When I first heard that Google was releasing a new browser, I was a little annoyed. I wondered if we really need another web browser. Then I read the comic book style explanation behind the browser’s development. It’s very well written and explains some complicated concepts in a very clear way that I think even a non-techie person could understand. After reading it, I couldn’t wait to download the browser and give it a try. Will I switch from Firefox? Probably not for a while, because I rely heavily on the plugins for web development that are available for Firefox, but there are also a lot of features that I really appreciate.
The installation was easy and it imported all my bookmarks from Firefox without a problem. Some nice feaures of the browser include:
- a great start page that shows thumbnails of your most most visted sites, along with a search box and your most recent bookmarks
- one-click bookmarking
- a single bar for everything – search, address, history
- lots of added security to keep malware from being installed and warn you of phishing sites
- popups will no longer be a problem
- Every tab you’re using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won’t take anything else down- you just close the tab
Sounds cool doesn’t it? What do you think? Do you see this as just one more step in Google taking over the planet? Or, do you think it’s a good step forward in the “evolution” of the web browser?
I follow you on Twitter so saw your entry earlier. I checked out the very long comic book demo. Too long for me but I realize this stuff is very techy and can’t be said in just a few words. I personally do not think Google is trying to take over the planet, they are just keeping up with the times. I use Firefox myself and probably will not change anytime soon but I will definitely check out the new one by Google. Thanks for the review.
I look forward to trying it when there’s a Mac release. Though I must say, being a non-techie person, I was a bit lost at times with the comic book style explanation. Then again, I’m not a comic book guy either.
My favorite part of Chrome (in my hour of experience) is the application function. You can head to the menu in the upper right-hand corner and create an Application – which then places shortcuts wherever you’d like them (I add them to the quick launch toolbar).
I was doing this before with a Mozilla product called Prism – but the Chrome implementation is much smoother and more gorgeous. It works great for email and to-do apps.
Thanks for the article, I didn’t even know google released a browser and I’m on their site a few hundred times a day!
seems to me that it is another way for google to know everything about us!
I was a bit weirded out by this at first. The Google Blogoscoped blog listed features that Firefox already has except the tabs face up… whoopy!
However as my hubby tells me more about it and I gradually make my way through the comic the more I think it’s a good idea. It’s going to be open source (FTW) and they’re trying to make something that just functions better for the way we use the net now, rather than building on something that was built for 1.0.
I too wouldn’t want to lose my develper plugins on FF, but since Chrome is going to be open source and lots of people in Google love FF and some of the addons, I’m sure they’ll come up with something good soon.
I was a bit sceptical about their decision to release for Windows while they still try to make Mac and Linux versions, but apparently so were a lot of Google employees… hopefully being open source it might speed up the production of the other two platform ones.
What do you mean pop-ups won’t be a problem anymore? How does it handle them. Some stupid educational sites require you to use pop-ups, so the way that Camino and Firefox deal with them (blocking them, but asking you about it) is pretty useful.
I never heard about this browser of Google but you have kind of pinched me by updating about a browser which Google has launched. Will have to check this ASAP. Thanks
@Kristarella – the popups are blocked from popping up, but a little bar appears at the bottom appears and tells you about it, and gives you the opportunity to open if you like.
Google is flexing its muscle. I wonder what the people over at Microsoft are thinking!
I haven’t used it yet but now that i read your article I’m more tempted to download and test it. =p
I’ve been using Chrome all day on one of my computers while IE is on the other (they are side by side.) I can honestly say the Chrome seems faster although I do get nervous that BIG BROTHER is taking over the world!
you can immediately see why google has released a browser. they have images, maps, video etc, etc. this is a way that they can re-manage these different areas into a useable interface. still prefer firefox though!
I’ve not had a chance to try it yet, Randa, but have been reading a few reviews with interest. Too many eggs in one basket comes to mind, but if the features are for the better, then great.
