To preface this review I want to do a quick rundown :
Google Chrome sort of came out of nowhere in the last week when they (Google) accidentally released a little promo a little early. It was released (in beta) today to the world and will surely get torn apart over the next couple of days to see what is going on behind the scenes but my review is a broader review covering my first interaction with it.
Google : As you know the leader in search but also massively expanding in online apps with an online office-like suite of products, gmail, maps and all those other products you are used to. However, I have said before on this site I think google gears is where the future is going to take the web. Integration with google gears allows a site to work both online and offline, to work alot more like a standalone desktop solution which negates the main negatives of an internet solution by removing the NEED for internet connectivity.
Ok, to the browser. It is open source and based off other open-source materials, namely some of Mozilla’s codebase. The wonderful thing about this for the internet community is that Google has to give code back to the community just as it takes it, spawning more inventiveness and collaboration. Also its using a proven technology, the beta has so far been stable for me.
I love google products, I really do and I use most of their suite in my daily life. However their design aestethics, the minimalistic, blue, gmail-like scheme sometimes rides on me. I have a couple plugins to mess with that cause its a little annoying, child-like in my opinion. So I was worried when I saw the first screenshots of Chrome. However, it is pulled off nicely. I wouldn’t say it is as crisp as Firefox’s theme which I have really gotten used to, but it goes in a different direction with smaller icons, less menus, and focusing on a few things well instead of trying to incorporate everything.
The main thing you are going to notice at first is the tabs are above your address bar. Instead of the file, options menu that you would normally see, its a string of tabs running the top of your window. At first this sounded stupid to me because I use those tabs all the time, why put them farther away? i have seen no difference in my browsing since moving them, it didn’t even take time to get used to. Problem one bypassed.
The other thing you see is there is no google search bar in the top right. What? How does that work? You would think google would do everything in their power to integrate search in here. Well, they do, the address bar is now an ‘everything-bar’ allowing you to type a url , a search term or whatever else floats your boat. Unlike Internet Explorer’s annoying attempt at something like this, this works. Plus, it rides on Firefox 3’s new address bar tech of searching for whatever term you are typing throughout urls, titles etc… so you get good results when you use it.
The UI is your basic UI, nothing special , the basic buttons you are used to, and that makes the switch simple. The FF3 back / forward button while intuitive sometimes throws off new users just because it looks different. This will be an easy switch for everybody.
My only complaint so far is that I right click to open in a new tab quite often and it seems the open in new tab / open in new window / open in incognito window are right on top of eachother. I have 2 or 3 windows open right now because I clicked the wrong one.
May just take time getting used to that set-up.
Quick rundown of other things I like : history / downloads organization (looks like a webpage as opposed to sidebar etc…) , imported all FF data with no problems, developer console added in by default , its SUPER FAST, should have commented on this above but it seems to be flying. Most importantly, I’m not missing anything yet. It seems to have cut away the fat which runs the risk of leaving me short on something I use since I am outside the realm of a normal internet user, but I’m not missing anything yet.
I’m not going to talk alot about the real programming changes becasue I am not versed as well in that area but do want to hit upon a couple experience changes.
1) Incognito mode - Turns off the saving of any date (urls, cache, ip addresses etc) to your computer while you browse, also limits cookie interaction and only uses ones necessary to continue browsing, which it deletes when you leave this mode. This can be accomplished via FF add-ons, and I don’t really use it on my personal computer, but some people find this useful.
2) Gears integration - Of course google integrated Gears into this release. It will make running online apps that much easier and you won’t have to install any add ons anymore. Along with this they made linking to apps via desktop icons very easy, so you can just load up gmail via a shortcut made by Chrome. This has always been possible but if Google pushes it then more people may get used to it, and it will again push their online services.
3) Tab Manager - I don’t know too much about how the tabs work in Chrome. Apparently they run completely seperate from each other with their own processes, memory etc… which should result in better performance. Google also has a nice tab view / history view when you load up a new blank tab or as a start page.
– Note there are also other coding advances such as better javascript for increased speed and functionality and other things I will not get into in this post.
I have not been able to test interaction with every website out there such as netflix but since the codebase is familiar with FF I assume its going to be similar in what I can and can’t do online. (Remember most things you can’t do aren’t a result of the browser not being able to it but is a byass against those browsers…. Netflix and IE integration is stupid.)
Result. I am loving Chrome right now. Its slick, the fastest browser on my desktop, it surprised me with how good it looks, all the changes seem to be for the better, and it makes browsing both easier and more attractive. Way to go Google you really have hit a very good shot with this beta. I know your version of beta is practically a stable release so I don’t expect many changes and we might have just gotten another valid competitor in the field of browser wars .