When Google first announced the release of it’s new “Chrome” browser the geek that lives inside me stood up and started banging on the inside of my skull with a large sledge hammer until I started to pay attention and the first thing I thought was that I just had to test this thing out. I loved the idea that Google would actually come out with their own browser—it was bound to shake things up and so far, it seems to have done just that.
Article after article began showing just hours after the initial announcement. It wasn’t even available for download yet and it was a couple of hours before anyone even found a single screenshot of the actual browser itself. So I’ve decided to leave out all the stuff from this post that’s already been published in hundred or so sites already and concentrate on my own experience with Chrome so far. If you want to do some boning up on all the info that’s gone before just search for the term “Google Chrome” or “Chrome browser”—use Google search to do this. 
So yes, I downloaded it and yes, I’m testing it but I waited until I was able to read not only those many articles I mentioned above but the comments as well and I can assure everyone that the preconceived notions and conspiracy theories are flying left and right in good style. To assuage some of your fears though I recommend you read two recent posts by Matt Cutts and though Matt does work for Google he’s one of the members of the team that works on Google’s search engine, not a member of the Chrome team and he had reservations as well until he found the answers to his many questions.
His first post; Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome, covers the bugaboo of the wording of section 11 of the usual EULA that is provided with Chrome (as like other applications) that initially stated that basically Google owns everything you may publish while using the Chrome browser. This turned out to be a mistake.
You see, Google uses the same basic EULA statement for all their applications and services and modifies various sections of the EULA for each individual application or service as needed and in this case modifying the wording of section 11 fell through the cracks before the beta was released…oops.
Matt’s second post; Answers to common Google Chrome objections, covers many of the initial objections, misconceptions, preconceptions and just plain "tin foil hat" paranoia that’s been brought up since the initial announcement. I’ve verified that these conspiracy/”there’s got to be a catch”/”Google’s mining everything you do in Chrome” pronouncements as pretty much plain bunk and I’m satisfied that Chrome is actually (gasp!) safe to use or at least as safe as any major browser is these days and no, Google isn’t mining your usage unless you checked that little checkbox upon install that states "Send usage statistics to Google etc, etc…" then of course they are. You said they could.
So here’s some of what I’ve encountered while using this new browser, listed in no particular order. This post isn’t meant to be all inclusive since there hasn’t been near enough time to test every little thing but enough to form a fair initial impression.
The Install and did it import everything that was needed?
The install itself was about as painless as an install could be and used the standard Google Installer/Updater that now services any of the current Google applications available. The built in settings importer popped it’s head up during installation and, after I gave it my permission, promptly imported all my settings and bookmarks from Firefox 3.0.1 without a hitch. Obviously Chrome imports the settings of your default browser and since for me that means Firefox then that’s where the import came from. In fact it did such a good job about it that I was actually impressed and that’s saying a lot. It even included some of the links that I personally added to the Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar (but not the default Mozilla related links that comes with every Firefox browser). These links were imported into it’s own version of the Bookmarks toolbar called the "Bookmarks bar".
However, there’s a bit of a learning curve to it.
If your expecting to just go in and start using it right off the bat you’re in for a bit of frustration–this baby’s different but not too different. For one thing there’s no menu bar available so you won’t find your handy dandy "Bookmarks" menu up at the top under the title bar. The actual bookmarks menu is actually accessible through the "Bookmarks bar" (Ctrl+B) or by invoking a new tab by clicking the (+) sign at the right of the current tab.
And there’s no "Home" button on the navigation bar by default either. It has to be added via the Options dialog found by clicking on the "wrench" at the top right of the "Navigation bar" and choosing "Options". The check box to add the Home button is found under the "Basics" tab. Google set out to make Chrome’s interface as minimal as possible and this is basically all you get as far as the basic UI is concerned. But what the interface lacks in features is offset by the power of the browser itself. Once you learn your way around the browser (takes about 10 minutes or less) you’ll be off and surfing without a problem.
