Now, we have two guys (sorry, I will fill in their names later, but they talked fast) who are demoing Google’s new Chrome browser and its features and user interface.

“Friendly” tabs, knowing your history better graphically, auto-typing, simplicity, easier downloading with a new window that one guy is calling a real app like “Pinocchio, because I wanted to build a real boy.”

Well, Pinocchio was wood for most of that story, but I like the effort!

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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, 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. Tasty snacks as expected, but unusually caloric (many tiny pastries, heavy cream, very small amounts of fruit).

First up: Sundar Pichal, Chrome honcho!

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BoomTown is back from a seasick cruise vacation in the wilds of Alaska–official sightings: lots of icebergs, 16 glaciers, a passel of jellyfish and starfish, four lumberjacks, three orcas, two seals, one otter, no moose or bears and, yep, one Republican Vice Presidential candidate’s lovely house in Juneau–just in time for school.

Or, more precisely, a little schooling for some of the tech companies that I cover in a mildly obsessive-compulsive manner.

All of them, I predict, are in for a news-filled fall.

Thus, here is a rundown of what to expect and also what some of those companies need to focus on over the next several months.

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As was reported earlier today by BoomTown, Google confirmed on its blog that it will launch its new Chrome browser tomorrow.

Google said it would be launching Chrome in 100 countries, but but will only be available in beta in Windows (Google said Mac and Linux versions were coming soon).

The move by the search giant, although the blog does not say so, is clearly a direct shot over the bow of Microsoft, which dominates the browser market with 74 percent share.

Here is the full blog post by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management at Google, and Linus Upson, Engineering Director.

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Here is Google’s entire comic book–BoomTown’s not going to say the search giant is juvenile, but a comic book?–that it is using to explain the technical details of its new browser called Chrome.

Sources told me definitively Google will launch the browser–which is its most blatant attack on Microsoft yet–as early as tomorrow for download by consumers.

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In its most frontal and aggressive attack on Microsoft yet, sources with knowledge of the project said Google is preparing to unveil a new browser–ready for download to users as early as tomorrow–to try to loosen Microsoft’s iron grip on the most important piece of software to navigate the Internet.

In addition, Google Blogoscoped has published a comic book that Google is apparently using to explain the technical aspects of its open-source browser, which is called Chrome.

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I met John Lilly last October on a decidedly odd techie scavenger hunt in Hawaii– trapped in a van all day while searching for tikis and such, as if we were a geek Brady Bunch (yes, BoomTown works that hard for you)–and found him to be just the kind of quietly intelligent, thoughtful and self- effacing digital exec that Silicon Valley could use a lot more of in these often frivolous, look-at-me Web 2.0 days.

Soon after, in January, Lilly was named CEO of Mozilla Corporation, after serving its its COO, taking over for Mitchell Baker, who remains its chairman. Mozilla just launched its Firefox 3 browser to much success.

Here’s my video interview with him about where Mozilla is going next.

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Before John Lilly got the CEO job at Mozilla, I had visited the HQ of the the open-source software nonprofit foundation (and, at the same time, a for-profit startup)–famous for its increasingly popular Firefox browser and red dragon logo–on Landings Drive in Mountain View.

I toured the place and took video note of a freakishly large sculpture made of soda cans and the biggest couch I have ever seen. In other words, just another typical Silicon Valley company.

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Well, I guess this is dating myself, but I remember when this Time magazine cover (see below) of the first Internet-Golden-Boy-of-the-Moment Marc Andreessen came out and essentially heralded the start of the first Web boom.

Specifically, it was Feb. 19, 1996, and the picture of the young entrepreneur–the driving force behind the first commercial browser, the [...]

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