Photos: The brains behind Google Chrome

Lars Bak led the team behind V8, the engine that runs JavaScript programs often found on Web pages. "We wanted to design an engine that would work with future Web applications," he said, so Google "decided to do a brand-new one, one that really makes JavaScript run many times faster than what you're seeing in other browsers."

With faster JavaScript, "You can include more code in the browser. It really opens up the creativity of the Web application developer," he said.

Photo by Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks

Caption by Stephen Shankland