Google Chrome Review
I’ve been using the Google Chrome web browser for half an hour now, and I already feel right at home. Downloading and installing Google Chrome was quick and painless - a welcome contrast to the chaos and downloading hassles accompanying the launch of Mozilla’s Firefox 3.0 browser in July.
Within just a couple of minutes, Google Chrome had hoovered up hundreds of Firefox bookmarks, saved passwords and my recent browsing history. This gives a pretty seamless transition to Google Chrome - with the exception of my RSS feeds, which weren’t imported automatically and aren’t supported in this 0.2 Beta version of Chrome.
First impressions
Chrome is smooth, well refined (as of limited usage I have done) and manages the migration process flawlessly by importing every bit of important data from IE or Firefox. The innovative placement of tab bar, lack of title bar (that’s right, no title bar for Chrome), omnibar (that is what Google calls Chrome’s search-cum-address bar) are all a fresh breath of life in an otherwise plain browser. Did I tell you Chrome follows Firefox shortcuts (mostly)?
Currently, there are no extension capabilities to rival those offered by Firefox, and that is one reason why Firefox users will not hurry to Chrome full time. Notice that I say “full-time”, because Chrome makes a very compelling case as a casual browser - lack of extensions notwithstanding.
If Google’s promises of fast Javascript rendering, security, extensions etc. is delivered, Opera, Firefox and several other browsers could have one very interesting competitor to deal with. None of the other browsers have the backing of a company as large as Google (Microsoft and Apple do not count, as one suffers from lack of quality and the other suffers from lack of quantity). Whether Chrome and Firefox would coexist in Google’s future plans also has to be seen.
API support is coming, says Google. APIs will enable developers to write extensions, though the effectiveness of future extensions will have to be seen to be believed. We do have the example of Opera widgets failing completely, now don’t we?
After running through a quick import checklist, Chrome opens on your desktop–and right away you begin to experience the Web in a new way. Chrome’s layout is very simple: You’ll see a row of tabs running along the top, a Web address bar, and a bookmarks bar that runs beneath the address bar. A separate recent bookmarks box appears at the right of the screen, as does a history search field.
Like its Google stablemates, Chrome has a remarkably minimalist interface. There is no full-scale menu bar and no title bar–and few distractions. All controls are buried beneath two icons to the right of the Omnibar (as Google refers to its address bar): a page icon for managing tabs and using Google Gears to create application-like shortcuts from your desktop to a Web site; and a wrench for history, downloads, and other browser options.
You can set your own home page, or you can use the ‘most visited’ sites page as your starting point. This page provides thumbnail images of your most frequently visited sites, shows recent bookmarks, and supplies a search field for searching your page history. You can change your default search engine, too: This option is located beneath the wrench icon, under Options .
Chrome’s design bridges the gap between desktop and so-called “cloud computing.” At the touch of a button, Chrome lets you make a desktop, Start menu, or QuickLaunch shortcut to any Web page or Web application, blurring the line between what’s online and what’s inside your PC. For example, I created a desktop shortcut for Google Maps. When you create a shortcut for a Web application, Chrome strips away all of the toolbars and tabs from the window, leaving you with something that feels much more like a desktop application than like a Web application or page. The lack of forward and back buttons means that if you browse between pages in a saved Web application you may find yourself a little confused if you want to go back a page. Chrome does let you right-click to navigate backward, however.
This is Google!
This being Google, search is an integral part of Chrome; and Google has added some clever features to make searching easier. Chrome goes beyond its Microsoft and Mozilla competition by searching your browser history’s page titles as well page content. The history results show the title of the page, as well as a thumbnail representation of the page (for some sites but not all; it was unclear why some sites were visually represented while others were not), but it doesn’t show the actual Web page address. The lack of URL information can make it difficult to identify the specific Web page you’re going to, especially if the site’s title bar description is not specific (because, say, different sections of the same site have identical title bar descriptors).
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