I think the new Chrome browser is very nicely implemented.
The more I play with it the more tiny details and nice touched I find.
Things like, dragging tabs about looks so pretty,
using Ctrl+f to find something gives good user feedback in the scroll bar on the right as well as under the search window itself.
being able to resize text areas to comment, although I dont think is very useful.. is also a nice touch.
I think once plugins start getting built and I can get firebug and other development apps integrated it may move me away from firefox.
I don’t think its too far away
(also, I haven’t seen any problems with websites not rendering correctly either)
The chorome is cool. You are right, it will take sometime to replace the firefox, as of habit plus plugins available for chrome. At the moment i even could not install google toolbar.
The news channels reporting it as a threat to MS IE. And the only way is to change the way people think of browsing, beautifully described in “comic book style explanation”.
I can’t belive that this passed me by.
I love your graphics by the way, I will share it with my friends, and get back soon
I tried it today and really liked it – so quick! But of course I missed my plugins and the memory usage was really large on my system. I wondered if that had something to do with the “each tab for itself” concept. I’m not techie enough to know. But it really slowed things down for me on my limited-resource work machine so in the end I went back to FireFox.
But I did add Privoxy to get rid of ads, it worked great.
I tried Chrome today. Its okay, but I agree with you, it isn’t worth switching from Firefox. It has a nice interface and works well, but it isn’t that different from Firefox. Google search, Gmail, Calendar, each of these products was revolutionary. Chrome is just another browser. Its getting a lot of press today because everything Google does gets a lot of press, but Chrome is not worth all of the attention its getting. I’ll be uninstalling it.
I am using it now, there is no way I can get rid of my army swiss army knife for the internet (FF). I am not really a fan of Chrome where is all my options? I mean I can not even spell check this text box! Thanks for the post.
Try to remember that Chrome is a just released, open source project. Firefox didn’t have spell check when it first came out and it took community involvement to provide us with all the addons that we have now.
I think that sometime in the not-too-distant future, Chrome will be quite a rival to Firefox because it’s a whole new way of browsing that will handle memory, loading and problems much better.
In a way it’s a shame that Chrome’s main rival is Firefox because Mozilla has done great things. Hopefully Chrome will help put the pressure on companies that are still forcing people to use IE6 to update, in some way or another.
Great post, I am not sure if I like it yet, although I do find it ironic that their own toolbar is not compatible yet.
Hi just download this browser seem gud but google toolbar not work with that.
Google Chrome is a good free and open source web browser developed by Google. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or “chrome”, of web browsers.
I thought Google would come out with something nice in order to take on IE, FF etc. I tested it right after it became available for download and in the end, I was NOT impressed, its too plain. Even though its “beta” I still think Google has a long way to go in order to get a share of the browser market.
[...] I was checking out my performancing advert on Randa Clays’ post about Trying out Google Chrome and I thought I’d give it a go [...]
Hey dont forget the best bit about Google chrome, the ability to see the source code of a page easily with the JavaScript console, very usefull for the web developer. In addition this is the first browser that to me truly feels “web 2.0″ if you see what I mean.
Thanks for this, very informative. I really like Google chrome but the one thing that has put me off is the lack of the Google toolbar. How could they have released their own browser without support for their own Toolbar!
Google chrome on beta testing so this is not full google devloper add many feature in chrome in final release.
Oh I hope so, Kris!! I work at one of those IE6 companies! They say IE7 doesn’t play nice with other custom programs we use and crashes our computers… hmph.
@Randa, I know that FF has one of those start page that shows thumbnails plugins because my husband uses it. I’m not sure what it’s called though, and I don’t know if it shows the most visited sites or if it’s something you set up manually.
Its not showing up full title of the web page. Is that means people hardly notice titles landed to a web site? Though it has tabs, but Firefox and now IE also has tabs?
I haven’t tried Google chrome yet. And I am bit reluctant to do so. Since I am not to fond of how Google harvests information.
