Google Chrome

Google Chrome

Google Chrome 54.0.2824.0 running on Windows 10
Developer(s)	Google Inc.
Initial release	September 2, 2008; 8 years ago (2008-09-02)
Stable release(s)
Windows 55.0.2883.87 / December 9, 2016; 43 days ago (2016-12-09) macOS 55.0.2883.95 / December 13, 2016; 39 days ago (2016-12-13) Linux 55.0.2883.87 / December 12, 2016; 40 days ago (2016-12-12) Android 55.0.2883.91 / December 9, 2016; 43 days ago (2016-12-09) iOS 55.0.2883.79 / December 5, 2016; 47 days ago (2016-12-05)
Preview release(s)
Beta (Windows, macOS, Linux) 56.0.2924.67 / January 18, 2017; 3 days ago (2017-01-18) Beta (Android) 56.0.2824.53 / January 5, 2017; 16 days ago (2017-01-05) Dev (Windows, macOS, Linux) 57.0.2986.0 / January 19, 2017; 2 days ago (2017-01-19) Dev (Android) 57.0.2984.0 / January 17, 2017; 4 days ago (2017-01-17)
Development status	Active
Written in	C++
Operating system	Android Jelly Bean or later Chrome OS iOS 9 or later Linux (GTK v2.24 or later) OS X 10.9 or later Windows 7 or later
Engines	Blink (WebKit on iOS), V8
Platform	IA-32, x64, ARMv7
Available in	47 languages
Type	Web browser, mobile browser
License	Freeware under Google Chrome Terms of Service
Website	chrome.com

Google Chrome is a freeware web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008, for Microsoft Windows, and was later ported to Linux, macOS, iOS and Android. Google Chrome is also the main component of Chrome OS, where it serves as a platform for running web apps.

Google releases the majority of Chrome's source code as the Chromium open-source project. A notable component that is not open-source is the built-in Adobe Flash Player (that Chrome has disabled by default since September 2016). Chrome used the WebKit layout engine until version 27. As of version 28, all Chrome ports except the iOS port use Blink, a fork of the WebKit engine.

As of November 2016^[update], StatCounter estimates that Google Chrome has a 63% worldwide usage share of web browsers as a desktop browser. It also has 51% market share across all platforms combined, because it's also the most popular browser for smartphones. Its success has led to Google expanding the "Chrome" brand name on various other products such as Chromecast, Chromebook, Chromebit, Chromebox and Chromebase.