Google's New Browser: Chrome

Google has just introduced a new browser called Chrome. It can downloaded from this web page: Google ChromeSeems to work fine so far. I've been using Internet Explorer and have not switched to Firefox or Opera or Safari because they didn't seem to offer any advantages, but Chrome seems to offer the best JavaScript debugging environment I've found so far, so I'm switching to it for a while to see how it goes. It turns out I have a window of opportunity to do some code development, so I'll test drive Chrome at the same time.Like Firefox, Chrome has a built in spell checker, but the right-click menu does not have an "Add to dictionary" selection, and a list of possible correct spellings isn't always included.Also like Firefox, Chrome supports ctrl-delete (forward delete word) in text boxes, a feature IE lacks.Chrome does not support drag-n-drop of text in text boxes at this time.One thing I really really like that is different from both IE and Firefox is the ctrl-arrow key behavior. In IE and Firefox the ctrl-left-arrow and ctrl-right-arrow keys always position the cursor at the beginning of words, but in Chrome ctrl-right-arrow instead positions the cursor at the end of words, just like Emacs, which is what I'm used to. Oddly enough, Chrome's ctrl-up-arrow and ctrl-down-arrow do nothing.For me Chrome's text box behavior is a net plus, but it obviously still needs work.Chrome has some features that are unique at this time, and you may or may not find them useful. The start-up page lists images of websites you have frequently visited, just click on them. Downloads appear easier. I tried it with video, it works fine.Chrome's tabs appear to work roughly the same as both IE and Firefox, but there must be something different about them because I like them better and am actually using them instead of opening new browser windows. You can drag-n-drop links to tabs.Again like Firefox, Chrome does not render text as clearly as IE.--Percy

There is an important technical difference with Chrome's tabs - they're seperate processes; that makes them both more secure and has memory advantages.I rather like Chrome; but it still feels unfinished. I expect it to replace FF3 as my browser of choice in a couple of releases time.

Agreed, definitely feels unfinished.Forgot to mention, though. With Chrome you can drag and drop the lower right hand corner of text boxes to grow and shrink them as necessary. Pretty neat!Also, just discovered that the right-click menu of the vertical scroll bar on the right hand side does not include "top", "bottom" and "scroll here" selections like IE does. Firefox doesn't have these either.Also, neither sound nor video is working now in my installation of Chrome. Don't know why they stopped working.Also, the options menu is exceptionally sparse.Also, about the links at the top and to the left of the "Other bookmarks" icon, some seem to be from Google and some seem to be from my IE favorites list, don't know how it selected which ones. The "Dictionary" link does nothing, but the "Free AOL..." link works fine. Figures.--Percy

I tried it on a VM with winXP, it ran like shit.
Really, really slow. Took more than a minute to load politiken.dk (a danish newspaper). It's a flash heavy site, but still.Both firefox and IE7 loads politiken in less than half that, on the same VM.Browsers are just too heavy these days. Its not just the content of websites that has become too heavy with flash and so forth, its the browsers too. Filled with badly written unnecessary functions, just makes the footprint so much bigger.Abaco is the way to go, unfortunately, Abaco cant do a lot of things. I cant even post here on EvC with abaco, so i have to vnc a linux box and use firefox..

I downloaded it and am trying it out. It wont let me into dreamcatcher chat since it says I lack the plug-in. I have not tried your chat yet.

Just a few hours ago, i installed Windows XP on a laptop because i have to do some C#, i installed Chrome, just to try to run it on a native XP install.I must admit, it runs great! Loads sites faster than firefox 3.01 and IE7. I cant figure out why it ran so slow on my VM compared to FF and IE, it runs so fast on a native install. When google release Chrome for linux, i will consider changing from FF.Edited by rbp, : sp errors correctedEdited by rbp, : No reason given.

trying it now will give account as to how well it works later after I have used it for awhile

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There is no better love between 2 people than mutual respect for each other WT Young, 2002Who gave anyone the authority to call me an authority on anything. WT Young, 1969

Seems very plain... I don't like their features very much. Reminds of Gmail.

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“Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito"

Be wary of Chrome: It's got the same security vulnerabilities that Safari has......that were fixed a while ago in Safari.Remember: Google is in perpetual beta.

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Rrhain

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Thank you for your submission to Science. Your paper was reviewed by a jury of seventh graders so that they could look for balance and to allow them to make up their own minds. We are sorry to say that they found your paper "bogus," specifically describing the section on the laboratory work "boring." We regret that we will be unable to publish your work at this time.

For those who dont know why Chrome and Safari shares alot of bugs, they both use the rendering engine WebKit.Chrome does seem to lack alot of security features right now, but then again, it does seem like an early product.