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Google's Chrome Browser

Wolfman

Chief Solipsistic, Autosycophant
Wolfman
Joined
Jan 16, 2007
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According to the news, Google is releasing a browser named "Chrome" today; I'm a little surprised that I can't find anyone talking about that here.

Anyone heard of it? Anyone downloaded it (or planning to)? Any issues or problems we might want to be aware of? And what do you think of this in general...assuming its a decent browser, do you think Google can mount a challenge to the more established browsers?
 
Planning on downloading it, it should come out later today IIRC.

I am interested in it because of the tab feature that makes it very crash resistant, i.e. each tab is a different process. Which is very helpful to browsers like me who open up a lot of tabs and pdfs and don't want to have to find them all again when a single page crashes.

I have to see if it has a bookmark bar, password reminder, etc.

Hopefully it will be very lightweight as well.
 
My trusty Firefox is acting all snarky today, I guess it's in a snit over Chrome.
Might just ring them up and take a look-see.
 
Tsukasa Buddha said:
Planning on downloading it, it should come out later today IIRC.

I am interested in it because of the tab feature that makes it very crash resistant, i.e. each tab is a different process.
Click to expand...
IE8 does this also.

Tsukasa Buddha said:
I have to see if it has a bookmark bar, password reminder, etc.
Click to expand...
Me too, I can't wait for Google to host my bookmarks, history, cache, and so on online in a convenient searchable format.
 
Forget google's browser. I want Firefox 3.1 when it comes out, with it's reportedly 40% faster javascript engine. Only, I want it NOW. People with big adblock plus lists and any live dynamic extensions would appreciate it.
 
I'm having a hard time seeing the point. It's basically like using Firefox, except

* No options
* Toolbars (that can't be customized) moved into the tabs, Opera style
* Tab bar merged with an ugly custom title bar that doesn't match the Windows theme
* Twice the memory and other resource use

It's a nice novelty, but about as tempting to use regularly as the Windows version of Safari (not very.)

http://i35.tinypic.com/o0b5sy.png
 
I've just downloaded it and trying it out at this moment.
First impressions:
compared to FF, it's very plain and basic; I'm missing my add-ons.
I quite like the "frequently visited sites" thumbnails displayed on the front page - I can get to my favourites very quickly; otoh, I don't like the idea that anybody shoulder-surfing can see what my favourite sites are.
It seems a little faster than FF

Other than that, there's not much to say. It's in beta, so think I'll wait to see if it gets better. It will have to get a whole lot better to make me switch.

ETA: You can get to Options, but it's not obvious. The little wrench in the upper RH corner will give you a drop-down menu.
ETA2: I've just discovered a 'Developer' menu item - it gives you acess to a Javascript debugger.
 
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I'm using it now, looks quite nice and has a very "smooth" feel to it, doesn't seem that speedy though. As for crashing tabs - never had that problem with Opera anyway! Spotted a few rendering problems even with the Forum.
 

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It's nice, but I am not impressed. It wouldn't import my firefox settings (I had to kill it twice and then did it manually) and it crashed as soon as I had my first site site opened. Way to go!

I am sure that mine is not a typical experience, but this browser has a lot to catch up on if it wants to make it. I am not going to surf without my mouse gestures.
 
I was going to say that I thought Google Chrome was still in Beta, but then I realized that everything Google has is still in Beta. I'll go check it out now.
 
Rasmus said:
It's nice, but I am not impressed. It wouldn't import my firefox settings (I had to kill it twice and then did it manually) and it crashed as soon as I had my first site site opened. Way to go!

...snip...
Click to expand...

Was that not just a matter of no feedback past a certain point? I thought it had crashed during the FF import but looking on Task Manger saw it was in fact chugging away and after a few minutes it did actually finish.
 
OK, another Chrome discovery: it has an "Incognito" option - click on that and you open up a new window that tells you
You've gone incognito. Pages that you view in this window won't appear in your browser history or search history, and they won't leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer after you close the incognito window. Any files that you download or bookmarks that you create will be preserved, however.
Click to expand...
Heyyyy... nice!
 
Darat said:
Was that not just a matter of no feedback past a certain point? I thought it had crashed during the FF import but looking on Task Manger saw it was in fact chugging away and after a few minutes it did actually finish.
Click to expand...
You saw that in your OS's Task Manager or the browser's? (Putting a task manager is a browser is not a bad idea.)
 
The "new tab" page is a nice twist on Opera's Speeddial idea but it doesn't seem to possible to customise and override what shows up. Which means it won't be that useful for my browsing to the Forum.
 
Oh and I hate the non-standard Windows stuff - I like to customise and control what my windows looks like - not have an application make the decisions for me!
 
In page search has a nice feature - marks in the scrollbar so you can see where on a page the term occurs. Noticed a weakness in it - it doesn't find stuff in an input box on the page.
 
Darat said:
Was that not just a matter of no feedback past a certain point? I thought it had crashed during the FF import but looking on Task Manger saw it was in fact chugging away and after a few minutes it did actually finish.
Click to expand...

I must admit i didn't want to wait or troubleshoot. It stalled with one window claiming it was ready bit not letting me click the next-button or whatever the label was.

I liked what I saw, really, but it's just not enough yet to make me consider a switch. I will keep it installed, though. But it lacks too many things. No bookmakrs manager?
 
Still playing with it, but things look a bit odd in places. Selecting blocks of text is particularly odd.
 
Some interesting thoughts on Chrome's TOS:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10030522-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

2. Although you retain any copyrights to content you own and use in the browser, Google says it has a right to display some of your content, in conjunction with promoting its services. Here's their exact wording.

"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services."
Click to expand...
 
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