Our Shiny Chrome Future
Wednesday, 3. September 2008, 10:13:01
Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, there’s a new Internet Browser on the block! 
Google Chrome be it’s name and – arrrr – she be a fine, quick browser to boot*. Still in Beta, meaning there’s still a lot of work to do before
it’s suitable to release to the general public, but what’s already there is impressive.
The thing is FAST. Having considered Opera 9.5 the current pinnacle of browser speed (with Firefox 3 nipping very closely at its heels) I was blown away by how much faster and more responsive Chrome feels, particularly on JavaScript-heavy pages; it actually makes Opera look like a sluggish, last-gen product...
Another feature I particularly like is the separate processes-per-tab. No longer do we have to suffer browsers that completely lock-up when just one tab misbehaves! Further, these separate process are ‘sandboxed’: a technical term describing how the browser segregates each progress from the wider OS it’s running on. Malware and other nasty little web-buggers should now have no access to vital systems, now that they are securely confined to their particular browser tab, keeping you safer online.
There’s a 30-page comic presentation that goes into depth about the design process and new features which isn’t as dull as you might think. Having read it, I find myself greatly excited by Chrome for already managing to find several key improvements in a crowded and fiercely contested browser market. Ok, lots of what it does has been ‘taken’ from Opera (inspired, homaged or ripped-off, depending on how generous you feel) - the Speed-dial, the tabs above the address bar, the ‘Omnibar’ search functionality – but in all cases they’ve made small but genuine improvements.
Google Chrome, Yesterday
I have a great feeling about this piece of software, this beautiful hodge-podge mongrel of ideas and tech drawn from Opera, Firefox and Safari. It’s Open Source, too, meaning that once the source code has been released into the wild anyone can integrate their favourite features/extensions/plugins/themes...which should manage the neat trick of keeping nearly everyone happy. Not only that, but any feature that Chrome has can be freely adopted by any of its competitors.
Thus with one dramatic and seemingly effortless gesture, Google manages to re-energise the so-called 'browser war', and shows us a little bit of the future, too. I’ll be keeping a very close eye on this one from now on...
[UPDATE] One thing Chrome doesn't do very well is render this blog! I'm missing my funky custom header image! CSS problems, perhaps?
- - -
*No, there was no reason for the pirate-speak there, that's just the way it sounded in my head as I was writing it.
Google Chrome be it’s name and – arrrr – she be a fine, quick browser to boot*. Still in Beta, meaning there’s still a lot of work to do before
it’s suitable to release to the general public, but what’s already there is impressive.The thing is FAST. Having considered Opera 9.5 the current pinnacle of browser speed (with Firefox 3 nipping very closely at its heels) I was blown away by how much faster and more responsive Chrome feels, particularly on JavaScript-heavy pages; it actually makes Opera look like a sluggish, last-gen product...
Another feature I particularly like is the separate processes-per-tab. No longer do we have to suffer browsers that completely lock-up when just one tab misbehaves! Further, these separate process are ‘sandboxed’: a technical term describing how the browser segregates each progress from the wider OS it’s running on. Malware and other nasty little web-buggers should now have no access to vital systems, now that they are securely confined to their particular browser tab, keeping you safer online.
There’s a 30-page comic presentation that goes into depth about the design process and new features which isn’t as dull as you might think. Having read it, I find myself greatly excited by Chrome for already managing to find several key improvements in a crowded and fiercely contested browser market. Ok, lots of what it does has been ‘taken’ from Opera (inspired, homaged or ripped-off, depending on how generous you feel) - the Speed-dial, the tabs above the address bar, the ‘Omnibar’ search functionality – but in all cases they’ve made small but genuine improvements.
Google Chrome, Yesterday
I have a great feeling about this piece of software, this beautiful hodge-podge mongrel of ideas and tech drawn from Opera, Firefox and Safari. It’s Open Source, too, meaning that once the source code has been released into the wild anyone can integrate their favourite features/extensions/plugins/themes...which should manage the neat trick of keeping nearly everyone happy. Not only that, but any feature that Chrome has can be freely adopted by any of its competitors.
Thus with one dramatic and seemingly effortless gesture, Google manages to re-energise the so-called 'browser war', and shows us a little bit of the future, too. I’ll be keeping a very close eye on this one from now on...
[UPDATE] One thing Chrome doesn't do very well is render this blog! I'm missing my funky custom header image! CSS problems, perhaps?
- - -
*No, there was no reason for the pirate-speak there, that's just the way it sounded in my head as I was writing it.
WIDGETIZE
GoldBug # 3. September 2008, 14:19
GrantTLC # 3. September 2008, 15:17
I've traditionally been very anti-Google but have softened my position towards them in recent months. I'm still deeply uncomfortable with their desire to know absolutely everything about you but have found a level of tolerance in using them.
Chrome is slightly different in that once they release the source code, any data-grabbing bits can be stripped out. You can't do that with Google Mail.