I liked it pretty well when I tried it out, just for the simplicity. Thanks for the review
well i personally think we should forget chrome for a while, they need atleast 365days to compete with firefox at the moment anything is better than chrome. first they tried to acquire firefox they rejected they made their own browser. the second thing which is -ve chrome is based on the same platform as safari and safari had too much security holes in it so chrome do and they need time to fix them. development on firefox plugins and tweaks i can see firefox is not in danger second many many many people will keep recommending firefox even after chrome will be famous reason behind this is the love for firefox
I think the launch of Google Chrome is positive. The more competition there is in the web browser market the better. Companies are going to want to continuously develop their products in order to attract a large market share. This will have immense benefits for users.
Thanks for the post.
Google chrome is a decent browser for just a beta, and although it isn’t up to par with the other more prominant browsers, it has a long way to go. However, at the moment it really isn’t all that great.
Speaking of which here is a review of google chrome with firefox 3.
Google Chrome vs Firefox 3
Disregard the last link in my comment, the correct link to the google chrome vs firefox 3 article is.
Google Chrome vs Firefox 3
I’m liking the apparent simplicity of the user interface, not unlike the winning design of the google search engine itself. But I quickly found myself missing all the bells and whistles I have installed as Add-ons in my Firefox installation so I very quickly reverted. A big thumbs up to the simple user interface from me…
Chrome has become my new favorite browser. Very fast!
There’s definitely room for another browser in my opinion. IE7 keeps crashing for me, Firefox and Opera are the 2 i use most, with Opera being the slight favourite.
I’m a fan of Google tbh – Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics have helped me no end, and the fact the Chrome is open source makes it an attractive proposition – going to install it later!
Yes well, us Mac folks will have to wait a bit before we get to try Chrome. I too use FF for its website development assistance but if (when, probably) Chrome takes off, and because it’s open source, I believe there’ll be all the plug-ins we need.
I don’t think people will be easily swayed. Google have a huge amount of influence but people take a long time to change from what they know!
I think MAC users will appreciate Chrome. It’s built from WebKit which Safari is also built off of. So lots of it under the hood will be similar. As for Safari for Windows, Chrome definitely beats it on the Windows platform in raw speed and features, IMHO. I’m curious how MAC users will respond to it.
Next, I am looking forward to seeing Google releasing their own Operating System. For how long will they continue relying on other people’s Operating Systems?
Hi Randa,
The first date of Google Chrome released I feel as yours. I thought it could be a good step forward in the “evolution” of the web browser. But since then I have heard many complaint regarding spyware. And I just notice today is no more recommend link on Google page. I guess, Google currently doing their improvement. I am waiting to see it again. Although I love FireFox most and never think to leave them but I still would like to give Google browser a try if they will release it again.
I have been comfortable using firefox. When the Crome was released I was a bit unsure about it. Until I read your post on Crome especially on the spam benefit
Thanks.
I believe Chrome is a nice addition to the browser market. The important thing is to have real choice in picking your browser – and getting a popular, standards compliant browser is important to enforce sites to follow standards.
The day all sites follow (open) standards, we’ll have true choice in the browser market.
My story is very similar, I read the news and browsed to google looking for it. I downloaded and installed it, but to my surprise, there was no surprise.
Chrome is a basic unfinished browser which doesn’t allow you to install toolbars, crashes often and on top of that came with vulnerabilities.
I unistalled it and will be waiting for a better version.
Interesting and useful article. I did not even know that Google released a browser although I use their web site hundred times a day. But don’t you think the new browser is another way for Google to know everything about us?
Interesting, but why does google wants to create a web browser, there shud be something they can gain from this. Anyway gusy who havent tried chrome, i suggest you gusy download, its very cool.
Firefox is good and so is Chrome. Like you, I’m sticking with FF for now because of the plugins. There’s nothing wrong with Chrome, but the same thing can be said about Firefox.