Building simple browser Google Chrome was hard work

Behind the minimalist look of Google’s browser Chrome are a lot of tests, and two years of trial and error.

This is certainly according to Brian Rakowski, the project manager and architect on the new browser. He presented what he learnt at the Department of Computer Sciences (DIKU)at the University of Copenhagen 40th birthday conference Thursday.

A web browser is a programme like the one you are using to read this article. The most used browsers are Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

A little psychology and philosophy

But on top of all the tests, there maybe a bit of psychology, computer science, linguistics and philosophy. This is the educational background of Brian Rakowski.

Rakowski started at Google in 2002, after having finished his Master’s in cognitive psychology at Stanford.

More specifically he followed a programme called »Symbolic Systems, a combination of psychology, computer science, linguistics and philosophy,« he told the University Post after his talk at the DIKU birthday.

70 million users

You might suspect that beyond the good code and the massive advertising, a good fraction of the success of Chrome, designed »for power users, but without confusing services«, descends from this innovative mix of courses.

Chrome was launched two years ago, and it now has more than 70 million users.

His golden rule is that »good enough is not good enough«, pointing to the work and tests hidden by the minimalistic look of the new browser.

uni-avis@adm.ku.dk

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