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As Downloadsquad is reporting, the Chromium source code for Google's Chrome open source browser has already been fashioned into a new version of the browser: Iron.ﾠ Apparently German company SRWare developed its knock-off of Chrome for users who are concerned about Google's policies for collecting private information--a constant Achilles heel for the company. SRWare's home page is in German, but the folks at the Incomplete News Project have published a translation with details on what SRWare's version does.

Even though it's only available in a Windows version so far, Google's open source Chrome browser is reaching a lot of people, according to data from Nielsen Online. Nielsen reports that between Sep. 1st and Sep. 7th, more than 1.9 million unique visitors in the U.S. visited the Thank You page for the Chrome browser. The data lines up with similar findings from NetApplications, which has found that Chrome has about one percent of browser share--ahead of Opera. Which browser does Chrome not appear to be taking share from, though? That would be Safari.

We've written about the folks at CodeWeavers before. They make a customized, commercial version of Wine called CrossOverLinux. and have been major contributors to Wine. (Wine allows Linux users to run Windows applications.) This post from the CodeWeavers blog details how the company has succesfully ported versions of Chromium--the open source core of Google's Chrome browser--for Mac and Linux. The ports are free and available here. You won't want to run these ports as your main browser, but as proof-of-concept for cross-platform versions of Chrome, this is good news.

Is Google Chrome going to arrive in a mobile version for smartphones and other devices? Google has already confirmed that it will arrive in a version for its Linux-based Android platform, and there are lots of reasons to believe that Chrome was developed in its initial Windows version with mobile devices in mind. However, Google will likely face much competition from Mozilla, which is developing its own open source mobile browser dubbed Fennec.

As is typical for Google, its new Chrome browser features a tabula rasa interface, without the Windows menu system and toolbars that many browser users are used to. At the same time, it shares much code with Mozilla's Firefox browser, and is customizable in many of the same ways as Firefox. Around the web, I'm already seeing some astute tutorials and resources show up for those interested in souping Chrome up and getting the most out of it. Here are some strong resources.

There are a number of new moves afoot regarding video formats and standards for open source browsers and operating systems. Last week, we covered comments from Sridhar Vembu, CEO of AdventNet/Zoho, about how improved Javascript in Google's Chrome browser could be a threat to both Adobe's Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight. Meanwhile, the new alpha version of Mozilla's upcoming Firefox browser update has HTML 5 video support, and One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has entered a partnership to to advance the open source video format Ogg.

Our sister blog JKOnTheRun has an interesting post up about why Google's Chrome browser should be the browser of choice on netbooks--low-cost subnotebooks such as the Asus Eee PCs. For now, Chrome is Windows-only, but Google is working on a Linux version. Among JKOnTheRun's reasons why Chrome suits netbooks so well are: better memory management, upcoming plug-ins, and a smart home page. Among these, better memory management does look like it could be very valuable on netbooks, which typically don't have tons of RAM. Chrome may have a bright future on other types of mobile devices, too. Check out the post.

There have been positive and negative things said about Google's new Chrome open source browser but, just as Apple can do no wrong in the eyes of many consumers, never underestimate the sway that Google has. PC Magazine is reporting that Chrome already tops Opera in market share after just four days in the wild, citing data from Net Applications. Meanwhile, our sister blog JKOntheRun ran a quick analysis of which browsers were accessing their site on the first day of Chrome's release and found that more than 10 percent of visitors were using Chrome. Go figure. Check out JKOntheRun's thoughts.