I tried Google’s new browser, ‘Chrome’, this week.

It seemed to be very fast and has some interesting features.

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I normally use a Linux system: as of today Chrome is not available for Linux, but it will be some time soon. I am trying it on a Windows machine just because I’m curious.

What is the Chrome Browser?

I won’t use much space here for a full description of Chrome and what it is aiming to do.
You can read all about that at Google, in comic book format
That’s a detailed description, 38 pages.

The short version: main points:

These days web users access a lot of web applications rather than static web pages, so it would be good to have a browser optimized for that kind of usage.

Some of the things Chrome developers want to achieve:

(Pop-up pages will be confined to the tab they originated from.)

Processes run with restricted rights - they cannot just read and write anywhere on your hard drive. Also Chrome will know a blacklist of bad websites so it can warn about potential threats.

In this mode Chrome does not record any of your browsing history or keep the cookies

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People seem to have a lot of questions and opinions about this.
For example:
What exactly Google is planning by way of a business strategy, and future applications?
Why do they really want to develop a browser?
Should Google even be getting into browsers?
How much control of the web does Google want?
Will there be another browser war?

Well, I can’t answer those questions. What I have here are some notes and impressions about what it was like for an ordinary user to download, install, and give Chrome a quick trial.

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Downloading and Installing Chrome

First,just a niggle: I didn’t like the look of the terms and conditions: there was something about keeping Google up-to-date with my personal details. But it’s not really any different from many other license agreements. Also there was a suggestion that I might want to print the terms and conditions for later reference.
Does anybody actually do that?

When I continued to download and install Chrome it did not ask for my details anyway. I suppose that would come if or when I actually want to “access services” that they mentioned.

The installer offered to import bookmarks, passwords (!!) and other settings from Firefox.
No Thanks.
I do not like keeping passwords in any browser’s password utility.

Here’s why: Page about password security at ComputerSecure.net.

So, in summary:
Installation: Fast and easy. Pretty much a one-click download, one-click installation.
Start-up of Chrome browser: Fast.

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Configuration Options

Let’s check the options.

Options in the ‘Under the Hood’ department.

• A place for a proxy setting.
• Option for DNS pre-fetching for fast browsing.
• Phishing and Malware protection.
• SSL settings.
• Cookie Settings.
• Something about “Gears”.

I did not know much about Gears. When I went to gears.google.com, using Chrome, the page told me that Gears is installed.

In case you don’t know either, here is a quick note about Gears is (description from Google):

“Gears works with a select group of sites that are specifically designed for compatibility. When you visit a site that’s configured to work with Gears, you should see a message stating “The website below wants to use Gears.” If you’d like to allow the use of Gears on this site, simply check the box next to “I trust this site. Allow it to use Gears.” and click the Allow button.”

“Gears was designed to be used on both Google and non-Google sites. A number of web applications currently make use of Gears, including two Google products: Google Reader and Google Docs.”

I won’t explain it more here: check it out at gears.google.com.

The Browser

There is no Title Bar. In my book that’s a good thing. Top marks for not wasting vertical screen space. Even what little there is can be hidden so you can have more space for the work you are doing without irrelevant browser toolbars.

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There is no status bar. Well, there is an information bar while a page is being loaded. But then it goes away. It comes back when you hover over a link.
Personally, I find it slightly disconcerting to have no status bar (I mean, one that is always visible).

I could not see how to bookmark a page. I had to go and look that up. (Click on the star icon by the address bar.) But having confirmed that, it’s very easy and handy to use.

Chrome Process Manager.

Chrome has its own process manager. You can identify and shut down a problem site/page/tab/script - e.g. a CPU hogging page, memory hog, hanging script or other web page bugs.

Chrome browser’s process manager.

The idea is that each tab in the browser uses a separate process. So although one buggy page might freeze up it does not mean that the entire browser will crash or need to be shut down.

