Google Chrome - Review

DevCentral > Weblogs > Joe Pruitt - A Software Architect's take on Network Security

Google Chrome - Review

posted on Tuesday, September 02, 2008 12:49 PM

Seeing how I haven't installed any beta software lately (yeah right), I figured I jump in with everyone else on the net and see what's up with Google's new entry in the browser market. If you haven't heard about Chrome yet, then just do a Google Search on it and you'll have plenty to read for the foreseeable future. The install was small 468k so the download was fast and the install took about 15 seconds so in well under a minute I went from "click" to "play". Not too shabby. So, if you too are interested in giving a new browser a shot, here are a few cool features that stick out

One box for everything

Web search. Web history. Address bar. Suggestions as you type. One unified box serves all your browsing needs.

My Take: This is VERY cool. Ever hated having to enter search terms in a separate edit box in the browser? Not any more, all the features are integrated into the single address/search/history/etc bar.

New Tab Page

Every time you open a new tab, you'll see a visual sampling of your most visited sites, most used search engines, and recently bookmarked pages and closed tabs. Other browsers

My Take: Been there, done that with IE8 and never really found a use for it although some might. There doesn't seem to be a way to configure this on or off but hopefully some day there will be an "about:blank" option for the new tab page.

Application Shortcuts

Use web apps without opening your browser. Application shortcuts can directly load your favorite online apps.

My Take: This feature has been available in FireFox for some time so nothing earth shattering here.

Dynamic Tabs

You can drag tabs out of the browser to create new windows, gather multiple tabs into one window or arrange your tabs however you wish -- quickly and easily.

My Take: This is pretty cool. There have been times I've wanted to re-organize my 30-tab browser session into a couple of windows and this would be a very easy way to do it.

Crash Control

Every tab you're using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won't take anything else down.

My Take: Not sure how I feel about this one. Each tab runs it's own process and already I've got 4 processes going each at about 30MB or memory usage. How is this going to scale for the 30+tab user. I like the crash protection but splitting windows up across process boundaries might be a better option unless they can reduce the memory footprint on each tab process.

Incognito Mode

Don't want pages you visit to show up in your web history? Choose incognito mode for private browsing.

My Take: This feature ROCKS! Ever worried about clicking on that link that your co-worked forwarded to you? Worry no longer, with Incognito mode, pages viewed will not appear in the browser history and they won't leave any other traces. Not that I would need that feature though...

Safe Browsing

Google Chrome warns you if you're about to visit a suspected phishing, malware or otherwise unsafe website.

My Take: Again, this is in all the other mainstream browsers out there so it's par for the course.

Instant Bookmarks

Want to bookmark a web page? Just click the star icon at the left edge of the address bar and you're done.

My Take: This will likely save the speed-bookmarker some time, but since I rarely create bookmarks I'm not sure how it will impact my day to day experience.

Importing settings

When you switch to Google Chrome, you can pick up where you left off with all the bookmarks and passwords from your existing browser.

My Take: Again, par for the course. They needed to do this to get folks to use it.

Simpler Downloads

No intrusive download manager; you see your download's status at the bottom of your current window.

My Take: This is another one that is awesome in my opinion. I HATE the downloads window with a passion so this will likely be a nice feature to avoid that extra popup hitting me in the face every time I download a file.

Developer Tools

Included in the menus, are the developer options of "View Source", "Debug Javascript", "Javascript console", and "Task Manager".

My Take: Since they wrote their own Javascript engine for this release, they better darn well have a Javascript debugger in there. The Task Manager (Shift+ESC) is a nice little feature that will show you the memory usage for each component in the Chrome environment (windows, tabs, plugins, etc). If you are big into stats, then check out the "about:memory" shortcut where you can get all the memory details of each of the tasks. With all this, it still falls way short of the WebDeveloper plugin for FireFox. Until more debugging tools come into play, it'll be hard to pry me from FireFox.

Configuration

The browser was built with simplicity in mind and there are only a very small set of configuration options to worry about.

