Google’s New Chrome Browser Is Great
Yesterday Google announced the launch of a new browser to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox, and today they released it. It’s called Chrome, and I’ve been using it all day.
I’ve got to say that I’m pretty impressed. I’ve been a dedicated Firefox user for years now, but Chrome has a few advantages over FF that I think a lot of people are going to appreciate.
First, everything seems to load faster in Chrome. Reading the FAQ’s and forums at Google this is apparently due to some more efficient way of loading javascript, but the explanations go over my head. All I know is that it works.
Second, Chrome’s memory footprint on my laptop is about half of what Firefox’s is. I opened both browsers and loaded the same three pages in different tabs in each (this blog, Gmail and Amazon) and Chrome’s memory usage was about half of what Firefox runs at. Which is nice for me. I use cheap, Wal-Mart laptops because I’m a cheap, Wal-Mart kind of guy. Having a browser that allows me to keep a ton of tabs open without hogging all of my system resources is nice.
Third, Chrome’s tabs are independent of one another. Meaning that if the page you’ve loaded in one tab crashes all your other tabs are fine. Again, for a guy that has dozens of tabs open in his browser all the time (many with blog posts and emails in various stages of completion) that’s handy.
Fourth, Chrome has an “incognito” function that is pretty much what it sounds like. When you open an “incognito” window or tab your browsing is entirely secure. No stored history. No stored cookies. Nothing. I’ll leave it to your imaginations as to what that feature is supposed to be used for.
I’m not uninstalling Firefox from my system just yet, but after a day of using Chrome I think I’m going to stick with it until I find something that makes me not want to any more. Which might not be ever the way things are looking right now.
Doesn’t look like a few of the sites I use regularly are set to work with Chrome… (not that it’s chrome’s fault).
Trend MLS (www.trendmls.com) is basically hard coded to only work with Explorer 6 or higher. It won’t let you log in with any other browser..
Google’s Chrome is aimed at Windows, not IE
This is no longer about browser but about the an entire marketplace spread between desktop, mobile and web. With Chrome, Google’s taking a shot at Windows, not paltry Internet Explorer
I’ve covered this in more detail on my blog
http://sachendra.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/googles-chrome-is-aimed-at-windows-not-ie/
When you talk of the memory footprint, are you using FF2 or FF3? I have yet to install FF3 because only about half of the add-ons I use are compatible with it, but I have heard that it’s supposed to be less of a memory hog than FF2.
well at least I learned how to open things up in a new tab without holding down the Control key now.
I have to agree man. Its one of Google’s best ideas besides…well google!
It’s easily the fastest out right now.
“We are so, so happy with Google Chrome,” mumbled Mozilla CEO John Lilly through gritted teeth. “That most of our income is from Google has no bearing on me making this statement.” http://notnews.today.com/?p=57
Only thing I don’t like about it so far is I always use that little scroll-wheel in the center of my mouse to click on links so that they automatically open in a new tab when I’m using FF3. I can’t figure out if there is a way to get that to work in Chrome.
I always read through blogs like SA and open tabs on any story I’m interested in and then go back and read them later one by one…
Only thing I don’t like about it so far is I always use that little scroll-wheel in the center of my mouse to click on links so that they automatically open in a new tab when I’m using FF3. I can’t figure out if there is a way to get that to work in Chrome.
I always read through blogs like SA and open tabs on any story I’m interested in and then go back and read them later one by one…
Only thing I don’t like about it so far is I always use that little scroll-wheel in the center of my mouse to click on links so that they automatically open in a new tab when I’m using FF3. I can’t figure out if there is a way to get that to work in Chrome.
I always read through blogs like SA and open tabs on any story I’m interested in and then go back and read them later one by one…
Only thing I don’t like about it so far is I always use that little scroll-wheel in the center of my mouse to click on links so that they automatically open in a new tab when I’m using FF3. I can’t figure out if there is a way to get that to work in Chrome.
I always read through blogs like SA and open tabs on any story I’m interested in and then go back and read them later one by one…
There is a setting you can click to have it auto open a new tab.. don’tch yannow
i have been using the forefox since long coz it provided me with better options than IE. but with the launch of google chrome time has come that i switch into this one.. I am really happy about the memory usage since i am using a low memory RAM. Great work!!
Oh shoot… I’ve been trying to post that comment and keep getting some error message, I didn’t realize the comment was actually getting through, sorry….
Dang!
That must be due to the left-leaning code that’s written into chrome.
Maybe this site has been marked as subversive to the left?
http://www.chromeboard.net/
I can’t wait to see the add-ins. This is the closest thing I’ve found so far, http://www.chromeaddins.com
Why can’t I get Java to work on it?
Why can’t I get Java to work on it?
Here’s a comparison with Firefox: http://blog.gadodia.net/google-chrome-vs-mozilla-firefox/
Error
Unable to load the following extension file:
ext.email_confirm.php
That’s the error message btw…