Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2008 > September > 03 > Entry
Google’s Chrome shines in its first test drive
Late last night, I finally got a chance to download Google’s new Web browser, Chrome, and try it out for a while. I would have loved to have tried it on my work computer (assuming I’d be allowed to install it) or on my Macbook, but those weren’t options: for the moment, Chrome is only available for Windows. Mac and Linux versions are said to be in the works. The installation was quick and painless; Chrome, on installation, will import your bookmarks, search history and other data from your default Web browser (in my case, Firefox 3). Once installed, the first thing I noticed was Chrome’s lovely, soothing look. Despite its name, it doesn’t share the brushed metal look of Apple’s Safari. Instead, its got a soft blue look that extends up to its tabs, which appear up at the top of the browser instead of below the address bar. The interface in general removes a lot of the clutter of buttons and status bars, especially if you have a lot of add-ons installed in Firefox. The start-up screen when you open a new tab is a nine-window snapshot of your most frequently visited sites (along with a right rail that shows your other bookmarks and other information). It’s a nice place to start, with a very visual approach to all the places you go on the Web. Unfortunately, if you share your computer or are starting up your browser with someone else sitting next to you, you’re going to give an instant snapshot of where you spend your time online. Browser, beware. There’s an option to replace this screen with a traditional home page, but the start-up screen (similar to a Firefox Add-On I use called Showcase.) is handy if you don’t mind the potential privacy issue. The first thing anyone who uses Firefox or Internet Explorer will notice from using the browser is that clicking on your regular Web sites seems to bring them up much faster. Chrome renders pages with the same main engine as Apple’s Safari browser, but seems to handle multiple windows, multimedia and downloads much faster and elegantly. I didn’t have a single crash or Web page loading problem using Chrome for several hours and found that some pages that take a while to load in other browsers (Web e-mail, a healthcare Web site that is content-heavy), came up almost instantly in Chrome. Chrome’s “Incognito” mode opens up a new window — anything surfed in the tabs of the Incognito window is not saved or stored in the browser history. Google says this is for instances where you don’t want your Web browsing history viewable by others, such as buying a surprise gift for a family member, but the more practical use for this is obviously naughty business and surfing on Web sites where security is paramount (banking Web sites, mission critical work, etc.). Firefox has a similar mode, but it’s all or nothing — either you’re surfing in Privacy mode or you’re not. With Chrome, you know exactly what browsed sites are Incognito and which aren’t. One other large change is that there’s no separate search bar in the browser. Everything is in the same address bar and Chrome tries to intelligently determine whether you’re doing a search or entering a URL. It works surprisingly well. When you start typing in the address box, Chrome guesses what you’re looking for and I found it eerily accurate. It also was able to differentiate between my URL searches (say, Amazon.com, Gmail or Twitter) and my Google text searches. Like typing on the iPhone, you have to just trust the address bar. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked. After a few hours, I didn’t miss my Firefox add-ons, but I put Chrome away and switched back anyway. Chrome is fast and I had no problems, but for me at least, it’ll take a few more sessions to get used to the browser’s layout. I haven’t thrown lots of video at it to see how it holds up to a heavy load of multimedia, but I’ll try that next. One thing I don’t dig: Chrome’s icon. The color swirl with the disturbing electronic eye in the middle is just ugly and doesn’t say “Web browser” to me. For anyone who craves speed and doesn’t care about add-ons, Chrome might grow into a favorite browser. Google has done a very nice job with Chrome’s first incarnation, differentiating enough from the competition to make it worth a look.
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By willy
September 4, 2008 10:41 PM | Link to this
I was having a good experience until I went to facebook. While posting a message on a friend's page I got a msg that said they were sorry but it wasn't available. I waited for a while then tried to back out of the page, then it crashed. I like the look of the explorer, but the crash sucked. Still going to give it a few more tries.