WebBuilding

Software and platforms

Google Chrome

Summary

Google Chrome is a free web browser made by Google and built from Chromium, an open-source project. Google announced it on September 1, 2008, released a Windows beta the next day and shipped version 1.0 on December 11, 2008. Chrome uses the V8 JavaScript engine and, since 2013, the Blink rendering engine. As of September 2026, it had 66.36% of page views worldwide by StatCounter's count.

Web Building Encyclopedia · Software and platforms · Last reviewed October 22, 2026 · 12 min read

What Google Chrome is

Google Chrome is a free web browser made by Google. Google announced it on September 1, 2008, and released a beta, or test, version for Windows the next day in more than 100 countries.1

Chrome is built from Chromium, an open-source browser project that Google started at the same time and released under a permissive BSD license, which lets others reuse the code with few conditions.2 Google’s Chromium site calls Chromium and ChromiumOS the open-source projects behind the Google Chrome browser and Google ChromeOS.3

Two engines do most of the work inside Chrome. Blink, the rendering engine, turns HTML and CSS into the page on screen. V8 runs JavaScript and WebAssembly; Google describes it as an open-source, high-performance engine written in C++.4 Chrome drew pages with Apple’s WebKit engine until Google announced Blink, a new engine based on WebKit, in April 2013.15

As of September 2026, Chrome had 66.36% of browser page views worldwide by StatCounter’s count, ahead of Safari at 18.27% and Edge at 6.04%.6

The 2008 launch and the comic

Chrome was introduced with a comic book. In the September 1, 2008 announcement, Sundar Pichai, then vice president of product management, and engineering director Linus Upson wrote that Google had “hit ‘send’ a bit early” on a comic about the new browser. Google then made the comic public, and the post was updated with a link to it.1

The comic’s page on Google’s site credits the words to the Google Chrome team and the comics adaptation to Scott McCloud, and describes the comic as an interpretation of key engineering decisions, with art by McCloud. It is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 license.7

The announcement set out the main ideas:1

  • Isolated tabs. Each tab would run in its own sandbox, a walled-off space, so that one tab could not crash another and the browser would be better protected from rogue sites.
  • Open source. Google said it would make all of its code open source, and that it had used components from Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox.
  • A faster JavaScript engine. V8 was presented as a more powerful engine for the next generation of web applications.
  • A simple window. The browser frame was kept spare, and the authors said they were building a modern platform for web pages and applications, not only a browser.

The first beta ran only on Windows, with versions for Mac and Linux still in development.1 Chrome left beta on December 11, 2008, with version 1.0.154.36.8

Chromium’s design documents explain how the isolated tabs work. A main browser process runs the interface and manages separate renderer processes, which handle web content. If a renderer crashes, the affected tabs show a “sad tab” image, and reloading the page starts a new renderer process. Because renderers run separately, Chromium can restrict their access to the network, files and screen.9

Chromium

Ben Goodger, a Google software engineer, announced the open-source project on September 2, 2008, the day Chrome launched. He wrote that the project was named Chromium after the metal used to make chrome.2 Chromium is the shared code base, and Google Chrome is Google’s own browser built from it.3

Other companies build browsers on the same code. On February 13, 2013, Opera Software said it would make a gradual move to the WebKit engine and Chromium for most of its browsers.10 Microsoft rebuilt its Edge browser on the Chromium open-source project and released that version on January 15, 2020.11 The race among these browsers and the older ones they replaced is covered in the browser wars entry.

V8

V8 is the part of Chrome that runs code: it implements ECMAScript, the standard behind JavaScript, and WebAssembly, a compact binary format for code that runs in the browser.4

Google hired Lars Bak in the autumn of 2006 to build a new engine for Chrome. He and the first engineers worked in an outbuilding on his farm in Aarhus, Denmark, before the team later moved to Munich.12 The first commit to V8’s public code is dated June 30, 2008, after earlier work in a private repository, and V8 became open source the same day Chrome launched.12

V8 also runs outside the browser. Node.js, which runs JavaScript on servers, embedded V8 from its first release in 2009. In 2017 the V8 team made Node.js a first-class embedder, so V8 changes cannot land if they break the Node.js tests. The same year it finished a multi-year overhaul and turned on a new execution pipeline, called Ignition and TurboFan, by default.12

