Chrome (aka Cuba blocked by Google)
Thursday, 4. September 2008, 05:06:42
I was very excited on Monday when I learned that Google was about to release a new web browser of their own, dubbed Google Chrome. It was about time!
But soon after the initial excitement that the announcement comic made me feel, I remembered that for a long time now Google has been blocking all their downloads from Cuba. This includes all their applications (Google Talk, Google Earth, Google Desktop, Picasa, Google Pack, etc.) and every single piece of code available via the Google Code portal. And I did not hesitate a moment before I knew that Chrome was not going to be an exception, not even for the fact that, unlike all other Google applications, Chrome is an open source project. It seems that for Google free software is only for those who are considered to be free by the US state department.
And I wonder how much is Google obliged to treat Cubans this way, when many other companies just as prominent, visible and American as Google is (for instance Yahoo! and Microsoft) are not blocking any of their freeware downloads from this island. And I hope this observations would not lead them to copy Google's policy, but the other way around.
But anyway, I managed to grab a copy of Chrome using unspeakable methods. The simple approach of having someone abroad download it and send it to me via email or something, it won't work. The direct download is just a small program that does the rest of the download itself. And guess what, this program also checks where I am connected from.
But thanks to some hacking (hint: operator) I was able to have it, and test it, and taste it. And as almost anything Google-made (except of course their downloads policy) is delicious. Here are my impressions, trying to focus on the things that have been less visible in most reviews.
According to its visual features, yes. Tabs as first-class independent citizens, speeddial-like initial page, UI responsiveness, particularly when switching tabs, are the most prominent features that remind us of Opera. But as Opera's CEO put it, this is flattering for Opera. And it's good indirect publicity too.
But as true as it is that Opera excels Chrome in UI configurability and dinamicity, Chrome has some very good innovations in its inner workings, like separate processes for each tab, javascript-to-native-code, and sandboxing. From a software programmer's perspective I can see that these things are here to stay and even to get into other browsers' design choices in the near future. What's good is good. And maybe someone else (hopefully Opera) can innovate further on these.
While not exactly brand new features in the browsers' world, Chrome's implementation of these have the taste of innovation too. Speed-dial incorporates a couple of dynamic components (search boxes and recently closed tabs) and it also has a look that mimics Google websites and pages, making it look like you're already in a website that serves as a gate for other sites. Making it look like you're at Google already.
Similar things can be said of the history and downloads tabs, both having a search box at the top, which mimics those of Google's own web sites. As trivial and simple as this might seem, I find it very important for the overall feeling and taste that this new browser leaves on us.
I felt amused by the omnibar's highlighting of the domain, leaving the rest of the URL dimmed in a lighter color. For people like me that appreciate knowing in a glimpse where I am standing when watching a page, this is very helpful. I was also worried about the lack of status bar, which lets me know where a link points to before I actually click on it. It turns out that Chrome has a small "status bar" that appears on demand to give us this kind of information, but that silently goes away after a few seconds.
The search feature, the one that lets us search within the text of a loaded page, also works similarly to that of Firefox (but in the top right instead of the bottom). The search box appears when we ask for it (with Ctrl+F) and then it goes away when we're finished. This kind of unobtrusive goodies are some of the things that Opera still lacks.
And I also noticed something that nobody else told me about Chrome in my extensive reviews and reading prior to my own use of it: it has a spell checker! This very post is being spell-checked by it as I write, much in the vein of Firefox's spell checker. Although to be honest, it is still slow, freezing my cursor a fraction of a second just after I finish writing a misspelled word. Sure there's home for improvement here, also allowing bilingual users like me to have more than one dictionary available.
One thing I'd like is something I've been talking about for a long time, and that Opera finally made it real: synchronizing my settings (bookmarks, etc.) with a central store, so that I have my stuff wherever I may use Chrome. This could even be incorporated to Firefox via an extension, so that transition between Chrome and Firefox would be much easier. It would be much better if all major browsers would agree on this, develop a standard for this, and everybody wins (except Microsoft, of course)
On the other hand, among the things I would not like, I would specially hate if they make an extension architecture like Firefox's XUL. It just bloat the whole thing. Remember the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid!