My Take: In the configuration window there are 3 tabs with only a handful of settings total such as proxy server settings, search engine defaults, password preferences, and download locations. I say AMEN to this one as I find it hard to believe anyone needs all gazillion settings that are in IE and FireFox.

Final Thoughts

The best features by far are the Incognito Mode, Single Address/Search/History bar, and the new download manager. Oh, and it's pretty snappy to boot. But, to get me to switch full-time, there'll have to be some more developer tool integration. But, keep in mind that this is a beta project so I have high hopes that FireFox will finally have met it's match. Oh, and as an added benefit, DevCentral works GREAT in Chrome!

-Joe

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Feedback

9/2/2008 1:01 PM
		The browser is a good concept, but a little shaky. Some of the fonts rendered are not clear, making it unusable. The rest of the sites which load fine look good. The browser seems fast, and it a sure firefox killer. http://www.techielife.com/google-chrome-initial-review-and-comments/browsers/aditya/2008-09-02/
Aditya

9/2/2008 1:08 PM
		Speed is the key feature for me and this one is built for that. The big question is whether as they add more and more to it if performance will take second stage to features. Only time will tell, but I am pretty happy with it given it's a first release beta. Great review of your own BTW.
Joe Pruitt

9/2/2008 1:44 PM
		"We are so, so happy with Google Chrome," mumbled Mozilla CEO John Lilly through gritted teeth. "That most of our income is from Google has no bearing on me making this statement." - http://notnews.today.com/?p=57
David Gerard

9/2/2008 1:56 PM
		Chrome seems alright so far. however, for some reason It won't let me scroll up using the touch pad on my laptop....... Which it annoying to say the least.
Here-s Jonny

9/2/2008 2:20 PM
		David, I read that as well and thought to myself the same thing. How could this not have an effect on FireFox and Mozilla is the question to answer. John Lily said he wasn't worried about future funding becoming an issue - yeah right.
Joe Pruitt

9/2/2008 2:21 PM
		Here-s Jonny, that's odd. My Dell Latitude D630 doesn't seem to have any problems. Does mouse wheel scrolling work for you?
Joe Pruitt

9/2/2008 4:17 PM
		looking forward to Chrome for efficiency's sake... plus Google tends to roll out really well-tested software, so it shouldn't be half bad in any case
media boy

9/2/2008 4:20 PM
		media boy, Have you checked it out? Seems very stable for beta software. Until it gets the plugin support of Firefox, FF should be safe. I think Opera is the first one to go. We'll see how FF can adapt to keep an edge. -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/2/2008 7:04 PM
		There is a way to disable the default new tab page. Make "about:blank" your home page and tell it to open that every time. There are also some hidden "about" pages: about:memory about:stats about:plugins Found these with some lucky guesses.
paulmon

9/2/2008 10:19 PM
		paulmon, sweet! Thanks! I'll have to dig up all the about: commands in FF and see if what works. BTW, has anyone found an easter egg yet? -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 12:11 AM
		A tad disappointed with their beta release... lots of issues from regular websites viewing... from facebook apps not working properly (e.g. friends for sale, unable to buy) to java not working properly (fancybox and clones, works on first click, second click gets you no where), poor flash performance (interactive charts a choppy). Of course all the above work great in FF and IE. I see this becoming a web development nightmare in having to dealing with more web browser that behaves differently even though they claim to be standard compliant. I question the lack of options chrome offers... I miss having my cache cleared automatically for me upon exit or all the neat add-ons (but give it time for add-ons)... As with the rest of Google apps, this will stay in Beta stages for years to come... I do love the multi-layer approach to loading webpages as it makes some pages load much faster. I just don’t see the flash or java support being up there... unless they all have to be tweaked for chrome? Why don't they just jump in bed (deeper) with FF and combine the two to make one heck of a browser?... for now I'm sticking with FF and IE...
Tester

