Google's decided to take a flying leap into the browser game. As is its wont, the company whose motto is "don't be evil" will release the browser in beta form, refining it along the way as it's been doing with still-beta Gmail for the past few years. Google plans to simplify the user interface of the browser while improving its innards, giving it multiple threads of processing to keep hang-ups in the ubiquitous Javascript from slowing everything down. Look out Microsoft, Firefox and Opera, Google is coming.

Google is onto something here. There are so many useful apps running on browsers these days (many of the best from Google), that deskbound operating systems are getting less relevant all the time. Google is taking this idea a step further, where the browser does almost everything you'd want to do on a computer, but does it better, making whichever operating system you're using unimportant.

Check out Google's excellent comic explanation of the product here. Chrome is a free download for PC thus far, and a Mac version is on the way. Might be worth a try.

UPDATE: Download Google Chrome here.

Google, via Ubergizmo