And all the plugins were there also plus ActiveX with one glaring exception
So what about the plugins that are needed by any modern day browser? What about Flash, Shockwave, Adobe Reader, things like that? This was something else that made me smile about the initial installation. I found every single plugin I had installed in Firefox present in Chrome’s plugin list (type: "about:plugins" in the Omnibox) including the Office 2007 plugin, Windows Foundation Presentation, Silverlight 2.0 and even the the default Mozilla plugin that comes with any Firefox install. One extra plugin that’s included is an "ActiveX" plugin which is a shim to support ActiveX controls and I’m assuming this plugin came with Chrome by default. This “shim” doesn’t seem to support all sites that use ActiveX controls since I couldn’t get into the "Windows Update" site so I’m also assuming this plugin is more along the lines of the ActiveX plugin for Firefox. Since my Firefox browser doesn’t show this plugin as part of it’s installed plugin base, I’d have to say my first assumption is correct.
So where was the heck was Java?
Chrome requires Java 6 update 10 Release Candidate.
I knew I had the latest version of Java installed on my PC (currently Java Platform SE 6 Update 7) but the plugin portion of that runtime environment was not showing up in the list of Chrome plugins so what was up with that? After researching Chrome’s online documentation (via Chrome’s "Help") I found out that Chrome actually requires Update 10 of Java 6 which is still in development and currently at the Release Candidate stage. I had tested Update 10 previously as a beta release and so was comfortable using RC version. Once installed, everything was fine and dandy, no problems seen with this RC to date in either Chrome or Firefox 3.
So is it fast or what?
Yah, it’s fast…very fast and bouncing Chrome against the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark tests shows this with an average score of 4146.0 ms overall (see chart below for comparison). This currently makes it even faster than the current nightly builds of Firefox 3.1 which actually scores better on SunSpider than the current Firefox 3.0.1 release. This test in itself says something about the Chrome’s performance and considering that this is the very first beta release, that’s a lot.
My own daily use of the browser showed me that Google’s on the right track in Chrome’s development as far as performance goes. This little baby is fast indeed even in it’s current unfinished form.
Can you delete your browsing data?
Yup, as easy as you can clear it in Firefox and in a surprisingly similar way as well. This function is accessed via the “Wrench” button menu as seen below:
And it gives you this:
Look somewhat familiar?
The drop down menu you see near the bottom the gives you options of clearing data for the last day, week, month or “everything”. An interesting way of deciding not only what to delete but how much as well.
And “inline find” works just dandy but spell checking is somewhat broke.
Both these well known Firefox features are present in Chrome however the inline find field comes down from the upper top left of the browser instead of bottom up as in Firefox. Chrome also includes “check as you type” spell checking but I found that in the case of comment boxes/fields that although misspelled words will be underlined, occasionally the right click menu will stop offering any suggestions and this seems due to some funky problems associated with right clicking within these commenting fields in that the cursor “focus” is lost. Looking at this more closely I saw that when right clicking within a comment box, an entirely different section of text and/or blank space will be arbitrarily highlighted for no particular reason. This obviously throws the focus off the word your attempting to find a spelling suggestion for.
And for those used to being able to right click on any field in an online form and checking “Spell check this field” in Firefox will find that little menu item missing from Chrome’s equivalent right click menu. But hey, it’s a beta remember? Not everything is going to be there or work properly the first time out.
Now comes the “Omnibox”. The “all-in-one” address bar.
First we had the so called Awesome Bar that came with Firefox 3.0 then the Smart Bar that comes with IE 8.0 and now, with the advent of Google’s Chrome, we have the Omnibox. Sounds like an establishment I once went to in Port Everglades, Florida during my time in the Navy and there was this one chi… but I digress.
Unlike the Awesome bar or the Smart bar which offers suggestions gleaned from the user’s browsing history, bookmarks/favorites and tags in the case of Firefox, the Omnibox takes the current well known combination of the online search box and the standard address bar that folks are used to seeing these days and rolls both fields into one. The resulting “auto suggestions” resulting from what you type into this Omnibox come from a combination of both the your history, bookmarks and your default online search engine as well. This new feature is bound to receive praise and flame in equal numbers I’m sure. Does it work well? Yes, it does, or at least it does once you get used to the way the results are displayed.
Can I pick and chose my default search engine?
Absolutely. And much the same way as one would in Firefox. The easiest way to do this is by right clicking inside the Omnibox and choosing “Edit search engines” from the menu. The only difference here is that there’s no link to a search engine page as Firefox has. Whatever you choose as the default search engine is immediately available.