9/3/2008 12:37 AM
		Is there any Mozilla feedback on Google Chrome ? I wonder if those have tried to do something together or if this is just a marketing issue. In 6 month/1 year, Google Chrome may be part of Firefox... Tom
tom

9/3/2008 1:19 AM
		On the whole, I like Chrome. However, there are basically two things that will stop me from switching to it completely at the moment. 1) I use FF and drag-to-go is a great feature that I use daily, for every link I open. It's simply too much hassle to right-click, and go to click on open in a new tab. 2) I only played around with Chrome for a little while, but when it imported my bookmarks from FF, it didn't import my RSS feeds. And once in Chrome I saw no way of adding these feeds as a bookmark. Maybe I just didn't want to look to hard for it, I don't know. These 2 issues are pretty much deal breakers for me, as my entire internet involvement pretty much revolves around these two features. I had issue #1 with FF3 when I first downloaded it, so I uninstalled and went back to the previous version until a compatible add-on was released. However, I'm sure as add-ons start being made for Chrome, my "problems" will be fixed and at that time I will gladly switch.
dmh

9/3/2008 1:43 AM
		up to now after 8 hours of heavy testing the result is more than disappointing: 1. Memory eater - don't open more than 10 tabs 2. Uncostumizable (did somebody found how to protect my passwords?) 3. Was created for web applications and not for surfing - agree 100 % Probably the philosophy is to provide functions through the applications selves, but back in the future people still surfing. The logic applied by Google is totally opposite of that of Flock for example. As everything created by Google totally missing on functionality, expecting feedback from customers and than upgrading.In this case if you don't want to be test mice wait around 6 years and it will be usable.
kiki

9/3/2008 2:03 AM
		At last a simple and fast browser that sidesteps crash issues and offers everything I needed...would be nice to have skins and more browser options. Obviously needs some further development but a very good starting point.
Rasa Rasika

9/3/2008 2:16 AM
		I never bother with beta or the first version of anything, unless I just want to have fun checking something out with low expectations
InsideHoops.com

9/3/2008 2:18 AM
		Excelent browser until now, almost perfect... FF really made my computer unstable and it consumed memory like there was no limits to it, Opera crashed every 5 minutes, Safari was pretty cool but excessive and IE is not really an option (too many holes) but chrome only used the necessary memory, and as for performance as exceded my expectations @tester flash worked perfectly for me, what kind of pc are you using? I suggest you report that problem to google @dmh, "drag to go" worked for me in chrome... just drag the link to where you want to open your page as for rss I don't know, as I don't use rss @kiki, I have 15 tabs openned with no problem, Chrome's 150MB vs FF's 400MB, chrome gets 1MB for the smallest processes and the worst was 50MB (this works for you too Joe), it all depends of what are you browsing I agree with the password problem, that's why I never save them on any browser (but this should be reported to google) Anyway... a google's beta works better than any Microsoft's final I've ever seen... Dropped IE years ago, only tried Opera and hated it, dropped FF after version 2, and now I drop Safari... Chrome rules by the way... I'm a web developer and already tested this with my own made sites with better performance than any-other browsers
ivo

9/3/2008 2:24 AM
		just found out that you have a link to the about:stats in the bottom of Chrome's taskmanager... so it is not really hidden
Ivo

9/3/2008 3:01 AM
		Here;s Johnny, thank you. I'm not the only one with the problem. Google chrome's AWESOME! It works seamlessly on my Vista laptop and is more faster and visually pleasing than Firefox 3. Hopefully they will have the add-on and extension program as well. The only problem I have is that like Johnny, I can scroll down but not up on my touchpad, and that's annoying. Another cool feature would be if they could make a google Suite, like put Google Earth and Google Sketchup with Google Chrome, in one big package, so you wouldn't need 3 different applications. It would be in one window.
Josh Reed

9/3/2008 3:11 AM
		It is good but it will surely decrese businesses of Google search engine itself as now you dont need to search if your now first few alphabet of a site link. I'll give 10 for its speed.
Rahul

