Google has scrubbed evidence of a download site for its upcoming Chrome browser from its cache, according to searches for a URL posted earlier Monday.
The address for the browser download -- http://gears.google.com/chrome/?hl=en -- now redirects users to Google's main page.
But Google's cache, a feature that lets users locate versions of pages that no longer exist, has been scrubbed of any indication of the download. Although the link to the cached page still exists, clicking through only retrieves the message: "Your search - cache:_NQpg-h3mlMJ:gears.google.com/chrome/?hl=enhttp://gears.google.com/chrome/?hl=en - did not match any documents."
At least one news Web site had posted the link to Chrome's download page earlier Monday.
Searches on Google using the phrase "google chrome download" continue to display several results, including the gears.google.com URL as well as a page titled "Google Chrome for Windows - Terms and Conditions Agreement" that also has had its cache deleted.
According to those same search results, both Chrome-related pages first went live at or around 12:01 a.m. Monday GMT.
On Monday, Google announced that it would roll out a Windows version of its browser, dubbed "Chrome," sometime Tuesday.
Chrome, said Google's vice president of product management, Sundar Pichai, is based on the same WebKit engine that powers Apple Inc.'s Safari, and like Microsoft Corp.'s new Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) Beta 2, sports a privacy mode that erases most evidence of browsing from the application when a session is shut down.
Pichai said that Google would post an announcement on its company blog when Chrome is ready to download.
Reprinted with permission from Computerworld. Story copyright 2008 Computerworld Inc. All rights reserved.
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