Does Chrome do extensions?
Nope, not yet. But I’m sure it’s in the works for future versions and since Google currently has a contract with Mozilla that was recently renewed to 2011, they could do worse than develop an extension framework for Chrome that would be fully compatible with the already well established Firefox add-ons site and all those wonderful extensions (like AdBlock Plus for starters). I applaud Google for not attempting to add on the ability to add extensions right off the bat. Get the bugs out of the basic browser first before you allow the user to add in a load of extensions that are bound to drive the browser out of it’s mind.
Quick note on passwords:
Passwords are set to be saved by default but will ask the user first before actually saving the password in a way that’s almost identical to Firefox. A narrow alert box (strip?) drops down from the top of the browsing window asking if you wish to save this password; Yes, No and “Never for this site”. A nice touch even though Google probably got this from Firefox.
And memory use?
Ah yes, everybody’s favorite harp…memory use. Chrome in fact can use quite a lot memory depending on the number of tabs open and the type of content in each of those sites but in all reality Chrome does not use an exorbitant amount of memory either. The thing that Chrome really has going for it that the other browsers currently do not have is the ability to reclaim all of the memory that was used for any given tab or the browser itself, once tab or the entire browser is closed. I’ve tested this myself using SysInternal’s "Process Explorer" and I have to say is Google’s claim in this is true enough. Whatever the browser/tab takes in memory while running, it gives (all of it) back when closed. You can refer to the informational "comic" about how and why Chrome is able to do this.
But Google took all the great features of other browsers…
And my response to that is, so what? How many ways can you rebuild a browser? Of course they did, I would expect them to and glad they did at that. Why would I want to learn an entirely different (shall we say “non-standard”?) way of doing things when Google can use the current features and functions we’re all used to. There’s no crime in doing that. And with Chrome it looks like the browser incorporates only the “best of” features found in the other “big three” plus a few of their own design as well. The end result is a browser that includes all the basic and not so basic functions that a user of IE, Firefox and Opera would expect to find. Ease of use and familiarity is everything nowadays especially when it comes to browsers so why attempt to once more reinvent the wheel?
But where’s the bookmarks manager?
Every pre-release build of any software will always have those unfinished features and Chrome is no exception. A decent bookmarks manager ala Firefox isn’t present and I actually had to refer to the online help about this before I found out if there was any bookmarks manager whatsoever besides the Firefox-like star located on the right hand side of the Omnibox. And I’ll refer readers to that particular help doc as well rather than try to explain it here. Suffice it to say “starring” (bookmarking) a site is very similar to how you would do this using Firefox but managing your bookmarks is, unfortunately, more akin to IE’s way of doing things.
Okay, enough…Final thoughts (so far).
So far I’ve enjoyed using Google’s Chrome Browser barring all the ads I’m now forced to put up with once again while doing any testing. I especially like the "sandboxing” and loading of the browser into it’s own virtual machine and Google’s two years of testing prior to this release definitely shows–Chrome is one sweet runner and I’m really going to enjoy putting it through the paces. Google’s definitely on to something here with their minimalist approach in the form of user interface backed up by an extremely powerful back end with a unique implementation.
Considering that one of Google’s favorite things to do is to push the market in whatever areas it deems necessary, Chrome might well fall into just this category; a way to push the browser market into finally looking towards the future instead on the just the needs of the present and backwards compatibility. And if Chrome’s implementation proves out to be a good thing then nothing says Mozilla, MS and Opera can’t borrow back from Chrome as well. Either way, it looks like Chrome is here to stay for the time being and in the short time since it’s release, it sure seems to have shaken things up.
Well I figured you would be testing this
I only became aware of it last week when I was at CNET. Of course I’ll wait till it’s out of beta before I try it. Unfortunately FF is still giving me problems and I use IE 95% of the time. Keep us posted!
Hi Elaine,
Of course I’m testing this.
How could I possibly resist? In fact I’m typing my reply to you using Chrome. And yeah, I definitely advise waiting until the final version comes out or at least another beta version before trying it. It’s already been updated once to address security and stability issues but there’s still more to be done.
I’m still not sure why Firefox is giving you problems. It’s not Vista, I checked that out and Firefox runs fine on a Vista machine I worked on. It’s got me stumped.