The browser wars heat up: Google Chrome

Invictus ChiKen · Post by **Invictus ChiKen** » 2008-09-02 08:54pm

Trying it now so far so good. It locked up when I first got it and didn't import any of my bookmarks I've also noticed the text wrapping issue kind of annoying but it is moving like greased lightening for me.

Max · Post by **Max** » 2008-09-02 10:15pm

Invictus ChiKen wrote:Trying it now so far so good. It locked up when I first got it and didn't import any of my bookmarks I've also noticed the text wrapping issue kind of annoying but it is moving like greased lightening for me.

It imported mine. I really like it so far.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-09-02 10:30pm

Destructionator XIII wrote:"Chrome" is often used, especially with browsers, to refer to the visible user interface. It is a meaningless shiny layer on top of something else.

UI chrome is not meaningless. It is important.

A meaningless shiny (barely even that, wow, bad looking UI in the screenshots) layer on top of more of the same. Something any competent programmer could whip up in about one day by himself; it isn't hard to stick a new minimal user interface on an existing engine.

How is it bad looking? It looks pretty clean to me. And it's functional, easy to use (the tabs look like tabs, which would be useful for new users). And not hard to place a competently-designed - if minimalistic - UI on a program? Please. Look at all the terribly designed UIs across all operating systems.

From the feature list, there is nothing to see with this. Nothing new, very little that's even interesting.

Wrapping together a bunch of disparate features into one browser isn't something to see? Yes, it brings together a lot of ideas other browsers have come up with - plus a new security model. You make it sound like its a bad thing.

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2008-09-03 12:07am

Destructionator XIII wrote:From the feature list, there is nothing to see with this. Nothing new, very little that's even interesting.

Benchmarks so far are showing Chrome as having the fastest JavaScript engine around. It seems Chrome compiles the JavaScript into machine code. I'd consider that interesting.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2008-09-03 12:11am

I'm trying it out right now.
It's Absurdly fast, a lot faster than Firefox for me. (I can actually feel the bandwidth connection now

).
I love the minimalistic UI (It's what I switch between browsers for the most - the "lack" of anything else in full screen or windowed mode), although this has some work to do. (The windows bar is Very annoying).

The bookmark bar, well, I can't find it (the pre-existing library) to be honest, although I don't need it so far.
The word based location autocomplete is nice, as in firefox, but needs tweaking to present the no.1 favourite under the location bar automatically, without my needing to click on it.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-09-03 12:24am

Fixed the java problem. It appears it uses the latest beta as opposed to the standard versions. I do find the fact that it's less than perfect when typing messages into a message board irritating though.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-09-03 12:26am

Mad wrote:Benchmarks so far are showing Chrome as having the fastest JavaScript engine around. It seems Chrome compiles the JavaScript into machine code. I'd consider that interesting.

It is interesting, but both Apple and the Mozilla folks are doing that too.

JointStrikeFighter · Post by **JointStrikeFighter** » 2008-09-03 02:53am

Needs Firefox style search bar.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-09-03 03:07am

JointStrikeFighter wrote:Needs Firefox style search bar.

It's intentionally integrated into the address bar, though it does seem like it could use some work.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2008-09-03 03:18am

It looks somehow like a slightly slimmer IE7, even though I find that blue they use a bit annoying.
Speedwise, it's ok, but not that it's that much different given the speeds I work with here in the office. And I don't like the amount of memory each of the chrome tasks hog...
I miss mouse gestures, something I now do automatically. Until Chrome can, I think I'll stick with Opera as my main browser...

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2008-09-03 03:33am

I can't seem to type on this forum all that well. Either there's some spell guessing mechanism going on, or it is fouling up elsewhere.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-03 03:33am

It'll install and run under Wine if you use the offline installer, but it won't fetchpages. The UI looks... interesting. I like how the classic File/Tools/etc menus are collapsed into an icon, makes it very clean.

