Chrome, Google's browser

Quote:

Today there was a comic book in my mail, sent by Google and drawn by no less than Scott McCloud, creator of the classic Understanding Comics. Within the 38 pages, which I’ve scanned and put up, in very readable format Google gives the technical details into a project of theirs: an open source browser called Google Chrome. The book points to www.google.com/chrome, but I can’t see anything live there yet. In a nut-shell, here’s what the comic announces Google Chrome to be:

Bla bla bla

Apparantly the beta appears tomorrow. I'm going to give it a shot.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'll be checking this out and posting a review on my site tomorrow evening.

It's pretty lame that it's Windows-only for now. I think it would have been worth it for Google to hold off and at least add OS X support but can't be helped now. Hopefully they'll roll out an OS X version within the next few weeks (months?).

There's nowhere I can't reach.

My brief use of the browser has me pleased. It's effectively a streamlined skin of Firefox 2 and it looks like it would fit in nicely with Vista, if I used it. So far there's been a couple errors, like with the login page and some images here, but nothing I can't overlook. The Incognito browsing feature is curious, though I'd be happy with a Boss key or something.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I have to say, when I first picked up the browser, I wasn't expecting it to import my bookmarks toolbar from Firefox. Didn't realize other people used that, I figured it would've just imported everything into a bulk bookmarks folder.

I'm enjoying the minimalism of the whole thing, but I'm not enjoying its strange tendency to open itself multiple times when I have multiple tabs open, and for all its minimalism it doesn't really have much less of a memory footprint than Firefox.

Definitely something to keep my eye on, but my biggest question is what, exactly, does this browser do for me that Firefox doesn't already do?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Private browsing is something Safari has had for awhile, and I use it quite often but it's annoying switching between Firefox and Safari just to do some private browsing.

Anyway, running Windows was a bitch and I never want to do it again. Google Chrome, however, made up for that generally unpleasant experience. While some things aren't as powerful as others (Um, can we get an actual bookmark manager?), it is a quirky yet quaint browser with a lot of potential.

I think that if there was an OS X version, a bookmarks manager, the plugin API and a few of my favorite Firefox plugins ported over would seal this deal on at least a temporary switch.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Personally, I liked IE8b2 more.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Wow, you hated Chrome that much?

How ya doing, buddy?

I used it, before giving my actual opinion. I had to get used to it a lot, and it sucked while playing Flash, but otherwise it indeed is fast, useful, and has everything FF has minus a few things (but hey, it's a beta).

Mark my words, this might outrun FireFox.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Chrome shat the bed when I tried to play a flash game on it. It also seems to scroll twice as much as every other program in Windows when I use my mousewheel and doesn't support the mouse wheel click method of scrolling (which I never realized I used as much as I do until I couldn't use it). It did seem pretty fast, but there was also a lack of Undo Close Tab, which I feel is a pretty necessary feature when you've got tabbed browsing.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

Undo Close Tab,

CTRL-SHIFT-T

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I was fully prepared to bash this into oblivion, but I am somehow impressed by the minimalism of it all. Well, it just works.

Chrome feels more like Opera than Firefox, which is a good thing, since the interface of the latter feels slow as shit (although that may be due to the Noia skin, which I'm using). The rendering also looks to be a bit more logical, as things load from top to bottom, all in order.

Really, I'll switch to Chrome if it retains or beats the rendering speed of Opera, while retaining the way that pages look in Firefox. Also, add instant-back and the DownThemAll plug-in (the only fucking reason I even bother Firefox anymore).

How ya doing, buddy?

who want it to download:

http://cache.pack.google.com/chrome/..._installer.exe

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

This is pretty nice so far. Fast and all. I miss the Firefox's adblock though.

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I'm not a connoisseur of web browsers or anything, but I think Chrome is pretty nice. It's got an accessible, simplistic interface and a slick, cool graphic layout. I might try it with more zeal in the coming days; I'm pretty sure I'll be sticking to Mozilla, but this one might grow on me and become a backup/second-hand browser of sorts.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Mo0

Wow, you hated Chrome that much?

No, I just liked IE8 better. They actually showed sign of progress in that, while Chrome is mozilla + opera + safari rolled into one.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by evilboris

No, I just liked IE8 better. They actually showed sign of progress in that, while Chrome is mozilla + opera + safari rolled into one.

This is like saying you'll give an A for effort when the student obviously still hasn't met course expectations.

IE will forever be a broken framework. Don't mark my words on this, but even developers have said it's probably impossible to bring Trident (IE) to the same place Gecko (Firefox) or WebKit (Safari) is without rewriting it from the ground up. A broken framework is a broken framework, and it may show substantial progress compared to any other browser today, but I'm not gonna use it just because the developers are trying. Call me back when it actually works.

Let's put it this way: IE8 scored an 11% on the Acid3 test in beta. Google Chrome scored a 78 or so out of 100, higher than most Firefox builds. Sure, you can like IE8 more, but the better student is obvious. And personally, I'd rather have all of the best rolled up into one than something that's barely making it.

browsers have never been this serious goddamn

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Well, Firefox uses 117mb of ram, while Chrome uses 15mb. That's a huge difference for me.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Chrome has a ways to go before I'll make a permanent switch to it from FF3 but it's an excellent start and since it's beta it has nowhere to go but forward and up. Once it has the plug-in support and community of Firefox and resolves a bunch of its issues it'll be seeing a lot of use.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Quote:

This is like saying you'll give an A for effort when the student obviously still hasn't met course expectations.

