The Google Chrome browser is very popular, and almost no one knows about this famous name. Maybe you read it naturally, and you take it for granted that Chrome is Chrome, but have you ever wondered why “Chrome” is called Chrome (tongue twister)? Why is the browser named after shiny metallic chrome? This time, let’s take a look at this question that you may not have thought about deeply.
Bean knowledge: Why is the Google Chrome browser called “Chrome”?
Back in the late 2000s, the name “Chrome” was assigned as the internal codename for the Google browser project. Inspired by the use of chrome on iconic and high-speed muscle cars of the century, it was also a reference to the design of the browser itself, which at the time was intended to be a faster, leaner alternative to the browsers of the time. Like the shiny chrome trim and bumpers that wrap around the perimeter of a car, Chrome is used to refer to all the extras that surround the browser window. In other words, the webpage itself being viewed in the browser is the body of the car, and the chrome trim is meant to include toolbars, pagination tabs, scroll bars, and everything else around the webpage itself.
While Chrome started out as an internal codename, it eventually became the browser’s final name. In response, the development team also held an internal contest to choose a final name for the browser project, but according to Google developer Glen Murphy, the winning name from the naming contest sucked. It was because the name chosen was so bad that the head of development pushed through the crowd and insisted that people can associate the word Chrome with speed, making “Chrome” the final name.
Objectively speaking, Chrome is a pretty cool name for a browser, especially for someone with a penchant for old muscle cars. One of the most immediate things to notice about Chrome, both when it launched and to this day, is the minimal look and feel of the browser interface.
In a 2015 interview with The New York Times, then-Google product chief (and later CEO) Sundar Pichai emphasized that the name of the browser is actually the main core of the Chrome experience, saying that Chrome was built with as little effort as possible. content, streamlines Chrome’s interface as much as possible, so you can focus on the webpage you’re browsing.