From WebKit to Blink

For its first four and a half years Chrome drew pages with WebKit, the engine Apple also used in Safari.1 On April 3, 2013, Google software engineer Adam Barth announced Blink, a new open-source rendering engine based on WebKit, for the Chromium project.5

Barth’s reason was architecture. Chromium used a different multi-process design from other WebKit browsers, and supporting several designs over the years had made both projects more complex and slowed both down.5 In the short term, he wrote, web developers would see little change, while the early work would remove 7 build systems and delete more than 7,000 files.5

One place Chrome does not normally use Blink is the iPhone. Apple’s App Store rules require apps that browse the web to use Apple’s WebKit framework and WebKit JavaScript, although developers can apply for permission to use another engine in the EU and Japan.13

Release cycle and platforms

Chrome updates itself on a fixed schedule. On July 22, 2010, program manager Anthony Laforge wrote that Chrome would aim to ship a new stable version about every six weeks, roughly twice as often as it did then. A feature that was not ready would wait for the next release instead of holding up the current one.14

AnnouncedStable release everyStarting with
July 22, 2010About six weeksNot tied to one version14
March 4, 2021Four weeks, with an eight-week Extended Stable optionChrome 94, third quarter of 202115
March 3, 2026Two weeks, with Extended Stable still on eight weeksChrome 153, September 8, 202616

Extended Stable was added in 2021 for business administrators and companies that build their own products on Chromium. At launch, Google said it would receive security updates every two weeks but no new features between its eight-week milestones.15 When it announced the two-week cycle for desktop, Android and iOS, Google said smaller releases would cause less disruption and make problems easier to trace.16

Chrome 156 reached the stable channel on October 20, 2026, according to Google’s Chromium Dash release schedule.17

Chrome spread to other systems within four years of launch. Google released betas for Mac and Linux on December 8, 2009, together with extensions, small add-ons that change how the browser works, for Windows and Linux. More than 300 extensions were in the gallery at the time.18 A beta of Chrome for Android, for phones and tablets running Android 4.0, followed on February 7, 2012.19 ChromeOS, Google’s computer operating system, comes from the related open-source project ChromiumOS.3

Market share

StatCounter, a web analytics company, estimates browser share from page views on more than 1 million websites that carry its tracking code. It counts page views, not unique visitors.20

By StatCounter’s figures, Chrome passed Internet Explorer worldwide for a full calendar month for the first time in May 2012, with 32.43% to Internet Explorer’s 32.12%. Firefox had 25.55%.21

StatCounter, September 2026ChromeNext browser
All devices, worldwide66.36%Safari, 18.27%6
Desktop, worldwide65.09%Edge, 14.64%22
Mobile, worldwide67.64%Safari, 24.71%23

Two points affect how to read these numbers. StatCounter says the newer browsers Comet, Dia and ChatGPT Atlas identify themselves as Chrome, so it records their use under Chrome.20 And because of Apple’s rules, a browser branded Chrome on an iPhone still draws pages with WebKit, so the Chrome figure is a brand share, not a Blink share.13

Chrome features that affect websites

Warnings for pages without HTTPS

Chrome has used its address bar to move sites to HTTPS, the encrypted form of HTTP described in the HTTPS and TLS entry. The steps came in stages:

  • Chrome 56, January 2017. HTTP pages that collect passwords or credit cards are marked as not secure. Google said at the time that it planned eventually to label all HTTP pages that way.24
  • Chrome 68, July 2018. The address bar shows “Not secure” for every HTTP page. When Google announced this in February 2018, over 68% of Chrome traffic on Android and Windows was already protected, and 81 of the top 100 sites used HTTPS by default.25
  • Chrome 69 and 70, September and October 2018. Chrome removes the “Secure” wording and the https scheme from the address bar, then shows a red warning when people type data into an HTTP page.26
  • Chrome 79 to 81, from December 2019. Chrome begins upgrading or blocking mixed content, meaning files loaded over plain HTTP into an HTTPS page. Audio and video are upgraded to https:// first, then images, although the image step was later delayed until at least Chrome 84.27
  • Announced October 28, 2025. Google said Chrome would turn on its “Always Use Secure Connections” setting for public sites by default in Chrome 154, which it then expected in October 2026, after first enabling it in Chrome 147 for users of Enhanced Safe Browsing. In Google’s experiment the median user saw fewer than one warning a week.28
  • Chrome 154, September 22, 2026. Chrome 154 reached the stable channel on September 22, 2026, earlier than the October date Google had given. Its release notes list “Ask before HTTP on by default”: Chrome prompts users by default when they connect to a site over an insecure http connection, and administrators can change this with the HttpsOnlyMode policy.29 Google’s ChromeStatus entry for the change lists it for desktop in Chrome 154 and for Android in Chrome 155.30

