Think of Google’s market place as the World Wide Web. If its Chrome browser makes the Web run faster, then the search giant benefits by having more of its applications run and more users come to its search page.

So said Google during a press conference Tuesday, during which executives unveiled Chrome, two years in development and now released for beta testing.

“There are very direct benefits,” said Google co-founder Larry Page. “If the browser runs faster, we get more searches.”

Simultaneously, as the Silicon Valley firm morphs from a search company to a maker of online applications, a browser brings a second benefit. Most Google developers write online applications in Java script, said Page. If Chrome can make that code run faster (many browsers don’t), “we’re going to make a lot of money,” he said.

Google claimed that Chrome is designed for the next generation Web application. These are more complex programs, weaving in complicated images and video editing.

Google saw an opportunity to design a browser as it watched how rapidly the Web was evolving, company executives said. The project became a huge investment for Google and one Page said he monitored closely.

“I’ve really enjoyed using it” in an internal test, he said. “I’ve used it as my primary browser.”

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.