9/3/2008 4:44 AM
		Chrome seems to be a bit buggy, just enter :% to the URL box of Chrome and see it crash completely. Not only the selected tab So far for: http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/images/10.jpg :P Proxy settings are taken from Internet Explorer, which is clever because it will support all the proxy Group Policy options of Internet Explorer. Making this the second browser you can actually install in a company network. Why Firefox never added support for GPO's is beyond me. (I asked the authors of Firefox serveral times) One thing I find strange is that it installs in the User Profile (On Vista C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\, XP it's in Document and settings).
Jack

9/3/2008 5:09 AM
		1) Open Internet Explorer 2) Download Google Chorme 3) Install Chrome 4) Open Chrome 5) You Forget Internet Explorer Solomon said, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth..." (Ecclesiastes 12:1) PS. I am posting this using Chrome
sac max

9/3/2008 5:17 AM
		I tried it for 2 minutes. 2 Whole minutes because despite the help pages to the contrary it didn't use the default browser for importing settings and bookmarks nor even give you the option to select anything other than Internet explorer. Rather a poor start
Ian

9/3/2008 5:32 AM
		Did my own little test vs Safari running in windows and even though it says that it imports all bookmarks and passwords and cookies i have had to add them manually... also ran a 9 tab test and safari loaded quicker but chrome was more accurate...
Sam

9/3/2008 5:39 AM
		I was quite excited to install Google Chrome as soon as it was available for public download. However, I am bit disappointed after few hours of use. I agree that Chrome is light weight and fast. I could open more than 30 tabs and still working fine. What disappointed me most is, it crashed after few minutes of use. See this Google chrome reviews to find more about the Google chrome crash report - http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/35865-Google-chrome-reviews.aspx
Kichu

9/3/2008 5:45 AM
		Great for a grade 6 project Microsoft is thinking that the joker is back. Look guys if you want to spend your life playing around with this toy then be my guest. This game has no sides but google is looking for people just like you.
Sue

9/3/2008 6:03 AM
		I downloaded Chrome and just a few minutes after testing it out, I decided to jump ship and make it my default browser. The sheer simplicity, speed, and ease of use is just too attractive. To most people complaining about it, remember this is the first beta release and as expected there will be flaws. But I have high expectations for this thing, and hope it will be much better than it already is. Ian and Sam, I had no problems importing my settings and bookmarks from my default browser, that is Firefox. Even the keyword shortcuts I saved in Firefox were also imported and work in Chrome. The annoying thing is I can't seem to find a way to create new keyword shortcuts in it.
razie

9/3/2008 6:48 AM
		I find it strange so many crash reports... I'm using chrome to post this message, it has been running for 6 hours now with no crashes. @jack... tried % on the url bar... no crash... got a few result from google on "%", this issue of your's might be related to regional settings
Ivo

9/3/2008 7:05 AM
		@Ivo chrome will crash if you type ":%"
Leon

9/3/2008 7:54 AM
		Tester, I was a bit surprised that they didn't go the route of building a better FF but it could be that FF is too long gone and they really wanted something without all the baggage to start with. The lack of plugins is a bummer but this thing is only one day old so give it time. I'm sure the java and flash support will be there soon enough - how else will you watch your YouTube videos B-). -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 7:56 AM
		Tom, I believe Google has funded part of FF but this is going to be a tricky issue between the two companies as Google is essentially taking FF head on. I highly doubt Chrome will be integrated into FF, most likely it will be the other way around. Only time will tell... -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:00 AM
		dmh, give it time. I'm sure more drag and drop features as well as RSS integration are going to be added, they are too big of a mainstream feature to omit. All in all, I think the team did a great job on a first beta release. I'll be excited to see what features are added next. If I were you I'd send an email to the chromium-dev mailing list to add your requests in. http://groups.google.com/group/chromium-dev -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:02 AM
		kiki, #1, agreed, but then again it's just beta 1. #2 by design: simple and sweet. #3 Not sure I totally agree with you on the issue of test mice. I've been using it fairly exclusively since I downloaded it and have found few things that don't work for me. Maybe I'm not the typical web user, but there definitely is an audience. -Joe (aka, Mr. Test Mouse)
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:03 AM
		Rasa Rasika, I'm right with you on the simplicity and stability focus. plugins and customization will come soon I'm sure but I'm excited to see what's next. -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:04 AM
		Absolutely right.... I typed ":%" and it crashed instantly. Also want to add one more point. I watched few videos on youtube and it gets hanged at some point of time. I don't know if others have experienced it but I have experienced it thrice ever since I installed it yesterday. Otherwise the browser is just the "Google Way"... simple, fast, accurate and efficient.
Jay