Core Web Vitals and the Chrome User Experience Report

The Chrome User Experience Report, or CrUX, is Google’s dataset of how real Chrome users experience popular sites, and the dataset behind Google’s Web Vitals program. Google Search uses it to inform its page experience ranking factor.31

Not every visit counts. CrUX includes only users who enable usage statistic reporting, sync their browsing history without a sync passphrase and use a supported platform: desktop Chrome on Windows, macOS, ChromeOS and Linux, or Chrome on Android. Chrome on iOS, Android apps that use WebView and other Chromium browsers such as Edge do not contribute.32 A page or site appears only if it is publicly discoverable and has enough visitors to form a statistically significant sample.31

The Core Web Vitals are three of these measures, each judged at the 75th percentile of page loads on mobile and desktop:33

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), for loading: good at 2.5 seconds or less.
  • Interaction to Next Paint (INP), for response to clicks and taps: good at 200 milliseconds or less. INP replaced First Input Delay as a Core Web Vital in 2024.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), for how much the layout jumps: good at 0.1 or less.

Google Search’s documentation says: “We highly recommend site owners achieve good Core Web Vitals for success with Search.”34 It points site owners to the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console.34

Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights

Lighthouse is Google’s open-source, automated tool for checking the quality of web pages, with audits for performance, accessibility, SEO and more. It can be run from a panel in Chrome’s built-in DevTools, from the command line, as a Node module or through the PageSpeed Insights website.35 In 2018 Google added a Lighthouse audit that finds resources a page still loads over HTTP.25

PageSpeed Insights shows two kinds of results side by side. Field data come from CrUX and describe real visits over the previous 28 days, while lab data come from a Lighthouse test of one simulated device on a fixed network. Google notes that the two can disagree.36

Third-party cookies

Chrome’s handling of cookies set by other sites, often used for advertising, has shifted over time. On April 22, 2025, Google said that, after exploring a new approach the previous summer, it would keep its current approach, in which users choose in Chrome’s Privacy and Security settings, and would not roll out a separate prompt. Chrome’s Incognito mode already blocks third-party cookies by default.37 On October 17, 2025, Google said it would retire several of its Privacy Sandbox technologies, including the Topics, Protected Audience and Attribution Reporting APIs, citing low adoption, while keeping that cookie choice approach.38

The US antitrust case

Chrome became part of United States v. Google, a search case that the Justice Department and a group of states filed on October 20, 2020.39

In August 2024, the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued a 277-page opinion concluding that Google was a monopolist that had acted to maintain its monopoly, in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act.40 The Justice Department published statements on the ruling on August 5, 2024.41

On September 2, 2025, the Justice Department announced the court’s remedies. They bar Google from entering or keeping exclusive contracts for the distribution of Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant and the Gemini app.40 Google also may not:40

  • make licensing of any Google app depend on placing Search, Chrome, Assistant or Gemini on a device;
  • make revenue share payments depend on keeping those products on a device, browser or access point for more than one year;
  • stop a partner from also distributing another search engine, browser or generative AI product.

The court also required Google to make certain search index and user-interaction data available to rivals, and to offer search and search text ads syndication to certain competitors.40 It rejected the government’s request that Google divest Chrome, finding insufficient causation. Judge Amit P. Mehta entered judgment on December 5, 2025.42

Google filed a notice of appeal on January 16, 2026, with a request to put the ruling on hold while the appeal is pending, Bloomberg News reported.43 On May 7, 2026, Bloomberg News reported that Judge Mehta had declined, for now, to pause the data-sharing and syndication provisions, reasoning that any data sharing was at least months away.44

Google’s appeal challenges both the liability finding and the remedies. In a brief dated July 28, 2026, in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (Nos. 26-5023, 26-5047 and 26-5049), the United States and the states asked the court to affirm the judgment except for its rejection of a ban on Google’s search-related payments to distributors, which they cross-appealed. The brief states that the plaintiffs do not cross-appeal the ruling on divesting Chrome, and its cover notes that oral argument was not yet scheduled.42

