Google chief executive Eric Schmidt opposed the development of an independent web browser for six years. He stated that "at the time, Google was a small company", and he did not want to go through "bruising browser wars". Company co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page hired several Mozilla Firefox developers and built a demonstration of Chrome. Afterward, Schmidt said, "It was so good that it essentially forced me to change my mind."

In September 2004, rumors of Google building a web browser first appeared.