Google Chrome - Review
Let’s have a look at Google Chrome now shall we?
The download is under 1MB. Small compared to the 7MB Firefox, and a minuscule bit of dust in comparison to the epic 100MB+ of Internet Explorer upgrades.
So what do you get when you first start it up?
Well, as you can see, a very uncluttered bit of software. A bar to type bits of text in to get you to a website, and a box underneath to view the bits of website you want to see.
Of course, the URL bar is a bag of tricks, using a similar technique to Firefox 3, by incorporating your History, Bookmarks and the Google Index to ensure that whatever you type into the address bar will get the website you want.
Google Chrome renders all the main website quite snappily and correctly, being that it conforms to XHTML as opposed to the mess that the Internet Explorer renderer is in. Of course, the browser uses tabbed browsing like Firefox and Internet Explorer, but each tab seems to be a seperate entity.
Often I find I have an errant tab which causes the whole of Firefox to crash. Nothing big thanks to the recovery system, but annoying nonetheless.
Chrome includes its own task manager that shows all the plugins and tabs, their memory, and network usage. Fantastic for seeing just how much bandwidth all those youtube videos are using, or closing an errant website that is bogging the computer down.
Developers will have access to more advanced features, such as a JavaScript console with debug and full coloured html source files of any webpage in question.
A new feature called Incognito mode will open up a new window, which looks just like any other, however this little window will let you browse without leaving cookies, history or temporary files on your computer. Absolutely perfect for accessing an Internet Banking site for example.
The move to web application orientated tools are also apparent. Google include an Application Shortcuts tool that let’s you easily make shortcuts from your desktop or start menu to any website online. Clicking on the shortcut runs a cut down version of Chrome without the URL bar, which makes it look like you are simply running an application from your desktop at times. A true step forward in making web apps the norm.
All in all, a very good start for Google in the browser wars. Chrome is a very simple, effective and fast browser, without the frills and buttons that other browsers push in front of you. With prominent advertising on Google’s website, and the exposure already given to it, we can only wait and see just how, and if, the industry is shaken by it.
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If you’ll forgive me for saying so, this is a rather biased article. You appear to be intent on promoting Chrome, making it look sensational.
Firstly you utterly neglect to mention that Chrome is practically a duplicate of Safari as it uses WebKit which is developed by Apple. Secondly, I think it would have been worth mentioning that Chrome doesn’t even come close to passing the Acid3 test whereas other browsers already do.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying that Chrome is a duplicate of Safari. It only uses the same rendering engine. I think Joel here is just looking at Chrome from a usability standpoint for the average end user, and the fact that this is the first release. However, I do think mentioning the Acid3 Test, etc would have been a good idea to get a bigger picture. But you have to remember that this is a brand new browser, and as it stands, it isn’t bad.
AUTHOR’S RESPONSE:
Hi John,
I completely understand where you are coming from, but this review is to show what Google are doing. Far too often we only see that bad news is published, and in all honesty, the majority of people only come, and almost want, to see the bad things. You can go to any other web log to find lots of the bad stuff, but I’m writing as I see it, and reviewing pretty much as it comes out just after launch so the average internet user can get an idea of what to expect. Acid3 test of course fails on Chrome as you said, though it does too on Firefox 2, and acid3 requires CSS 3 Text Shadows and Downloadable Fonts, which is currently in proposal by the W3C, so hardly a true ’standards’ test, is it? Thanks for the suggestion and comments!
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