As a user and crawler of the web myself (albeit a technically inclined one), Chrome is as good as I can expect from a first release, and it already makes me expect new things from other browsers more established in my day-to-day pack of tools. Sure it has some road ahead (which project does not, particularly when it's new) but in the most basic features it is indeed a great new kid on the block.
As a web developer, it's good to have something handy to test my stuff with webkit, since I do not own a Mac but although Chrome has some basic developer tools, it is still light-years behind Firebug. Even Dragonfly is behind Firebug.
Overall, I am happy to have a new contender that re-ignites an already active browsers war. Competition and innovation in the end are good for us internet users. Let them compete to gain our preference. Sit back and watch the fight!
But soon after the initial excitement that the announcement comic made me feel, I remembered that for a long time now Google has been blocking all their downloads from Cuba. This includes all their applications (Google Talk, Google Earth, Google Desktop, Picasa, Google Pack, etc.) and every single piece of code available via the Google Code portal. And I did not hesitate a moment before I knew that Chrome was not going to be an exception, not even for the fact that, unlike all other Google applications, Chrome is an open source project. It seems that for Google free software is only for those who are considered to be free by the US state department.
And I wonder how much is Google obliged to treat Cubans this way, when many other companies just as prominent, visible and American as Google is (for instance Yahoo! and Microsoft) are not blocking any of their freeware downloads from this island. And I hope this observations would not lead them to copy Google's policy, but the other way around.
But anyway, I managed to grab a copy of Chrome using unspeakable methods. The simple approach of having someone abroad download it and send it to me via email or something, it won't work. The direct download is just a small program that does the rest of the download itself. And guess what, this program also checks where I am connected from.
But thanks to some hacking (hint: operator) I was able to have it, and test it, and taste it. And as almost anything Google-made (except of course their downloads policy) is delicious. Here are my impressions, trying to focus on the things that have been less visible in most reviews.
An Opera clone?
According to its visual features, yes. Tabs as first-class independent citizens, speeddial-like initial page, UI responsiveness, particularly when switching tabs, are the most prominent features that remind us of Opera. But as Opera's CEO put it, this is flattering for Opera. And it's good indirect publicity too.
But as true as it is that Opera excels Chrome in UI configurability and dinamicity, Chrome has some very good innovations in its inner workings, like separate processes for each tab, javascript-to-native-code, and sandboxing. From a software programmer's perspective I can see that these things are here to stay and even to get into other browsers' design choices in the near future. What's good is good. And maybe someone else (hopefully Opera) can innovate further on these.
Speed-dial, History and Downloads tabs
While not exactly brand new features in the browsers' world, Chrome's implementation of these have the taste of innovation too. Speed-dial incorporates a couple of dynamic components (search boxes and recently closed tabs) and it also has a look that mimics Google websites and pages, making it look like you're already in a website that serves as a gate for other sites. Making it look like you're at Google already.Similar things can be said of the history and downloads tabs, both having a search box at the top, which mimics those of Google's own web sites. As trivial and simple as this might seem, I find it very important for the overall feeling and taste that this new browser leaves on us.
Minor goodies
I felt amused by the omnibar's highlighting of the domain, leaving the rest of the URL dimmed in a lighter color. For people like me that appreciate knowing in a glimpse where I am standing when watching a page, this is very helpful. I was also worried about the lack of status bar, which lets me know where a link points to before I actually click on it. It turns out that Chrome has a small "status bar" that appears on demand to give us this kind of information, but that silently goes away after a few seconds. The search feature, the one that lets us search within the text of a loaded page, also works similarly to that of Firefox (but in the top right instead of the bottom). The search box appears when we ask for it (with Ctrl+F) and then it goes away when we're finished. This kind of unobtrusive goodies are some of the things that Opera still lacks.And I also noticed something that nobody else told me about Chrome in my extensive reviews and reading prior to my own use of it: it has a spell checker! This very post is being spell-checked by it as I write, much in the vein of Firefox's spell checker. Although to be honest, it is still slow, freezing my cursor a fraction of a second just after I finish writing a misspelled word. Sure there's home for improvement here, also allowing bilingual users like me to have more than one dictionary available.
