Skip to main content

Google Wants Chrome To Come With New PCs

Google Wants Chrome To Come With New PCs

It’s no secret that Google is ambitious. But now the company is showing more of the scope of that ambition, which includes having its Chrome browser come pre-installed on new PCs, just like, well, you know…

Chrome will emerge from beta testing early in the 2009, after which Google will be looking at ways to increase its browser market share, which currently stands at 1%, compared to around 20% for Firefox and about 71% for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Sundar Pichai, Google Vice President, Product Management, told The Times:

“We will probably do distribution deals. We could work with an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and have them ship computers with Chrome pre-installed.”

With versions of Chrome for both Mac and Linux due by mid-2009, the browser will be able to work on almost all computers.

Thanks to antitrust rulings regarding Microsoft and IE, it should be perfectly possible for Google to make its deals, so we might be witnessing the start of the big browser wars. Microsoft might be powerful, but Google has plenty of muscle to flex, too. As Pichai warned:

“We will throw our weight behind it. We’ve been conservative because it’s still in beta, but once we get it out of beta we will work hard at getting the word out, promoting to users, and marketing will be a part of that.”

Editors' Recommendations

Digital Trends Staff
Digital Trends has a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they live. We are your…
How to convert a PowerPoint to Google Slides
Speaker notes in Presenter View in PowerPoint on a Dell monitor.

While PowerPoint is widely used to develop presentations, Google Slides has become a popular alternative. Part of what makes it so popular is that it's free to use, as is other Google software such as Google Docs and Google Sheets – which is a stark contrast to the premium price you'll pay for Microsoft Office and PowerPoint.

If you're looking to jump ship from PowerPoint to Slides, Google makes it easy to do so. In fact, it takes little more than a few clicks to convert a PowerPoint to Google Slides. Whether you need to change the format for a coworker or want to permanently switch to the free platform, here's a look at how to convert your PowerPoint deck into a Google Slides presentation.

Read more
How to create a new team in Microsoft Teams
Example of Teams chat.

Few communication applications are as versatile as Microsoft Teams. Along with allowing you to send quick messages to teammates or launch a video chat, the software is fully integrated with Office 365 so you can optimize its performance. One of its most useful features, however, is the ability to create a new team. This lets you group people together so they can chat about certain projects or goals without spamming everyone in your organization.

Knowing how to make a new team and how to properly organize teams makes it easy for a company to enhance productivity and streamline communication. When used effectively, Microsoft Teams is useful for both in-office and remote workers, ensuring everyone stays on the same page regardless of location.

Read more
Qualcomm just made some bold claims about gaming on ARM PCs
A laptop and a camera on a table with a Qualcomm logo on the screen.

Qualcomm shared an exciting teaser during the 2024 Game Developers Conference (GDC), hinting that the PC gaming market might not be so limited to x86 architecture going forward. The company spoke during a session titled "Windows on Snapdragon, a Platform Ready for Your PC Games," and it claimed that Windows games will simply work on laptops equipped with the latest Snapdragon X Elite chip -- no extra prep required -- all thanks to emulation.

As reported by The Verge, Qualcomm's engineer Issam Khalil discussed how the company hopes to achieve realistic gaming on its ARM-based chip as early as May this year. Khalil explained the ins and outs of x86/64 emulation on Snapdragon X Elite, explaining that game devs will be able to port their titles to native ARM64 for the best performance, but they can also do "next to nothing" -- the game should just work anyway due to x64 emulation.

Read more