Google has released its own web browser named "Chrome". Google claims their new browser combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. Though its only out for Windows XP/Vista users , Linux and Mac folks will have to wait a little longer.Well, lets take a look and see what its all about shall we, I first had Chrome Beta installed so the first video I have is based on that, the second video further below is with the final release from Dec 11, 2008 showing some benchmarks I did recently...
As seen in my video walk through the installation was quick. It did ask to import my Firefox bookmarks which It didn't allow initially since I had Firefox running at the same time.
My impression on its performance and speed
Opening the browser was quick, then again I had no bookmarks and hadn't used it yet. However as I visited more and more pages the initial response to opening them was always faster than what I am used to in any other web browser. In other words there was little lag overall. Every tab you're using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won't take anything else down. You also have the ability to end the process and kill off individual items such as a flash video player using a built in google task manager.
My impression on GUI (Graphic User Interface)
The interface is indeed streamlined. Keeping with the minimalistic view and menu options I scrambled to find all the options and icons that I was used to seeing in IE and Firefox. One thing for sure the default theme is the only theme, you cant change it. To access your bookmarks you need to go to the far right and click "Other bookmarks" which is different.
The browser buttons given are BACK, FORWARD, RELOAD and BOOKMARK. I whent into the options to add the HOME icon and that was it. If your wanting a STOP, HISTORY or PRINT button they arent there. You will have to access the History using the alternative methods such as CTRL+H and print a web page using CTRL+P. I did like the default open full screen look that gave me more viewing area.
Along the top the familiar tabs are of fixed width and can be easily added or removed, dragged and dropped. These dynamic tabs allow you to gather multiple tabs into one window or arrange your tabs however you wish. When you open a new tab it shows your most visited websites, recently visited bookmarks, and recently-closed tabs and full history. One thing I didnt find along the top was the search box like in Firefox. Instead the URL field is used as the search, keeping with minimizing options and clutter.
My impression on features
For web developers I was delighted to see that in the view the page source option Google shows it in multiple colors with line numbers and if you use the "inspect element" it displays the code used on a page in great detail.
Like "InPrivate" browsing, a feature in IE8 beta 2, Chrome's "Incognito" browsing feature allows you to surf the Web without leaving any history behind. This feature is also referred to as the "porn mode" for browsing by teens.
The download bar doesn't indicate progress, it just shows a megabyte number.
DOWNLOAD Google's Chrome browser from here