The Man Behind Google’s Chrome Browser

I just finished reading about the man who is behind Google’s Chrome browser. The man himself remains isolated from public view hiding out in a remote area of Denmark. Which goes to illustrate that not everything comes from Silicon Valley and is not done by a team effort. The basics of what will make Chrome the best browser ever is the fact that the genius behind it is that it can process JavaScript 56 times faster than Internet Explorer.

The secret lynch-pin behind Chrome is called V8 by its inventor, programmer and computer genius Lars Bak. The man is described in an article at FinancialTimes as being a silicon valley transplant who left the valley to return to his native land. The hustle of the valley was to much and this man wanted to raise his children in a Danish school environment. When Google called him and ask him to program a new product, he accepted the challenge as long as he could remain in Denmark. The article also states that:

The sophistication of web applications is increasing much faster than the corresponding power of the browsers. It’s like having lots of high-performance sports cars using rutted, bumpy roads. And yet no car manufacturer has ever invested in road building. That sort of move would, after all, benefit competitors equally, not to mention being massively expensive. Software development doesn’t cost as much but the competitor problem remains. But Google says it doesn’t mind: without an improvement in browser performance, the company argues, we all suffer.

The ability to access complex programs through the web is known as “cloud computing”, and Google isn’t the only one arguing that it’s the way ahead. Even Microsoft, the company synonymous with applications and operating systems located on the desktop, has talked about moving into “the cloud”. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, has promised an “operating system that runs in the internet” – something he has dubbed “Windows Cloud”. But for cloud computing truly to take off, web browsers need to be better.

But will this be enough for users to drop their use of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera? Only time will tell. But Google has a great browser that is designed specifically for cloud computing. 

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