go logoA team of Googlers just announced a project called Go — it’s a new, experimental programming language that Google is making available as open source at the Go website.

The Go team says its big programming frustration has been the slowness of existing programming languages. Go changes that by compiling (i.e., turning programming code into an executable file) complex programs in a few seconds or less. Other features include the ability to use multicore processors to perform parallel tasks, and “garbage collection,” a system for managing different memory issues.

Go started out as one of Google’s “20 percent projects” which the team pursued separately from their main assignments, but it has now been graduated into a full-blown project, according to CNET. The language is still too young for the company to use it in any of its core products, but it could eventually be used for server software and software in the browser.

Here’s a demo video.