Chromebook For Dummies

Chapter 3

Surveying the Chrome Browser

In This Chapter

Taking an in-depth look at the Chrome web browser

Creating and managing bookmarks

Dealing with your browser history

In late 2008, after a brief beta run, Google released the first consumer-ready version of its Chrome web browser. Google’s goal was to create an alternative to popular existing web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox. The application was launched globally in 43 languages, and Chrome quickly gained about one percent of the web-browser market.

Chrome’s stripped-down approach, and its speed and extensibility, proved to be popular with a wide range of users, from dabblers to the technologically savvy. It was quickly developed for other operating systems like Mac OS X and Linux. Today, Chrome accounts for 43 percent of all web browsing on the Internet.

At their core, web browsers are nothing more than vehicles for surfing the web, but in a Chromebook, your browser does a lot more. Google has done a good job integrating Chrome into their operating system platform, extending its usefulness well beyond the offerings of competing web browsers like Safari, Internet Explorer, and Firefox. In this chapter, ...