Search giant Google announced on Monday that it would release an open-source browser, written from the ground up to run faster, work better with the Web and better secure users' data.

The browser, which the search giant has dubbed Chrome, assigns each tab to its own process, uses dynamic code generation to speed Javascript and uses the open-source Webkit for page rendering, according to a 40-page comic book created by Google to introduce the software. Chrome's user interface makes each tab its own workspace, improves auto-complete for Web addresses and searches, and allows users to tear away a specific Web page from the browser's window, making it its own application.

Google has also focused a great deal on ways to improve security. The browser uses a completely rewritten engine for handling Javascript, dubbed V8, which sandboxes the code running in each tab so that it cannot affect the system or other tabs. The browser also uses Google's anti-malware blacklist and jails processes so that vulnerabilities in user-installed plugins have only a limited impact on the software, according to a description of the features in Google's comic book.

"To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the web," the company said in its announcement. "Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go."

The major browsers have all added security features in the past few years to better protect their users. In June, both Mozilla and Opera released the latest versions of their browsers, adding blacklists for blocking sites that host malware. Microsoft announced a similar feature, currently available in the beta version of its browser, Internet Explorer 8.

Google plans to release the beta version of Chrome on Tuesday. The Web page rendering engine, Webkit, adopted by Google is also used in Apple's Safari browser.

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