Google has announced it's new browser, Google Chrome, to be released very soon in beta (of course - does Goggle ever release a 1.0 version of anything?). The announcement is in the form of a long web comic, but is worth a read.
My initial reaction was skeptism combined with a dose of paranoia: Why should I bother trying out yet another browser and how can I be sure Google Chrome isn't phoning home with my every click through a web page?
The paranoia part I'm willing to set aside for a while after reading the comic. It does sound like Google has a product worth a look here. I'm anxious to see how well splitting tabs up into their own processes works, because I'm fed up waiting for Firefox to let me get back to my browsing whenever it's starting a download, for instance. For some reason that always locks up the browser for an unacceptable length of time.
So I'll be downloading Chrome when it's released and trying it out at work. If anyone else does the same, I'd be interested in hearing your reactions.
Update - I downloaded and installed Chrome just before going home last night. Some quick impressions:
- Surprise! It installs in Docs & Settings. Not just the user settings, the whole program. I logged into an admin account to install. Never got asked where I wanted it, etc. When I logged back into my own account it was nowhere to be found, so I went back into the admin acct and saw it was in the admin acct Docs & Settings. The good news here is that anyone can install it without admin permissions. That may also be the bad news. Not sure.
- The only import options were to import from Internet Explorer. So I'm faced with having to figure out a way to get my Firefox bookmarks imported. Haven't tackled that yet, but hopefully it will just be a matter of copying a file from here to there.
- The interface is very clean. It feels too clean right now - like I'm browsing with one hand tied behind my back. But once I figure out where the stuff I need is, it shouldn't be a problem.
- It logged into MT VERY quickly. I'll have to test more to see if that's a fluke, but perhaps some of the MT slowness we've been experiencing was Firefox's fault??
Comments (4)
Paranoia mode is taking over again. Chrome seems very snappy, but after it's open for 10 or 15 minutes my hard drive starts churning and the whole machine slows down, including Chrome. Closing Chrome speeds up the machine and stops the churning immediately. So what is Chrome doing??
Posted by Susan | September 3, 2008 9:00 AM
Posted on September 3, 2008 09:00
Google dropped the "no" out of their old "do no evil" tag I think... Look at us questioning their every move. I think we'll see more of this as they have a greater drive to monetize their investment in information around the world. One big lesson I learned from within the tech bubble of the 90's is when people run around saying something is a can't lose proposition, you're not the one missing something, they are. :) After Google Desktop, I wouldn't install anything from Google unless I was prepared to reformat that computer the next day if needed.
I also didn't install Chrome because it looked like a repeat of when Apple released Safari for Windows. In my opinion, it's for developers and the real target is mobile phones. (Take that opinion with the grain of salt that it's bundled with.) For Safari, it was the iPhone. For Chrome, it's Android-enabled Google phones. Google gets that the desktop world is ossifying. Mobile devices are the new wild west, and they aren't messing around.
Posted by Jason | September 3, 2008 9:25 AM
Posted on September 3, 2008 09:25
Hmmm...
David Pogue gives a strongly favorable review to this browser. I think I will give it a try. Installed on a Windows partition, on my Mac, that I can blow away and reformat in under an hour if I need to. :)
Posted by Jason | September 3, 2008 9:33 AM
Posted on September 3, 2008 09:33
I think Chrome is about more than the mobile web, though that certainly has something to do with it. I think it's very much about web-based applications. The whole interface - taking away bookmarks bar (unless you tell it otherwise), taking away much of the menu, taking away the address bar - seems as if it were designed to make a web-based app look more like a client-based app. I'm not sure why this should matter, but my gut tells me that there are people who will be more inclined to use a web-based app if they can forget that that's what they're actually doing.
Posted by Susan | September 3, 2008 10:52 AM
Posted on September 3, 2008 10:52