Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Google Chrome

Ok so i have been using Google Chrome all day and it's only now as I write this do I realize that the inactive tabs become transparent, that is if you have aero enabled and the window isn't maximised, another nice touch. Something pretty sweet is the downloads, which when started a bar appears at the bottom with the currently downloading files with options to perform actions on each. Hit the 'X' to hide the bar or Ctrl + J to show the downloads page which shows a common design with the history page and by page I mean they open in their own tabs, no more floating windows! :) All in one design is king though it does take skill to nail and nailed it they have. You can search and remove history/download items and another nice little touch is the download meter, demonstrated below:

Typing about: in the address bar reveals detailed browser details, about:memory opens the detailed task manager (which can view memory used by other browsers) and about:plugins details all of the installed plug ins. Found anymore 'about:' options let me know. Because the browser is powered by Apple's WebKit, most multi-line text fields are resizable which can make filling out some forms easier. My schools online arena is all javascript powered on oh-my-god I thought my connection turned into a super high speed version as everything loaded and responded quickly. Firefox 3 made this experience nicer but the new Javascript engine is off the hook :), maybe the new javascript engine coming in 3.1 just might be the open source V8 which powers Chrome.  There are a couple little issues with Channel 8 but they were also current when using safari so it may be becuase of webKit. If you attempt to access a secure site with unverified certificates or if google thinks it may be hacked, you will receive a bright red page with a warning message with details about the site and the 'https://' of the address gets a red strike through it. You can then 'Proceed Anyway' or 'Back to safety', much like Firefox 3. 

It's refreshing to see a product (especially on windows) that has paid so much attention to the interface and user experience, taking care of all of the little things which all work together to provide a brilliant browsing experience. I take my hat off to the chrome team, keep up the great work and can't wait to see what version 1.0 brings! Chrome has taken place as my default browser in Vista as it will also be in OS X when it's released. I'll keep you posted on my experience with this new browser including a comparison between it and the mac version.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

let me have a look a this chomy thingy. :D

Anonymous said...

It's pretty sweet, t's now my default browser in Windows :)

Just head to google.com (not iGoogle) and there is a link to it on the front page. If you can't download it at school I can post an album of screenshots for ya?

The interface is pretty slick with all the little details taken care of, and its only version 0.2.....

Hows life man?

Nina said...

Hi Alex. Read your review of Chrome.... I like it, even if it did crash twice on me this evening, but that could easily be due to my ISP switching off (it does that even though it is wifi) and my laptop is not really what you would call high end... But still Chrome is really nice and clean looking - even for a mere non tekkie user like me! Keep it up.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Nina, you actually read my blog lol

Chrome is very nice, I have yet to crash it though 14 tabs open almost grinds it to a stop as there is no memory left :) For a version 0.2 application it has a high level of polish but I literally can't wait for the mac version.

Thankyou for your comment :)

Anonymous said...

hey man, i'm good :).Thanks for the heads up. what do you think of intercontinental text messaging (i'm raly online lately):)

Anonymous said...

Yeah it sucks that you are not on much but where I live I don't have reception but whenever I head to town I'll text ya. We have pretty crazy timezone differences but if you email me your number with the required extensions for international calling we can give it a shot.