Google Chrome Browser Review

This morning Google Inc., released a beta of the new open source Chrome browser. Then, later in the day, they pulled it, and scrubbed all evidence from the search cache. The old address for the browser download gears.google.com/chrome/?hl=en now redirects to Google’s main page.

Looking for a download link, I tried google.com/chrome, and indeed the download was there.

Google Chrome is based on the Webkit engine that was made popular by the Apple Inc.’s Safari. The main download, like all the other Google software is a web installer, and it installs on Windows, I’m sad to say, using the BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) service which it starts if it is not running. The download runs at System privileges, above Administrator. It also seems to set the BITS service recovery to always restart, no doubt for updates.

Google Chrome also starts a Windows job also called chrome.exe for each new tab opened. This allows the contents of each tab to run sandboxed in their own task, thus preventing one tab’s scripts affecting. or crashing the others. While this improves security it doesn’t seem to do nothing for memory usage. Yes, I’m one of those 500 tabs in 5 browsers guys. Nothing would make me happier if browsers dumped the whole page to disk, session and all. Besides, having loads of tasks running reminds me of IE 6 and its many windows. So far I haven’t seen any browser capable of saving a full page to disk and not mangle it.

The Answer is Android!

So why is Google releasing this now? To bash Mozilla’s Firefox, and Microsoft’s IE? Likely. However, a much more likely reason seems to be that Google needs a browser running Gears on the upcoming Android mobile phone. Expect to see all the popular Google web apps running on it shortly. Getting Gears on the desktop is a nice side-effect.

I agree with them the current browsers on the market, and I’m a browser freak, seem to advance painfully slow. The current web standards are equally slow, and the slack has been picked up by the numerous javascript libraries that are currently used to do simple animation. These should belong in the browser engine and be controlled by css. It is sad really that proprietary software such as Flash and the helter-skelter (I watched a Manson movie recently, OK?!) knockoff Silverlight should exist.

Chrome Developer Tools

Chrome’s dev tools are nothing special, compared to Firebug that is, but it has some nice touches. View Source opens in a new tab, and uses an url like this: view-source:http://redivide.cochromiumm/, and it features highlighting. The javascript debugger opens in a new window and I haven’t tested it yet, but it should be sufficient for minor debugging. It cannot be used to edit source or CSS.

Chrome’s Other Features

Google Chrome is a browser that combines superb minimalistic design with cutting edge technology. Its most striking feature is the complete lack of a search box. It lacks the search box,  but it allows you to set your own search engine. Don’t expect though for the time being to add wikipedia or some other site to it. It’s one shot deal. Other features include:

• New Tab page
• Application shortcuts
• Dynamic tabs, tabs run in a separate job task independent of eachother
• Crash control, each tab runs isolated in a sandbox, preventing a rogue site from crashing the whole browser.
• Incognito mode, a.k.a. porn viewing mode.
• Safe browsing, anti-phishing
• Instant bookmarks, history start page
• Importing settings
• Simpler downloads

The new V8 javascript engine seems pretty fast too. Currently Google Chrome is not available for Apple Mac nor Linux, but since the Chromium project is released under the BSD license, it won’t be long.

Google Chrome Screenshots

404

Funny to see a search box on that 404 page. If Apache can’t find a 404 Error document it will display the top one. Chrome offers some suggestions as well.

Porn till it hurts

Chrome also has a private browsing feature called Incognito mode. The browser will not store cookies and history information if Incognito is used. Love the perv in the hat!

Google Chrome Download Links:

Google Chrome Download Link

Early Thumb Drive Portable Chrome

Tags: Apache, Apple, Browser, chrome, Google, review

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