Google Chrome marks two-year anniversary

Google's Chrome web browser is officially two years old. The company posted the first beta of the software for Windows on 2 September 2008, launching Mac OS X and Linux versions roughly one year later.

In that time, Chrome has become one of the most popular browsers on the market, claiming a 7.52 per cent share behind Internet Explorer and Firefox, according to the latest figures from research firm Net Applications.

"Looking back today on Chrome's second anniversary, it's amazing to see how much has changed in just a short time," wrote Chrome product manager Brian Rakowski in a blog post.

"In August 2008, JavaScript was 10 times slower, HTML5 support wasn't yet an essential feature in modern browsers, and the idea of a sandboxed, multi-process browser was only a research project."

Google has posted another update for Chrome to mark the occasion, offering security fixes along with improved Java performance and a more streamlined interface.