9/3/2008 8:05 AM
		InsideHoops, that's fine. I've got several machines and one of them is for testing out new software so I'm not worried about the time wasted. I really didn't expect this first release to replace FF or IE, but it's exciting to see someone new in to spice up the browser wars again. -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:07 AM
		ivo, I've had a great experience with it as well. I'll likely still use FF3 as my main browser due to all the developer plugins but I'm game for a change. If you haven't tried FF3, it's leaps and bounds better than FF2 so you might want to give it a shot some time. -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:08 AM
		Ivo, thanks for the about:stats location. I didn't see it in the Task Manager. -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:10 AM
		Josh Reed, Still works fine on my Dell Latitidue D630. I guess you all can still use the up arrow B-). As for combining Google Earth, Sketchup and Chrome in one program, I think that will totally defeat the purpose of a small lean high performance app. Not likely to happen. -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:12 AM
		Rahul, I highly doubt it will decrease business for Google. Google is a very smart company and I find it hard to believe they don't have some way for this thing to make money down the road. They are not in the business of giving away software that takes away their business. BTW, how do you know that by typing in characters in the address bar that they aren't keeping track on the backend about which links you selected the same way they do on their search page. Could be just a more transparent way of doing the same thing. -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:13 AM
		Jack, SURPRISE!!! you just found the hidden easter egg! Forget about those lame hidden popup dialogs with the developers names. This one just crashes the app. Sweet! -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:15 AM
		Jack, I wonder if installing in the users profile will enable running it on multiple machines when you are configured with roaming profiles enabled?
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:16 AM
		sac max, I'm posting this using Chrome as well B-). As for forgetting IE, as soon as FF/Chrome/Etc support Outlook Web Access, I'm saying goodbye to IE but until then, I think I'm stuck.
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:18 AM
		Ian, that's odd. My install imported bookmarks from FF, not IE. I do have FF as my default browser. Have you tried the "Import Bookmarks and Settings" menu item? It allows you to select IE or FF. -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:19 AM
		Sam, Thanks for the feedback on Safari. That's one program I haven't had the guts to install. iTunes completely wrecked my dev system so I've come to not trust Apple in software installs. -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:21 AM
		Kichu, That's odd on the crashing. I've had it running continuously since yesterday and it's been rock solid. I guess I better knock on wood before it crashes on me though B-). Knock, Knock, Knock... -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:24 AM
		":%" did make chrome crash... I was thinking that the ":" was for you to start indicating what to type :P (that's the first and only crash until now) apart from that I've noticed a small applet problem but read somewhere that it works with the lattest JRE beta. joe, the link at the taskmanager is for about:memory, sorry, my mistake and nice one on that easter egg ;) LOL
Ivo

