Latest Chromium Screenshots

Chromium is the open source project behind the Google Chrome project. For a couple months now you have been able to download nightly builds of the native mac version which is awesome for fans of the windows app. While these are early builds of the browser they show great maturity and stability, even though most of the preference options don't actually work. Many of the main features work including tab dragging (including to new windows) and incognito mode. It's far from complete and suitable for real world use but it's definitely on the way so we should be seeing a Google Chrome beta for Mac soon. 

I love this browser, the fact that the dock icon doesn't even bounce is great indication of the performance during startup and that address bar, just brilliant! When using my current browser Camino, 90% of the time I open a new tab to search so with Chromium I don't have to tab to the search field, I just begin typing. The interface is just stunning, which is not easy on a mac. It's very hard for designers to create interfaces that use different kinds of controls and make it look like it belongs in leopard but  reckon they have succeeded with this one. This is something the ugliest browser on the planet could really spend time doing. Check out the screen shot of how the leopard chrome works with the browser interface. 

Something that could be interesting? Maybe the feature by the same name in Safari 4 is actually a webkit project?

So go check out the latest nightly builds and test, if you find an issue or the browser crashes, make sure you can repeat the steps and submit a bug report. Check out the screenshot of the full app below.

First Chrome for Mac screenshots

Mike Pinkerton (former Mozilla) has been working with Google on the mac version of the worlds quickest browser, Chrome. He has released screenshots of the first web page loaded by the app, indicating that they have the multi-process system working. This is something I'm really looking forward to as Chrome is my default windows browser, it will be real nice to use it on my main platform, Mac OS X. 

Here is a screenshot of what a 'crashed' tab looks like, I love the little icon,

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.

Google Chrome first impressions (basic)

So I just downloaded Google Chrome for vista, the 500+kb file from google is just the installer so just like Visual Studio it runs and then downloads the rest of the files, I hate this as I normally download files on my other computer. If your network performance is not top notch (which mine isn't all the time) these little apps tend to fail more often then say a browser like Firefox. With that out of the way once the setup is finished it imports your bookmarks and recents from other browsers installed on your system which worked perfectly. First impression of the interface, "very clean", you just have your tabs accross the top (the coolest idea I have seen for a long time), back & forward buttons, refresh button, add to bookmarks button, address/search field (in one), the go/stop button and then the options. The bookmarks bar can be attached to the bottom of the controls or it appears when you open a new tab which is a nice touch. By the way I'm writing this post from Chrome :). When you hit go the default favicon turns into a light blue 3-quarter circle that spins slowly why 'waiting' for the server to respond, once it's connected and starts loading circle turns bright blue and spins faster, a nice little touch. The information bar (below) only appears when the browser is doing something or you hover the curser over a link on a page, it will show where that link goes. 

If it's getting in the way of you reading something, move the curser towards it and once close enough it will 'push' it down out of the way, genious. I have to get back to school but I will be using Chrome all day and I will post more detailed impressions. So far its real nice :). I can't wait till they release the Mac version, the win version I'm using right now is 0.2.149.27 build 1583.