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Liveblogging From the Google Chrome Launch: Hello, Sundar!

Okay, BoomTown is grudgingly going to liveblog this event at the Googleplex, as it might be mercifully short, given that Google is supposed to release its new Chrome browser at high noon, Pacific time.

Then again, this is Google (GOOG), so you know they love to talk, because they are super-duper smart, I am told.

I will be posting video later, but thus far: A roomful of press in Building 43 at Google’s HQ in Mountain View, Calif. Tasty snacks, as expected, but unusually caloric (many tiny pastries, heavy cream, very small amounts of fruit).

First up: Sundar Pichal, Chrome honcho!

Google’s VP Product Management, who rode herd on this project to create the search giant’s own piece of software to navigate the Internet, apologizes for the snafu that resulted in this announcement being made a day early.

Google Fedexed a comic book it is using to talk about the technical aspects of Chrome to a Germany-based blogger too early.

Ooops, the Big Brains of Google jinxed by some mailing room goof and express mail! How deliciously ironic is that?

Now, Pichal talks about a bunch of info that has been previously released about Chrome being built on WebKit, being available in 100 countries and being open source (a new open-source project launching today is called Chromium).

As to why Google makes a browser? ‘”We live on the Web,” said Pichal.

Um, doesn’t Google actually own the Internet, and we are all just serfs on its vast lands?

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

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About Kara

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »

Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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