I'm not too sure about the surfer lingo. "Whoa" and "oh snap!" are not the sort of error message that inspire great confidence in users - it's cute, but it might turn some people off. The "under the hood" button for advanced settings though, that's a great idea.

I'll see if I can try it under Windows later.

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2008-09-03 04:19am

Er.. I'm lost. How do you add a bookmark without having to type the whole damn URL?

Temjin · Post by **Temjin** » 2008-09-03 04:28am

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:Er.. I'm lost. How do you add a bookmark without having to type the whole damn URL?

Just press the star that's to the left of the address bar.

Meh. It shows promise, but I won't be using it until they add autoscroll. It's a small feature, but one I've gotten so used to that it's hard to do without. I'll stick to Firefox for now.

And hey. Just found out something else. When writing up a paragraph in the posting field, if you go to the middle to try to add something, it acts funny. It writes over the paragraph, and doesn't update to what it should be until you stop writing for a while. As if it takes a little while to update the display.

Battlehymn Republic · Post by **Battlehymn Republic** » 2008-09-03 04:29am

It hasn't been crashing every half hour like Firefox 3 has been on my computer. Good for Google.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-03 04:30am

Battlehymn Republic wrote:It hasn't been crashing every half hour like Firefox 3 has been on my computer. Good for Google.

If your browser crashes every thirty minutes, there's something wrong with your plugins and/or extensions.

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2008-09-03 04:34am

Temjin wrote:And hey. Just found out something else. When writing up a paragraph in the posting field, if you go to the middle to try to add something, it acts funny. It writes over the paragraph, and doesn't update to what it should be until you stop writing for a while. As if it takes a little while to update the display.

It's happening to me as well. Can't seem to type properly.

Battlehymn Republic · Post by **Battlehymn Republic** » 2008-09-03 04:48am

Bounty wrote:
Battlehymn Republic wrote:It hasn't been crashing every half hour like Firefox 3 has been on my computer. Good for Google.
If your browser crashes every thirty minutes, there's something wrong with your plugins and/or extensions.

Don't really have any extensions. Must be plugins then.

Hey cool, a new browser war to go along with a new Cold War. I love 2008!

Google is a Microsoft wolf in the skin of Apple. Nice.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2008-09-03 05:08am

Testing, testing, yeah, I see what you mean. When you select text and hit delete it doesn't clear it.

It's definitely quicker then firefox. Seems to have one or two problems with flash when you switch tabs.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2008-09-03 11:30am

Echoing most everyone else, the damn thing is fast.
Plus l love being able to resize the reply text boxes.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-09-03 11:33am

I think it monkeyed around with my Flash installation since I suddenly found myself reverted to Flash 9 from Flash 10 RC.

Isil`Zha · Post by **Isil`Zha** » 2008-09-03 11:54am

Destructionator XIII wrote:I haven't used it yet, but from everything I've read, it looks like Google picked the perfect name for it.

"Chrome" is often used, especially with browsers, to refer to the visible user interface. It is a meaningless shiny layer on top of something else. A meaningless shiny (barely even that, wow, bad looking UI in the screenshots) layer on top of more of the same. Something any competent programmer could whip up in about one day by himself; it isn't hard to stick a new minimal user interface on an existing engine.

Umm.. it's a new engine.

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2008-09-03 12:42pm

Glocksman wrote:Echoing most everyone else, the damn thing is fast.
Plus l love being able to resize the reply text boxes.

Yeah, I noticed that one late last night while actually talking about the things I've been noticing about Chrome on another forum. Put it into the post.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-09-03 12:54pm

Something curious I caught last night. At least some webpages couldn't be rendered properly with Chrome, but the error message was "your version of Safari isn't recognized." Any idea why Chrome would be identifying itself as Safari?

Faqa · Post by **Faqa** » 2008-09-03 02:49pm

Hmmm. No Opera-import support. This makes me sad.

On the other hand, the UI is very cute, and I like the minimalism(and it has a few nice shinies, like the textbox-resize).

Can't feel much of a speed difference, but I haven't tested it properly yet.