UPDATE: After a bit of a delay, Google Chrome is now available to download. Get it for Windows here.

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Internet Explorer just got a new challenger in the battle to become the world’s favourite browser: Google’s ultra-advanced Chrome browser, launching to the public today.

It’s an ambitious project, built on the same Webkit rendering engine as Apple’s Safari browser, but featuring tons of innovative new features.

Initially available for Windows, Google says there’ll be versions of Chrome for Mac and Linux available soon.

Chrome’s tabbed browsing interface works by splitting each web page being viewed into a separate process, so if one website crashes the rest of the browser remains stable.

That’s on top of a brand new JavaScript engine, which Google says has been built from scratch to provide speedier performance on application-based sites, like Gmail or Google Docs.

Chrome also supports Google Gears, the system that allows online applications to continue to work even while offline, and a malware and phishing protection system that uses constantly-updated Google blacklists to protect against suspicious websites.

Chrome also features a special “incognito” mode, letting users browse the web without leaving any record of activity on the computer.

All of that runs behind the scenes though. One of the first things you’ll notice is Chrome’s special homepage, which updates to contain thumbnails of your most frequently used webpages and other personalised information.

It’s a bold move by Google, and one which puts it in direct competition with Microsoft and Apple in the software stakes for the first time.

Of course it’s all open source, just like the Firefox browser, so it’ll instantly be welcomed by developers, hackers and fans of internet add-ons.

Out today | £free | Google