More like not being a fan of repackaging the same thing under a different brand. Chrome = Webkit, it even has the same vulnerabilities.

Originally Posted by Ultima

IE will forever be a broken framework. Don't mark my words on this, but even developers have said it's probably impossible to bring Trident (IE) to the same place Gecko (Firefox) or WebKit (Safari) is without rewriting it from the ground up. A broken framework is a broken framework, and it may show substantial progress compared to any other browser today, but I'm not gonna use it just because the developers are trying. Call me back when it actually works.

I'm pretty sure thats just FUD. I don't ever remember reading that it's impossible to get Trident up to speed, and I check the IE developers blog pretty often. And besides, they got Acid2 from dogshit to perfectly working in one release, which tells me that Trident is as far from hopeless as possible.

Look at it this way: the IE team has to catch up with 5 years of webstandards. IE is progressing faster than other browsers, but other browsers have a hell of a headstart. But eventually they will catch up at this speed. As long as Microsoft doesnt pull the carpet from under them, like they did once IE6 won the first browser war.

Furthermore, IE still has nearly 70% usage, and new versions spread hella fast due to windows update - Firefox implementing a new css standard is a nice perk, but IE implementing it means we can start using it in webages the minute the new release is out in the wild.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by evilboris

More like not being a fan of repackaging the same thing under a different brand. Chrome = Webkit, it even has the same vulnerabilities.

The new WebKit spec passes Acid3 100%. I'm sure Chrome will eventually use this spec, as this was after all a beta release. Why fix what ain't broken?

Originally Posted by evilboris

I'm pretty sure thats just FUD. I don't ever remember reading that it's impossible to get Trident up to speed, and I check the IE developers blog pretty often. And besides, they got Acid2 from dogshit to perfectly working in one release, which tells me that Trident is as far from hopeless as possible.

It was before the IE7 release so maybe that's why. It was at least one year ago, more than likely two.

Originally Posted by evilboris

Look at it this way: the IE team has to catch up with 5 years of webstandards. IE is progressing faster than other browsers, but other browsers have a hell of a headstart. But eventually they will catch up at this speed. As long as Microsoft doesnt pull the carpet from under them, like they did once IE6 won the first browser war.

Furthermore, IE still has nearly 70% usage, and new versions spread hella fast due to windows update - Firefox implementing a new css standard is a nice perk, but IE implementing it means we can start using it in webages the minute the new release is out in the wild.

This doesn't fix the fact that IE is broken right now. Furthermore IE has more like 50% usage, split between IE6 and IE7. This doesn't mean IE8 will have complete 50% usage because not everyone will upgrade. There's still a fair amount of people who probably use IE6, and there will be a fair amount of people still using IE7, so the actual usage stats will probably be more around 18% for IE8.

I dunno, I think Chrome has more potential than the flawed IE engine ever will.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Be aware that Chrome is collecting data and sends them to their central server (read: spyware). This includes all URLs that are visited during the browser use.

Read for example: Google-Browser entpuppt sich als Datenspion - pressetext.austria (use a translation service)

Anyone who wants privacy should currently stay away from the browser (or at least use a version where the sourcecode is patched, so the spyware code is disabled).

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by LiquidAcid

Be aware that Chrome is collecting data and sends them to their central server (read: spyware). This includes all URLs that are visited during the browser use.

Read for example: Google-Browser entpuppt sich als Datenspion - pressetext.austria (use a translation service)

Anyone who wants privacy should currently stay away from the browser (or at least use a version where the sourcecode is patched, so the spyware code is disabled).

Isn't that only if you allow it to? Just send it lots of porn.

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Originally Posted by LiquidAcid

Anyone who wants privacy should currently stay away from the browser (or at least use a version where the sourcecode is patched, so the spyware code is disabled).

Luckily they don't learn anything new, since most of your browsing habits are already happily fed through their search engine and text ads every day.

It's like demanding a shower curtain when your bathroom floor is made of glass.

How ya doing, buddy?

What if you just happen to love the intoxicating smell of wet plastic shower curtains?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

@Bigblah: Who tells you that I'm using Google as a search engine?

To comment this a bit more:

Originally Posted by Bigblah

Luckily they don't learn anything new, since most of your browsing habits are already happily fed through their search engine and text ads every day.

1) I'm using a stripped down Seamonkey build, no integrated search feature activated
2) Adblock+ blocks most ads, modified hosts file does the rest
3) Cookie usage is restricted
3) I can fire up a I2P router for additional security/anonymity

I'm well aware that Google is collecting data. But it's IP-based data, maybe cookie supported (see above), so it's rather useless for them if the ISP uses dynamic IPs. Furthermore I can SSH-tunnel through my University server, effectively using this one as a proxy, making it nearly impossible to figure out who of the thousand of students is currently browsing the web.
And yes, I know some guys from the computer labs which run the network, this data is not recorded (currently at least...)

Jam it back in, in the dark.