As of the Justice Department’s case page updated October 16, 2026, the district court was overseeing compliance. The page lists an order appointing technical committee members on January 21, 2026, a status report on Google’s compliance on September 17, 2026, and filings on a template syndication license on October 13, 2026. It lists no appeals court decision.39

Timeline

  1. Chrome 156 reaches the stable channel17
  2. Chrome 154 turns on its ask-before-HTTP warning by default29
  3. Chrome 153 is the first stable release on a two-week cycle16
  4. The United States and states file their D.C. Circuit brief, not appealing the Chrome ruling42
  5. Google files a notice of appeal in the search case43
  6. The district court enters judgment in United States v. Google42
  7. The Justice Department announces remedies barring exclusive deals for Search and Chrome40
  8. The Justice Department comments on the court's ruling that Google is a monopolist41
  9. Google announces a four-week release cycle from Chrome 9415
  10. Chrome 68 marks every HTTP page "Not secure"25
  11. Google announces Blink, a rendering engine based on WebKit5
  12. Chrome passes Internet Explorer worldwide for a full month, by StatCounter's count21
  13. Chrome for Android beta is released19
  14. Chrome betas for Mac and Linux, and extensions, are released18
  15. Chrome 1.0 leaves beta8
  16. Chrome beta launches for Windows; Chromium and V8 are released as open source2

What it means for your website

Chrome is the browser most of your visitors are likely to use, and several of its features decide how your site looks to them and to Google.

  • Serve every page over HTTPS. Chrome marks HTTP pages “Not secure,”25 and since Chrome 154 (September 2026) Chrome asks people by default before it connects to a site over plain http.29 Most hosts and builders include a free SSL certificate; make sure it covers both your domain and its www version.
  • Fix mixed content. An old image or script address that starts with http:// can be upgraded, blocked or flagged on an HTTPS page.27 Update those links after any move to HTTPS.
  • Check your real-user scores. Enter your address in PageSpeed Insights. If your site has enough Chrome traffic, it shows CrUX field data from the last 28 days; a small or new site may show none.3136 Our glossary entry on Core Web Vitals explains the three numbers.
  • Use Lighthouse to find causes, not as a final grade. Its lab test uses one simulated device and network, so its score can differ from what visitors experience.36
  • Do not test in Chrome alone. Edge is built on Chromium,11 so Chrome and Edge test one engine family. iPhone browsers use WebKit,13 so check your pages in Safari or on a real iPhone too.
  • Expect frequent changes. Chrome ships a new stable version every two weeks as of October 2026.16 If a form, payment page or embedded tool breaks suddenly, check whether a browser update came first.

Our page on websites and SEO covers which builders let you control speed and HTTPS settings, and how a website works shows where the browser fits.