Do's and Dont's
One thing I'd like is something I've been talking about for a long time, and that Opera finally made it real: synchronizing my settings (bookmarks, etc.) with a central store, so that I have my stuff wherever I may use Chrome. This could even be incorporated to Firefox via an extension, so that transition between Chrome and Firefox would be much easier. It would be much better if all major browsers would agree on this, develop a standard for this, and everybody wins (except Microsoft, of course)
On the other hand, among the things I would not like, I would specially hate if they make an extension architecture like Firefox's XUL. It just bloat the whole thing. Remember the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid!
My overall feeling about it
As a user and crawler of the web myself (albeit a technically inclined one), Chrome is as good as I can expect from a first release, and it already makes me expect new things from other browsers more established in my day-to-day pack of tools. Sure it has some road ahead (which project does not, particularly when it's new) but in the most basic features it is indeed a great new kid on the block.
As a web developer, it's good to have something handy to test my stuff with webkit, since I do not own a Mac but although Chrome has some basic developer tools, it is still light-years behind Firebug. Even Dragonfly is behind Firebug.
Overall, I am happy to have a new contender that re-ignites an already active browsers war. Competition and innovation in the end are good for us internet users. Let them compete to gain our preference. Sit back and watch the fight!
WIDGETIZE
Anonymous # 11. September 2008, 17:24
Necesito referencias sobre como descargar e instalar el Chrome, yo también vivo en Cuba y no he podido encontrar la vía de hacerlo aun.
Anonymous # 12. September 2008, 03:01
Hi Ernesto,
Thorough review. Brushing aside the obvious questions that arise when open source software is restricted for political reasons, would you "trust" Google enough to use them as your main browser - especially in the light of things like their download manager tracking and checking where you're from?
I don't deny that Google makes some nice software. Separate processes for each tab, for example, have been a long time coming, and I really do hope that others pick up on that. But the idea that the most omnipresent private entity on the web (and one of the world's most recognizable and powerful brands) will be taking more and more of a foothold on peoples PCs is a disturbing one, to me. I know the obvious replies to that such as "choice" and "people don't have to install it if they don't want to", but Google, like Apple, has a way of making people think that they need them. The very 'Googlish' look within Chrome itself is a natural progression of this pervasive branding.
As for the browser itself, it comes down to a matter of personal preference as to what parts of the UI we like and don't like. I can't stand the highlighting of the domain name, as the url of a page (in particular for blog posts) is a whole entity that shouldn't be broken up in any way visually. The spellcheck is nice to have but still clunkier than Firefox (or Swiftweasel, in my case). I've also found it to load pages just a tad slower than the other browsers on my machine. Although, I am using it in Ubuntu through wine, using these instructions .
I'm of the mind that any competition is good competition. That's especially true when everyone's fighting fair - and Google doesn't exactly have a reputation for fighting fair. I also have a bias towards smaller, more focused and organized projects, and just by virtue of its name, Google is going to take much more market share away from these players than from the Internet Explorers and Apple Safaris of the world.
PS - You don't need a Mac to run OS X if you want to do webkit stuff. I use Kalyway's OSX and have Leopard running on my PC. I believe it would work in a virtual machine too - depending on how strong of a machine you're got.
gnapse # 12. September 2008, 13:45
I agree with you on some of the issues you mention, but my post was mostly about the software itself. I was not thinking on the ethical implications of a Google browser.
Also, I have to admit that due to the lower penetration of Internet here in Cuba, concerns of privacy for us are almost non-existent. We do not have credit cards and we do not buy over the Internet, we hardly share over the net any personal information other that our names or nicknames, and in any case is not precisely Google what worries us the most regarding the monitoring of our online activities.
But as you rightfully mention, those could be very valid concerns in societies where Internet is being used for almost everything, and the implications of a corporation monitoring the online activities of people could be considerable.
On the other hand, the fact that the browser is open source serves somehow as a guarantee, since independent third-parties could verify in Chrome's source code, and even release their own binaries, knowing that absolutely nothing is exchanged between Chrome and Google servers, except of course when the user is browsing some Google web site.
Anyway, thanks for your comments!
chaals # 30. April 2009, 19:56
Which is what Google said they wanted...
I am surprised to learn about Google blockading Cuba though. As far as I can see that's just odd
cheers
Chaals