This is a great idea as far as I’m concerned. I await the Linux version of Chrome because on Linux, with Firefox, Flash frequently causes trouble. Then the browser has to be stopped. This interrupts work-flow if the user had a number of pages open.

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New Tabs

When I open a new tab or new window I want it to be BLANK. I hate it if it has something in it already.

But Chrome has something else: a new tab is full of links to recently visited or bookmarked pages.

Opera has something like this, which it calls ‘Speed Dial’. Personally, I hate it. Ands I objected to the fact that there was no one-click option to turn it off for good.

Chrome’s version of this utility is a bit more fancy. Here is what a new tab looks like after a bit of browsing and bookmarking.

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To me this is not good: a new tab should be an empty page. Here is what a new tab should look like:

A new tab in Firefox.

But Google have thought about this. They mention it in the comic. They say they are well aware that users might find a ‘new tab’ full of information a bit unusual. But they are taking the Green Eggs and Ham approach to this: “Try it! Try it! You will see…”

To me this is like the Apple attitude: we put a lot of thought into this - just try it, you might like it…

And it works for some people.

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Also in the options:

“Notify me when a pop-up is blocked.”
Yes, as long as there is an option to ALLOW pop-ups.
I always allow pop-ups. Otherwise I feel I don’t know what is going on.
I know, I’m just odd like that. Most people would want to block them.

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Tabbed Browsing

Chrome is very much about tabbed browsing: I hate that. I know I’m just odd like that. Most people like it.

But I have been spoiled by Opera’s multiple-document interface.

Opera’s multiple-document interface.
When I first discovered Opera (many years ago) I thought this was just the best thing to ever be offered in a browser.
Of course I was a Windows user then. I suppose if I had been brought up in Nix I would have thought it was silly.

But I still just cannot understand why no other browsers do that MDI thing.

Something tells me it is one of the reasons why people are loyal to Opera.
On the other hand, I might be the only one. I live in fear of the day when it is no longer an option.

Also, just thinking about Opera some more: I absolutely HATE bars and panels. There is only one way I want to see my bookmarks - that’s descending from a menu item, like I have always had them.

Other Thoughts
With Chrome, here is yet another browser in which we need to check our new web pages and worry about cross-browser compatability problems.

But I’m not really expecting any problems with Chrome since it aims to be standards-compliant.

Of course the great majority of visitors to any website are using Windows and Internet Explorer. So there is a limit to how much we should worry about browser compatibility when we make pages. But I can’t help noticing that on my sites there are always visitors arriving with Opera and Safari and even Konqueror.

Browers are Specialists now.

Despite my proclivity to moan about each browser, I will definitely use Chrome when the Linux version is available.

From one perspective, I feel that each of the various browsers I use is trying to bully me - get me to agree that its way of doing things is a good idea that I should like. Operating systems can be like that too.

But from another perspective - it just means that each browser has its own aims and strengths.

I already use three different browsers regularly, for different purposes. That’s Firefox for general use, Opera for reading and Konqueror for the few times when I think it would be handy if the browser and shell/UI/window manager, and OS, were closely related. (You know what I mean? - that’s the thing you don’t get any choice about with Windows/IE.)

As soon as it’s available for Linux I will probably use Chrome to log on to Google Docs, Google Analytics and things like that. The kind of usage it aims to specialize in.
I’ll probably end up using Chrome for my (infrequent) visits to YouTube. Because I know very well that YouTube will eventually cause Firefox to crash on Linux.

Opera, despite its virtues, is not a good browser on Linux if you want to use sites that have a lot of video, audio and Flash.

I haven’t even bothered testing Konqueror on multimedia sites lately - because I know from experience that Firefox + mplayerplugin is the most painless option for that.

And it’s Wrong to Moan about Browsers

I love to moan about software. Especially about operating systems and browsers. But it’s churlish. With the exception of IE, browsers are generally open source and/or free. So if I feel very strongly about something I am free to get the source code and make my own personal version that’s perfect for me.