Posts Tagged with Chrome

Now that Chrome has been unleashed there’s a lot of talk going on about what it is, what it could be, and what it all means for Firefox. Let’s be clear: Chrome is beta software. That doesn’t usually mean much coming from Google—Gmail alone has been in beta for over four years now—but Chrome definitely qualifies as a beta release. As such, it isn’t completely fair to compare Chrome to Firefox, a browser that has gone through three major revisions.

Still, Chrome is very polished, and after just a couple days of use I don’t see any reason to return to Firefox. Part of the problem (with me and Firefox, that is) is that I’ve never been huge on add-ons. I don’t care that I can use Firefox as a feed aggregator, MP3 player, instant messenger, etc, etc. I get it, I really do, and I just don’t care. Chrome gives me exactly what I want a super-fast, elegant web browser that lets me interact with the web.

The only add-ons I actually used were Adblock Plus, Delicious Bookmarks, Firebug, and Google Notebook. I imagine Chrome will get some kind of integration with Google’s web services in the future, Notebook included. I use Delicious largely because of the Firefox add-on, and Google Bookmarks integration with Chrome seems like a no brainer that will show up sometime in the future. That leaves Adblock Plus and Firebug, both of which I really can live without. Chrome already looks to include some interesting developer features; it’s doubtful they’re up to Firebug levels yet, but as with many Chrome features there’s room for improvement (Chrome is only at version 0.2 here, folks).

That leaves Adblock Plus, and while I love it, my ad blindness has gotten to the point that I glaze over pretty much anything that looks even remotely like an add unless it blares sound at me. In that case, I immediately close the page and never return to the offending site.

For what I use a web browser for—that’d be browsing the web—Chrome is already a better choice than Firefox. And if (when?) Google gets around to integrating their various web services into the browser it’ll be a truly killer application.

Update: This article over at cnet is interesting, not least of which because if you read the list closely enough—or even just sort of glance at each point—it sounds very much like the author wants Chrome to be Firefox. The only point I even kind of agree with is #4: Saved Sessions. Chrome hasn’t crashed on me yet but there always the chance it will (especially this early in the game), and with my luck it’ll happen when I have thirty mission-critical tabs open. As for the other points…

1. I’m not totally sold on roaming profiles, which is to say that I don’t see why a web browser should be storing a significant amount of data on a users machine anyways. As the author mentions, Google already has an extensive search history service; extending to a web history service that Chrome links into would be great.
2. Continuing from point one, I don’t see why I should have to deal with managing local bookmarks anyways. Chrome should be using Google Bookmarks, which solves problems one (for bookmarks, anyways) and two. I’ve been trying to get away from using local bookmarks for quite awhile now.
3. I think I covered plug-ins (sic) pretty well above. They’re coming anyways, so there’s no need to gripe.
4. As mentioned, I agree with the first half of this. I couldn’t care less about the second half. I’m really glad Google did away with that obnoxious warning.
5. I’m apathetic to full-screen mode. I can’t remember a time I’ve ever really used it, but it wouldn’t hurt to add it in for those that need it.
6. As much as I love customization in some cases, I hate this idea. I don’t see it happening anyways, though. One of Google’s proposed goals with Chrome is to make the browser as unobtrusive as possible, which is counter to the idea of tricking out the browser window with custom themes.
7. I think this shows a distinct misunderstanding of the Chrome application paradigm. There’s no way to drag an application into a Chrome window because applications aren’t tabs. The whole idea of turning a website into a Chrome app is to do away with what little browser interface there is and focus entirely on the website. Being able to drop an application into a Chrome window doesn’t make sense because the two are completely different things.
8. Like plug-ins, this, too, is coming.
9. I don’t quite understand this… maybe I haven’t encountered enough pop-ups in Chrome, but from what I’ve seen I actually prefer the way it handles them.
10. And finally, this is the worst idea ever. The omnibox is a spectacular idea, one that other browsers would do well to mimic. Having used it I’m surprised no one else thought of it. The fact that it automatically adds searches from any site you search on is a major win, as well. The omnibox gets my vote as the most elegant, efficient, and effective address/search bar yet conceived.

Chrome

Unless you’ve somehow completely avoided tech news for the last two days you’ve no doubt heard of Google Chrome, the long-rumored, finaly-realized Google web browser. I’ll admit: I’m both very excited and a just a little worried about this. I’m excited because, well, it’s a Google web browser. I’ve been waiting for a Google web browser since it was just a rumor long ago. And with the plethora of Google services now available, a web browser seems a natural next step for the company that offers everything else.

It scares me (just a little) because, well, Google is everywhere now. They’re ads are found pretty much everywhere. I’m using Google Chrome right now to write this post. Gmail manages all of my e-mail accounts. Google Calendar keeps my agenda in order. Google Reader keeps me up to date on the plethora of sites I pull news from. Google Talk keeps me in touch with friends (well, sort of). Youtube provides me with a venue to inflice my full-motion presence upon an unsuspecting web.

It’s just a little disturbing when you realize you relay on a single source for nearly everything. I haven’t gone into full tinhat mode yet, though. I don’t have to use Google’s products (even if they are often the best). And it’s not like I’d be totally lost if Google vanished from the Internet. There are plenty of other services available I could use.

Anyways, some things I like about Chrome so far:

• It’s fast. Really, really fast.
• I love the interface. The screenshots that are available make it look kind of junky, but it actually integrates really nicely into Vista. It’s also very minimal and out of the way, something I’m a big fan of as far as interfaces go.
• The Omnibox is spectacular. It’s like the Firefox 3 Awesome Bar with fully integrated search. I’m still a little confused as to how it adds site search engines… for awhile it seemed like it wasn’t adding any, but now it seems to add them after only one search. All you have to do is start typing the name of the site (Amazon, for example), hit tab, and search away.
• The new tab page is a nice touch. It integrates speed dial, search, and recent bookmarks/closed tabs into one convinient location.

And some missing features I’d like to see:

• Integrated spell check.
• Full-page zoom.
• Amazingly, there doesn’t seem to be any way to force mailto: links to open in Gmail, which is something that’s so painfully obvious I fully expect to see it in a future update.

Finally, there’s one thing that really bugs me about the Google Chrome coverage. I keep seeing comments about how “designers/developers are going to have to design/develop for yet another browser *roll eyes/sarcasm/spite/whatever*”, most notably in this cnet article. I’m really tired of seeing this. It’s the underlying rendering engine that matters, not the browser itself, and Chrome uses Webkit, the same rendering engine as Safari. While there might be some tweak or something going on under the hood (particularly V8, in this case), it’s still largely Webkit, which means that anything that works in Safari will probably work in Chrome.

And to be honest, Gecko (Firefox), Presto (Opera), and Webkit (Safari and Chrome) are so close in rendering quality (per web standards) that it’s often safe to assume that a well-designed page will render the same (or almost the same) in all three if it looks right in one. A good designer won’t bet on that, of course; it’s always best to test. The only true, outstanding annoyance is Internet Explorer, however.

And with any luck, Chrome will destroy it.