Google entered the browser market in September 2008. The company announced Chrome on its official blog in a post titled “A fresh take on the browser,” dated September 1, 2008, and released the browser to the public the next day. Google argued that the web had outgrown the browsers of the time, having shifted from static pages to interactive applications, and that it wanted a browser built for that change.
The launch is also remembered for how it was announced. Alongside the blog post, Google published a 38-page comic book explaining the new browser, with the technical story written by the Chrome team and “comics adaptation by Scott McCloud,” a well known cartoonist and comics theorist. The comic walked readers through Chrome’s design choices, including its multi-process architecture and its new V8 JavaScript engine.
Chrome was built on the open-source WebKit rendering engine and the V8 engine, and its emphasis on speed, stability, and a minimal interface set it apart from rivals at the time.
Chrome’s arrival reshaped the competition that had reopened after Firefox. Within a few years it became the most widely used browser, and the milestone marked the point at which Google became a central force in shaping the everyday web.