendering engine and many of the browser's popular features.

The Chrome beta is designed to run on both phones and tablets. The tablet version of the user interface is nearly a perfect match of Chrome on the desktop, including the distinctive slanted tab design. The phone version has a more compressed interface, suitable for smaller screens, and includes the standard Chrome features such as the Omnibar and application shortcut pane.

The gap between Chrome and the native Android Web browser has long been a source of confusion for users and pundits. Although both browsers are based on WebKit and use some of the same underlying components, such as the Skia vector graphics framework, they are separate implementations and originally had little else in common.

In fact, the Android Web browser didn't even use Google's unique V8 JavaScript runtime until the release of Android 2.2 in 2010. Prior to that, it used Apple's SquirrelFish engine, presumably because V8's ARM JIT (just in time) backend wasn't good enough yet. The Android Web browser also has relatively poor support for the latest Web standards compared to Chrome.

As we have pointed out in our reviews of the Android operating system, the platform's default browser tends to have difficulty handling the most intensive application-like Web experiences. Google announced last year that it would try to close the gap between the Android browser and Chrome, with the aim of eventually converging them around a shared code base. The release of Chrome on Android appears to be the fruit of that labor.

In a video posted this morning on the official Chromium blog, Google's engineers offered some technical insight into the port and what it has to offer on Android. They said that the new software has the same multiprocess architecture that Chrome uses on the desktop. It also offers support for modern Web features such as WebSockets, IndexedDB, and Web Workers.

Chrome scores 343 at HTML5Test.com. The default browser only scores 256.

Other features that will appeal to Web developers include hardware-accelerated rendering for the HTML5 Canvas element and a built-in remote debugging tool that works over USB. The latter will allow developers to attach the WebKit Inspector in a desktop version of Chrome to an instance of Chrome running on a device.

The Chrome port, which can be downloaded from the Android Market on Android 4 devices, currently installs side-by-side with the default Android browser. Users can make it the default handler for URLs, but it doesn't replace the standard browser.

That also means that the advanced features in the HTML rendering engine won't be available to third-party applications that integrate an embedded WebView control. (It's possible that Chrome will be fully integrated in future versions of the Android operating system.)

The availability of Chrome for Android is a big step forward for Web browsing on mobile devices powered by Google's operating system. It should deliver a significantly better user experience on the Web and make Android a better environment for running next-generation mobile Web applications.

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