Why I Am Sure I Will Eventually Love Google Chrome
This week (September 2, 2008), Google released Google Chrome. It is a new browser that will compete with Internet Explorer, FireFox and Safari. Here is a quick overview of what I think about Chrome.
- As a website developer, I have to use Chrome to see if websites look and function the same.
- As an internet surfer, I love to use Chrome from the standpoint of its speed and clean interface.
- As a search engine professional, I cannot use Chrome. It is brand new (of this posting) and still lacks some valuable plug-ins and tools. I am sure that many will adapt FireFox’s plugins to adapt with Chrome.
Click Here to Get Google Chrome
Why I already love Chrome.
- Speed: Even with a 5mb broadband connection, the loading speed of webpages is significantly faster than Internet Explorer and FireFox. In fact, it is blazingly fast! I tried to install Safari on two of my PCs, but I cannot get it to run, so I cannot compare the speed with Safari.
- Forms: The boxes on forms are highlighted in a yellow/orange that makes it easy to see where I am at when completing forms.
- Spell Checking: While Chrome highlights misspelled words (unlike IE), it does not give suggestions.
- Tabbing: IE7 and FireFox have great tabbing systems which allow you to open multiple windows. Chrome improves on this and allows you to drag an open tab down to have it as its own stand alone window. This will come in handy when you have to view two different sites at the same time. You don’t have to open Chrome again. Just click and drag a tab.
- Browser Crashing: If your browser crashes, Chrome keeps in memory your last open pages when you restart.
- Hyperlinks: When you hover over a hyperlink, a cool status bar fades in on the bottom of your browser showing you exactly where the link is taking you. This fades in and out when you hover. This is an improvement over FireFox.
- Find: This is also an improvement. The field requires far less mouse movement. The find field shows up in the upper right corner of your screen (not the bottom left as in FireFox). The find feature also shows how many times the query appears on the page and on which particular instance you are on currently. When I search in FireFox, I find myself hitting “next” and not realizing right away that I already found that particular instance.
- Memory Management: Do you notice your browser getting sluggish? Perhaps you have opened a window that requires too many resources. You can simply “right click” over a tab and see the task manager.
- Generous Font Size in URL: I like the larger pixel size in the browser field.
Why it will take me some time to really love Chrome
- Tools and Plugins: As noted above, since Chrome is so new, the currrent tools and plugins I use with FireFox are not available in Chrome.
- Spell Checking: As noted above, does not give the corrections, it only shows misspellings.
- Importing Bookmarks: I imported my bookmarks from FireFox during the installation of Chrome. They did not transfer over
- Multiple Search Engines: IE7 and FireFox have multiple search engines quickly accessible in field on the upper right hand of their browser. Chrome only allows you to set up one search engine at a time.
- NO RSS FEED INDICATOR: Now, come on Google! Get it together! Where is it? How can I tell if a website has a RSS feed? This is probably the most notorious blunder of all.
Below is a video on Google Chrome
