First Impressions of Google Chrome
Google Chrome was released last week and got as much attention as you would expect it would. A Google browser was inevitable. I'd like to share a few scattered thoughts on Google's browser effort and gain a little feedback from you. I'll let 'em rip:
- Although I knew the day would eventually come, Google's announcement completely caught me off guard. I hadn't heard anything about Chrome until the day before its launch. Google's announcement created a huge boom.
- Their presentation, which you may view here, did a great job of highlighting the browser's features.
- I was shocked to find that Yahoo! (at least in my copy of Chrome) was set as the default search engine. I would think that it would be a no-brainer to set Google as the default.
- Chrome gives new hope to those looking for IE to die. Even people who don't know how to upgrade their IE6 browser use Google -- maybe they'll stumble upon Chrome?
- "Incognito" window? I wish they'd just come out and call it "Porn" window. I mean, seriously.
- The browser is definitely faster than most others. I'll probably use this now instead of Safari (both Webkit-based).
- I pray that their JavaScript engine is stable. I could hear the JS library writers cry when the new browser announcement was made.
- The browser's internal task manager could be JavaScript memory management gold if it lives up to expectation.
- I love the "most visited" starting page. Fast loading and gets me where I frequently go.
- Is it just me, or does the browser seem too simple?
- If Google decides to add compatibility for Firefox's plugins, I'd consider switching for development purposes....
- ...but until then, I'm reliant on my Firefox plugins for programming efficiency.
- What effect will that have on Safari and Opera's market share?
- Do you think Google will ever put ads into the browser itself?
- Is it just me, or did Mozilla/Firefox employees and fanboys get defensive really quickly?
Overall, I think this browser is great for a non-developer. It doesn't have the debug tools developers rely on but those will come eventually.
What are your thoughts? I'm excited to hear them!
Hi David,
Chrome imports stuff from your existing default browser which I presume is FF, do you have Yahoo set as your default browser in FF? If so thats why, google are trying not to force anything on anyone, so if your current browser currently uses one search then Chrome will too. ahhh aint that nice of them!!
Its easy to change though!
@Paul: Yeah, not sure which browser had Yahoo! as the default search, but I’ve already changed it to Google.
Unfortunately it seems Firefox and Safari are paying the marketshare cost from Chrome :(
I call upon all geek sons and daughters to remove IE6 from their parents computers!
@Eric: I prefer the term “Nerd.” ;)
Hey David,
I love Chrome, maybe not as much as I could, ‘cuz of its failures yet. I know it’s only a beta yet, I’m cool and positive about it will be eventually solved. I’ve noticed failures on JS method calls on new.facebook.com for example, already reported (they said we should, or am i wrong?)
I think I read somewhere Chrome was able to include mashups, but so far, I don’t know how! The browser looks and in fact, is really simple, not only on look ‘n feel but on anything related to actions. Missing History menu from Gecko browsers, although it manages that huge browser history if you’re bored enough to check it all, but it’s not as accessible as I’m used to.
Incognito box, at office, only works for those stupid enough fellas around that want to access facebook! (They only have 2 hours to do that so…) They believe Network Admin won’t notice them ever! Think of it as a misconception of the whole idea behind “Incognito” (or Porn mode) they got!
I can definitively that, so far, the worst thing of all is… I can’t still update Chrome! It doesn’t work at all, always error after error… That pissed me some hours ago!
P.S.: Tried to post it from Chrome btw… Gave me an error! Sorry, there was an error. Please enable JavaScript and Cookies in your browser and try again.
Status:
JavaScript is enabled.
PHP detects that cookies appear to be enabled.
Uh, the browser has been out less than a week. Non-developers/web junkies haven’t likely even heard of Chrome yet, let alone downloaded it. How long did Firefox take?
You think this is about building a better browser? Ha!
I’ve read a lot about Chrome on blogs and one thing I haven’t read anyone mention is how much money Google will make (or save) from this browser. Consider all the searches you perform from your built-in browser search widget (i.e. notice the “client” parameter that appears in the Google querystring when searching from that widget… e.g. client=Safari). For every user they pull away from Firefox/Safari/et al. they save money. No payout.
In 2005 Mozilla earned $53 million for those searches.
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3624399
It was estimated Apple and Safari generated about $25 million over the same period.
I’m curious what the current payout per year is by browser.
Is Google helping advance the web and browser standards? Certainly. But somehow I don’t think this has much to do with building the best browser.
@Jeff: Good points, but I do think that Google is trying to put forth a great browser. No one will use a crap browser willingly (remember, IE is a default on Windows) so they have to put together something AT LEAST average.
Certainly. I figured that kind of goes without saying.
Try right-clicking on a page and going to “inspect element” ;).
@Bogdan: I’m looking for a lot more than that.
Google claim their reason for choosing WebKit, and not Gecko which they are actively involved in helping to develop, is for better integration with Android.
I think that by going for WebKit they have aligned themselves with Mozilla by not trying to have the better Gecko browser. This way they can chip away at IE’s market-share while doing least damage to FireFox.
Personally I’m going to come out and predict FireFox will be using Google’s V8 JS engine sooner rather than later.
Oh and I don’t think Chrome is too simple at all. The only ommission I can see (apart from plugins which are on the roadmap) seems to be an easy way to manage/export bookmarks. As it stands you can drag/drop between folders but that’s about it.
In regard to Incognito browsing, what I find funny is Google’s weak attempt to make it seem as if it would have any other valid use than to hide porn surfing. On Google’s help page they describe an example of its use as “For times when you want to browse in stealth mode, for example, to plan surprises like gifts or birthday…” Really, was there seriously such a high demand for hiding “birthday present browsing” that Google felt it was necessary to create this functionality? Give me a break!
@Jillian: Haha! In the demo video, the guy used “looking up my friend’s foot fungus” as his example. I thought the same thing as you!
In regards to incognito mode, if Chrome was installed on a public computer then I would use incognito mode all the time I was on that public computer. There are uses other than surfing porn :)
@Paul: No, there is only porn. ;)
Good point though — a public computer would be a great place to always use this mode.
Good points, David!
I wish this would come true. I am just afraid that “pure” IE users will be still lazy/uninterested/stupid and ignore Chrome. On the other hand it seems as if Firefox and Safari will suffer from this.
Agreed … Same impression I had …
A lot of JS methods call on new.facebook.com aren’t working and that bother me.
if Google was planning to make Chrome extensible , I wish it stay as simple and fast as it is now cause FF extensions eat the resources up.
Developers need more powerful tools. Not only to expect the DOM! we need to modify it, debug JS … etc
@david: so i really wish i had kept a link to an article a read last week. it mentioned that Google actually had no intention of entering the browser market. and that the only reason Google decided to enter (their words not mine) was because of browsers like IE that could not handle their Gmail and Maps web applications so i think the amount of work they put into their JavaScript engine will be tremendous.
as far as security, it is aparently running on an old version of webKit which makes it vulnerable to security issues. http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1843
Overall i think it’s a decent browser. I won’t be using it for secure transactions, but i think in about a year Chrome could be a huge player.