For the past couple of months Google have been heavily marketing their new web browser Google Chrome. I can’t speak for the rest of the world but here in the UK I’ve seen it on the cover of the Metro, on huge billboards around Edinburgh and on posters in my gym… just naming a few. The question, “Is it any good?”.
Yes…
Well I suppose I should actually give you some reasons! I’ve been using Chrome on and off for a long time now, I can’t put a month on it but certainly well before it came out of beta. I’ve also used all other major browsers throughout that period including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari. One of the cons of being a web designer is you spend a lot of time hopping in and out of browsers to check things are working. Not everyone’s heard of Chrome so I thought I was in a good position to weigh up its pros and cons.
Once you’ve got it installed (a very quick download and set-up which allows you to import the data and bookmarks from you’re old browser) the first thing that everyone notices is that this baby’s quick, not just fat man to the last beer in the fridge quick, Usain Bolt kind of quick. On a four year old laptop it’s almost as fast to load as it is to restore a normal browser from the task bar. It’s impossible to put into words, it just feels like you’ve bought a new computer when comparing how long every other browser takes to do anything, especially Internet Explorer.
The interface is extremely clean and minimalistic without losing any functionality that other browsers have, all whilst managing to look pretty (at least on Vista and Win 7, it’s not as fantastic on other systems without aero ). For instance the address bar and search box have been merged into one (named the Omnibox…how boring), an idea that makes complete sense. If you write a URL in it, that’s where you go, if not a URL then it’s direct to Google (or which ever search engine you prefer). This makes the UI look less cluttered and more pleasing on the eye whilst still giving you the same options.
The tabs run as separate processes – sounds unexciting and techy, but it’s actually really useful for everyone. As you must have experienced web browsers crash, some more than others, but time to time they’re all fallible. These crashes are usually caused by the website itself, especially the more complicated ones. There’s nothing more annoying than when you’re part way through an article, have 20 other tabs open which you want to refer back to and you’re just replying to an email when the whole browser seizes up. You then have to reload all of the pages, start that email from scratch and make time for some screaming at you computer. Chrome won’t stop the page that causes the crash from throwing its wobbly, but the way it’s set up prevents the other pages from going down with the ship. Not something you should need too often but nice for when it happens.
Another nice addition is application short-cuts, Google will have you believe that cloud computing is the future for the web. Basically all your work files, emails, pictures, videos etc, will be accessed directly in your browser. This is something I don’t completely believe, it will certainly happen with some things, indeed it already has with the likes of email etc, but I don’t think so across the board, something for another article anyway. The point is that they’ve created a way to load web pages from short-cuts on your desktop directly in the browser, but minus the extras such as the address bar etc. This is fantastic for those of us who use Google products like Gmail and GoogleCalender, who quickly want to load it up in a single click. Either that or to have open all the time without the browser related distractions. BE77Y’s written a fantastic article about syncing these services with you phone, check it out here.
I could go on and on, there really is no competition, do try it yourself, its free to do and will take you less than 5 minutes to have up and running (You can download it from theirsite). Beware of one grievance that I have experienced though, for whatever reason my bookmarks bar refuses to stay docked, I have to dock it each time I load Chrome. I’ve yet to meet anyone with this problem though so its not something you should worry about, but if you have experienced it please let me know. I’m starting to feel like I’ve made this bug up!
What are your thoughts on Chrome? Are you a devoted Firefox user or have you only ever used Internet Explorer? Hopefully I’ve at least convinced you to try it out, I promise you won’t be disappointed. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
