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Google Chrome First Impression: Is It What You Expected?
Maybe I need to use it for more than a couple of hours. Maybe the blogosphere hype machine pushed my expectations to the point of being unrealistic. Sure, Chrome looks nice. It does render some pages a hair faster than Firefox - for example, Google Docs, reader, and GMail. I'm sure that's just a coincidence.
Still, I've already got a great web browser (Firefox) with some great addons that I use heavily. Some of the sites I use every day (including Blogsmith, our blogging platform) I'm not about to switch to Chrome just because it's shiny and new (no pun intended).
Maybe the point to all this is that Chrome isn't supposed to be for people that like Firefox. I can see average Internet Explorer user liking it just fine: the interface is clean and straightforward, and it's great at what it does do. Google's got massive brand power, and that may be enough to finally make some inroads with the people using IE "because it's there."
Me, I'm sticking with Firefox for now. We'll see what the competitors can muster for their final releases.
What do you think of Chrome so far? Is it good enough to make you switch? Let's see some comments.
Comments
95
Subscribe to commentsredaceSep 3rd 2008 8:33AM
The fact that most people are talking about switching on its first debut is a testament on how well it works. If google can, and IMHO they will tap into the power of the community and either start their own addons or utilize mozilla's addons , this will truly be a serious competitor. In all of this , i think the worse one to suffer might be safari on the windows platform since the main thing going for safari is speed and google chrome is already there.
asurrocaSep 3rd 2008 8:41AM
After one day playing around with Chrome, I'm already testing it out in a production environment and it's running circles around FF3. FF3 is a pig when it comes to AJAX apps, especially Wordpress, which is my company's blogging platform. Chrome handles Wordpress' interface without any lag, compared to FF3's horrendous lag (click something, and Firefox hangs for a few seconds, click something else, Firefox hangs for a few more seconds, etc.)
Visually: Chrome looks beautiful on Vista; I like that it takes advantage of Aero's transparency effects to that the tabs appear to be floating on glass. UI has a lot of Apple-esque flair, and yet, it's speedy and not a RAM hog.
It looks like Google took the best of what Firefox, Opera, Safari, and IE have to offer (that UI is heavily indebted to IE7/8, folks) and trashed all the problems each of the aforementioned browsers have (e.g. awful Javascript engines). We'll see how FF 3.1's JS engine stacks up against V8, but V8 has officially raised the bar....
RyanSep 3rd 2008 9:55AM
There is no google bookmark support in chrome? But it's google!?
KaiSep 4th 2008 1:07PM
Yeah... I was thinking that there would be integration with Google Bookmarks, Google Web History... maybe something to copy your browser config to Google's servers, etc.
skooalSep 3rd 2008 4:57PM
Well, I am sticking to Flock for now, I know that it is only a beta, but it is surely not a revolution...
JCSep 3rd 2008 12:01PM
Still getting used to its simplicity of operation. Overall I like it and what impresses me most is that it is - woosh - very fast!
Love, Light and Peace
JC
nicholasshanksSep 3rd 2008 1:09PM
Been using Chrome for 24 hours now. Unlike what some people who only used it for three minutes have said, there is a home button, but it's turned off by default. I think Chrome will certainly help the internet as it will increase the Webkit market-share on Windows, forcing web designers to make more standards-compatible websites. The UI fits well with Vista, and I like the minimalist design. I get an extra 30 pixels in height when compared to Firefox 3. The web inspector needs some clean-up, as it has inherited some of the Safari colour scheme which doesn't fit. Other than that, I have no complaints.
JeremySep 3rd 2008 1:09PM
i realized something today while using chrome.... the internet has ads.... oh how i miss you adblock plus
JBSep 3rd 2008 5:17PM
Ye gods mate, you're allowed more than one browser!
RahabibSep 3rd 2008 6:04PM
Unless they allow customization of the UI, addons, and be the first to pass the Acid3 test, there isn't a need to switch.
altSep 3rd 2008 10:44PM
1. no adblock which makes browsing annoying
2. wow. i see i can resize this textbox in chrome
3. no fullscreen mode (F11)
4. this easy-going interface makes me search for every feature that should be there
5. tabs dont slide like in fox which makes using over 10 tabs a window annoying
6. there are some GREAT features like plugin sandboxing, TAB search engine enabling or incoginto, and the browser is fast. but it lags sometimes when scrolling, something not seen in fox.
WE'LL SEE
ComiSep 3rd 2008 10:44PM
Awesome browser but seeing ad's after sooo long was a shock ! If chrome had an adblock addon, id probably be making this post from chrome rather than firefox.
Now that firefox is bad either, however i didnt like many of the changes in v3. Plus i used to think firefox was fast... ofc that was only untill i tested chrome.
shrikanthSep 4th 2008 7:45AM
can some one plz tell me is it possible to download you tube videos or any other videos from online while using chrome?
kaanSep 4th 2008 7:45AM
No print preview !!! Or am I missing something ???
JoelSep 4th 2008 1:07PM
Didn't work out for me. I kept getting an error everytime I started it up. I check the errors meaning and my memory is fine.