See also

References

  1. A fresh take on the browser. Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson, Official Google Blog. 2008-09-01. accessed October 22, 2026.
  2. Welcome to Chromium. Ben Goodger, Chromium Blog. 2008-09-02. accessed October 22, 2026.
  3. The Chromium Projects. The Chromium Projects. accessed October 22, 2026.
  4. V8 JavaScript engine. V8 project, v8.dev. accessed October 22, 2026.
  5. Blink: A rendering engine for the Chromium project. Adam Barth, Chromium Blog. 2013-04-03. accessed October 22, 2026.
  6. Browser Market Share Worldwide (September 2026). StatCounter Global Stats. 2026-09. accessed October 22, 2026.
  7. Google Chrome (comic). Google Chrome team, comics adaptation by Scott McCloud, Google. accessed October 22, 2026.
  8. Stable release: Google Chrome is out of Beta. Google Chrome Releases. 2008-12-11. accessed October 22, 2026.
  9. Multi-process Architecture. Chromium design documents, The Chromium Projects. accessed October 22, 2026.
  10. Opera gears up at 300 million users. Opera Software. 2013-02-13. accessed October 22, 2026.
  11. New year, new browser: The new Microsoft Edge is out of preview and now available for download. Windows Experience Blog, Microsoft. 2020-01-15. accessed October 22, 2026.
  12. Celebrating 10 years of V8. Mathias Bynens, V8 blog. 2018-09-11. accessed October 22, 2026.
  13. App Review Guidelines, guideline 2.5.6. Apple Developer. accessed October 22, 2026.
  14. Release Early, Release Often. Anthony Laforge, Chromium Blog. 2010-07-22. accessed October 22, 2026.
  15. Speeding up Chrome's release cycle. Alex Mineer, Chromium Blog. 2021-03-04. accessed October 22, 2026.
  16. Get features faster with Chrome's two-week release cycle. Ben Mason and Deepak Ravichandran, Chrome for Developers. 2026-03-03. accessed October 22, 2026.
  17. Chrome milestone 156 schedule. Chromium Dash, Google. accessed October 22, 2026.
  18. Google Chrome for the holidays: Mac, Linux and extensions in beta. Brian Rakowski, Google Chrome Blog. 2009-12-08. accessed October 22, 2026.
  19. Introducing Chrome for Android. Sundar Pichai, Google Chrome Blog. 2012-02-07. accessed October 22, 2026.
  20. FAQ. StatCounter Global Stats. accessed October 22, 2026.
  21. Independent web analytics firm StatCounter confirms milestone as Chrome overtakes IE globally for first calendar month. StatCounter Global Stats. 2012-06-01. accessed October 22, 2026.
  22. Desktop Browser Market Share Worldwide (September 2026). StatCounter Global Stats. 2026-09. accessed October 22, 2026.
  23. Mobile Browser Market Share Worldwide (September 2026). StatCounter Global Stats. 2026-09. accessed October 22, 2026.
  24. Moving towards a more secure web. Emily Schechter, Google Online Security Blog. 2016-09-08. accessed October 22, 2026.
  25. A secure web is here to stay. Emily Schechter, Chromium Blog. 2018-02-08. accessed October 22, 2026.
  26. Evolving Chrome's security indicators. Emily Schechter, Chromium Blog. 2018-05-17. accessed October 22, 2026.
  27. No More Mixed Messages About HTTPS. Emily Stark and Carlos Joan Rafael Ibarra Lopez, Chromium Blog. 2019-10-03. accessed October 22, 2026.
  28. HTTPS by default. Chris Thompson, Mustafa Emre Acer, Serena Chen, Joe DeBlasio, Emily Stark and David Adrian, Google Online Security Blog. 2025-10-28. accessed October 22, 2026.
  29. Chrome 154 release notes. Chrome for Developers, Google. 2026-09-22. accessed October 22, 2026.
  30. Ask-before-HTTP warning on by default. Chrome Platform Status, Google. accessed October 22, 2026.
  31. Overview of CrUX. Chrome for Developers, Google. accessed October 22, 2026.
  32. CrUX methodology. Chrome for Developers, Google. accessed October 22, 2026.
  33. Web Vitals. web.dev, Google. 2024-10-31. accessed October 22, 2026.
  34. Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results. Google Search Central. 2025-12-10. accessed October 22, 2026.
  35. Introduction to Lighthouse. Chrome for Developers, Google. accessed October 22, 2026.
  36. About PageSpeed Insights. PageSpeed Insights documentation, Google for Developers. accessed October 22, 2026.
  37. Next steps for Privacy Sandbox and tracking protections in Chrome. Anthony Chavez, Privacy Sandbox blog, Google. 2025-04-22. accessed October 22, 2026.
  38. Update on Plans for Privacy Sandbox Technologies. Anthony Chavez, Privacy Sandbox blog, Google. 2025-10-17. accessed October 22, 2026.
  39. U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC (case page). Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice. 2026-10-16. accessed October 22, 2026.
  40. Department of Justice Wins Significant Remedies Against Google. Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of Justice. 2025-09-02. accessed October 22, 2026.
  41. Justice Department Statements on U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia's Decision in U.S. v. Google. Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of Justice. 2024-08-05. accessed October 22, 2026.
  42. Response Brief and Opening Brief on Cross-Appeal for the United States and Co-Plaintiff States, United States v. Google LLC, D.C. Cir. Nos. 26-5023, 26-5047, 26-5049. U.S. Department of Justice. 2026-07-28. accessed October 22, 2026.
  43. Google to Appeal US Court Ruling of Illegal Monopoly in Search. Leah Nylen, Bloomberg News, via Bloomberg Law. 2026-01-16. accessed October 22, 2026.
  44. Google Judge Says Too Early to Pause DOJ Remedy in Search Case. Josh Sisco and Leah Nylen, Bloomberg News, via Bloomberg Government. 2026-05-07. accessed October 22, 2026.

Web Building Encyclopedia. First published October 22, 2026. Last reviewed October 22, 2026. Every fact on this page is linked to a source we opened. Spotted an error? Write to [email protected].