Having been using Google Chrome for a couple of hours now, on and off, how does it stack up? These are a few personal first impressions.
Package:
+ Lightweight, doesn’t appear to use as much memory as many other browsers.
Installation:
+ Quick and easy install, all done in a few seconds.
– No prompt as to where you would like it saved, it automatically goes into Programs.
Importing bookmarks etc:
+ Quick and painless import of IE or Firefox bookmarks, history and saved passwords.
– There is currently no way to protect your passwords and this is a problem that will have to be addressed.
– RSS feeds are not imported as the browser does not currently support RSS.
– No automatic RSS detection on sites visited.
Tab system:
+ Easy to use.
+ Independent, so if one site hangs, just close that particular tab and continue, no need to reload.
Opening a new tab produces a screen showing thumbnails of your most visited sites, a sort of ‘favourites’ I suppose. Never seen much point to this type of system personally, but others love it so why not? Although you will not find any option to remove this function so as to display a blank page, it can be done!
Omnibar (that’s the Google name for the address/search bar):
+ Combined address/search box, rather than the necessity to hit a separate ‘search’ button.
+ One click saving of favourites.
Speed:
+ Chrome is lightning fast, both in starting up and loading pages.
General:
+ Simple, minimalistic and a good ‘feel’ to it.
+ No intrusive download box slap bang in the middle of the screen everytime you download something.
– Does not currently display Java applets, although you can download a release candidate update from Sun.
– No add-ons available for those who want all the bells and whistles known to mankind, such as are available for Firefox. No big deal for those who only use the odd add-on.
– No alternative skins available as yet. Again, is it that important?
– Odd little ‘happenings’ when using a WYSIWYG editor, like an extra line-feed inserted.
Conclusion:
So far, and only time will tell, a promising start. It is, after all, a beta (testing) version, although it seems pretty stable.
For me, it has a good ‘feel’ about it, is minimalistic and is appreciably quicker than anything else, and by a mile.
There are a few problems to be addressed, hopefully, such as password protection and the Java question, and a few tweaks here and there to fix some small bugs could see it becoming a serious rival to Firefox. Unless, of course, Firefox and Chrome become one!!!! Keep an eye on the media! That would certainly make for an awesome browser.
For plain and simple surfing and for web developers, probably very tempting to change from Firefox, perhaps not immediately but certainly when the necessary tweaks are applied. Unfortunately, although Google do bring out some excellent stuff, they do tend to stay in the beta stage for rather a long time.
In a nutshell:
Love it so far!
Robbie says:
Yeah I downloaded it while watching the demo last night.
I do enjoy how it feels lightweight and it’s speed. It feels a lot like Opera (which is my preferred browser) so it feels more natural to me then FF or IE.
And for a Beta it’s a lot more faster and stable then other browsers out there.
But the things I miss from Opera is rss and imap options. If they could integrate Google Services (mail/reader/bookmarks) with Chrome then I might have a new main browser.
Although have you read this
http://digg.com/software/This_Post_Not_Made_In_Chrome_Google_s_EULA_Sucks
Robbie says:
Yeah I downloaded it while watching the demo last night.
I do enjoy how it feels lightweight and it’s speed. It feels a lot like Opera (which is my preferred browser) so it feels more natural to me then FF or IE.
And for a Beta it’s a lot more faster and stable then other browsers out there.
But the things I miss from Opera is rss and imap options. If they could integrate Google Services (mail/reader/bookmarks) with Chrome then I might have a new main browser.
Although have you read this
http://digg.com/software/This_Post_Not_Made_In_Chrome_Google_s_EULA_Sucks
Rob says:
I’m a Firefox/SeaMonkey fan, although finding Firefox 3 crashes, shuts down of its own free will or hangs rather too often. Have been trying Avant.
As with probably 99% of people, I didn’t read the blurb, as usual. A bit unlike Google, I must say, such all-embracing ‘gimme’. Pity.
Chrome seems to get a bit shaky with long-term use and there are certain websites it will just not open, delivers an error message (Error 2 (net::ERR_FAILED): Unknown error.)and says the site doesn’t exist or has moved. The same sites open OK in all other browsers. A bug, bound to be at least a few in a beta, though.
Iron out the bugs, change the EULA – migrate in a flash. Until then, love the browser but not yet practical to change, have to put up with Firefox crashes.
Rob says:
I’m a Firefox/SeaMonkey fan, although finding Firefox 3 crashes, shuts down of its own free will or hangs rather too often. Have been trying Avant.
As with probably 99% of people, I didn’t read the blurb, as usual. A bit unlike Google, I must say, such all-embracing ‘gimme’. Pity.
Chrome seems to get a bit shaky with long-term use and there are certain websites it will just not open, delivers an error message (Error 2 (net::ERR_FAILED): Unknown error.)and says the site doesn’t exist or has moved. The same sites open OK in all other browsers. A bug, bound to be at least a few in a beta, though.
Iron out the bugs, change the EULA – migrate in a flash. Until then, love the browser but not yet practical to change, have to put up with Firefox crashes.