Chrome (Goo's Browser) Update

[panzerfaust]

Summary: Not Ready for Prime Time, fun Tech-Toy
Good: Fast and clean.
Bad: LACK of USER CONTROL.
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Have been using the Google web-browser "Chrome" since it was released in public beta on Tuesday. Actually, spending too much time using it, and not doing things that I should be doing.

I really think they picked a stupid name for it, as, if anything, it is "anti-chrome" since it has the cleanest, least cluttered, least screen-hogging interface of any recent browser.

Indeed, those are the really good things about it. The app loads very fast, favorites lists appear very fast, JS is very fast (as it is complied, not interpreted), sadly JAVA works not at all (unless you down load a beta version of JAVA from Sun), it seems stable (Though I did have one BLACK Screen of Death shortly after loading Chrome), memory use is less than FF, and it seems (barring the one BLK-SOD) to not have serious memory leaks.

The bad: There is no AD-blocking (which makes it unusable for general web browsing), it supports only a single home-page, it - bizarrely - doesn't support Goo's Bookmarks app (which is very useful for anyone who uses more than one computer, or who does a lot of research), mouse-gestures are not supported (though even IE has them), text seems to not be resizable (a real issue for Boomers and Beyond, it has problems - again, bizarrely - with the online Goo-Office programs, the find on current page search (CTL-F fails on long text pages. Humm, was not searching Goo's core strength?), struggles with some server proxy issues, does not support SSL client authentication (IE the 'lock' for 'secure sites' does not work properly, RSS/XML feeds do not always work correctly, Chrome has a 'most visited' list (which I supposed made sense to some prop-head) from which you cannot escape - for example CTL-T (which in FF brings up a blank window) brings up your 9 most visited sites. The actual speed of the browser is degraded since it downloads all the crappy ads on a page (so though the engine if faster, the car goes slower) which lengthens page loadtime.

This initial release of Chrome is ONLY for WINDOZ XP/Pissta. MacOS, UNIX: "real soon now"

My own current use of Chrome is to access research sites, professional publications, forums, discussion groups, email, and product support pages - ie sites that have few ads. It is completely unusable for general browsing without an ad-blocker.

I continue to use FF2 (Had issues w FF3) for everything else.

To my thought, there is no question that it is technologically the best browser currently available, but the lack of ad-blocking and the not yet implemented plans for third party extensions makes it only a tech-toy at the moment.

Given that most of Goo's bucks come from ads, it would not be surprising if ad-blockers never appear. However, if they do not, then Chrome, whose target audience is the non-IE bunch, will fail.

[deucemagnet]

1. Thanks for your thoughtful review.

I was thinking about trying it just for kicks, but even if lived up to expectations I'd still find it hard to give up firefox. I like the addons too much.

[panzerfaust]

2. Portable Chrome already hacked and available

A 'portable' app is one that, like in the good old days, does not require "installation" (and 12 reboots) even on Windoz. The main use of such programs these days is on portable thumb drives. Chrome is a natural for such use (IF ONLY ads could be blocked ...)

Though the site is auf Deutsch, the actual program is in English:

http://stadt-bremerhaven.de/2008/09/03/portable-chrome-021510/

I have not tried it yet - but my (five) virus scanners all say the download is clean.

[DS1]

3. what 12 reboots?

My copy went right in, imported FF stuff, and started

[pokerfan]

4. Chrome has some serious security issues

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150639/early_security_issues_tarnish_googles_chrome.html