9/3/2008 8:25 AM
		Sue, you sound a little bit jaded on this topic. I wouldn't exactly call Chrome a toy any more than I'd call Word or Acrobat reader a toy. I use the PDF FoxIt reader instead of Adobe Acrobat because it's fast and has a very low system impact. Is that a toy as well? Maybe it is, but if it works faster and helps me get my job done quicker then I'm ready to play. For those of us working in the social networking space, the browser IS our work so anything new in this space should at least be looked at and evaluated. -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:31 AM
		razie, wow, not sure I'm ready to jump ship quite yet but my hat goes off to you. I don't see a way to control the bookmarks either. Please post if you find a way. -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:32 AM
		Ivo, agreed. It's been rock solid for me. As for the crashing, try typing in ":%" and have some fun.
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:33 AM
		Jay, I've hit a few youtube videos without any problem but I'll be on the watch for hangups. Agreed: Simple, fast accurate, and efficient. We'll see if it stays that way. -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:35 AM
		Ivo, Here's a list I've found of hidden links (taken from http://www.saulis.com/29~google_chrome_about_pages) about:version - obviously version information (also accessible by chrome-resource://about/) about:plugins - obviously installed plugins about:histograms - hey I love this one! don't quite know what this all means though about:dns - obviously just some DNS stats about:cache, redirecting to view-cache: - list of cached documents, each viewable in HEX! view-cache:stats - stats for cached documents about:stats - obviously just some stats about:network - that's an awesome tool! about:internets - oh, an Easter Egg of a kind? look at the page title - The Tubes are Clogged! ;)) chrome-resource:/new-tab/ - heh, a template for the empty tab page? chrome-resource:/favicon/ - even favicons look like this in the Matrix ;) chrome-resource:/thumb/http://www.saulis.com/ - this one generates the page thumbnails for the empty tab page about:memory - nice memory stats :% - yes, just this little bit crashes the browser, so don't try it unless you want to loose the opened tabs about:crash - will display the default crash page banner -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 8:42 AM
		Well.. ive been using chrome for a few hours now and i have to say i love the simplicity of it and the raw speed of page fetching and browsing. for example.. myspace has gotten to the point on FF3 that its almost unuseable, smooth scrolling is SOOOOOOOOOO laggy, chrome on the other hand.. smooth as silk. also someone mentioned something about youtube videos not playing because of flash??? youtube vids load perfectly and SMOKING fast for me.. so far the only issues i have is lack of plugin support (which will come very soon) and a forum im a member of the live chat wouldnt work.. so i just downloaded MIRC .. i do look forward to the plugins.. especially one like adblock .. was VERY strange seeing adsence considering i havent seen an adwords advertisment is AGES!!!.. but yes id say im now 80percent chrome 20 percent FF.. till plugin extentions are available. then im probably going to chrome full time.
Jaime Westmoreland

9/3/2008 8:47 AM
		Sue, from the user point of view this looks like no big deal, but if you're a developer and you're trying desperatly to produce something, you'll know that this may make a difference. It's not just a win situation for developers, but it is also a win situation for consumers, as if you spend less time loading content, you may for once start seeing sites that are better designed by professionals and more sites from amateurs that really work without waiting for ever for them to load. On the other hand, I don't know about you, but I'm tired of navigating the net, openning a few tabs and while I wait for them to load, one of them crashes my browser and I lose all the articles, emails and comments. I'm also tired of Advertising poping-up all the time, tired of having additional applications sucking my ram so I can block a few ads, tired of removing spyware all the time, etc. (not that much these times, but still would prefer that it was zero times) If it's a toy that keeps me safe and efficient, call me a player
Ivo

9/3/2008 8:52 AM
		memory eater
bkkdaya

9/3/2008 8:58 AM
		Jaime Westmoreland, totally agreed on the 80/20. I'm likely at about the same ratio myself. It will be VERY interesting to see what Google allows/blocks with regards to advertising. That's their bread and butter and blocking adds in their own browser would seem to contradict their business model. But, with an open platform, if that's what the masses want, that's what they will likely get. We'll see... -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 9:02 AM
		Ivo, Amen brother. Call me a player as well. Wait a second, this just off the presses. Since I never read EULAs, this slipped by me. Know I've found how they are going to make money on this Chrome: http://tapthehive.com/discuss/This_Post_Not_Made_In_Chrome_Google_s_EULA_Sucks ...By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services Thoughts anyone? -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 9:03 AM
		bkkdaya, are you calling me a "memory eater" or commenting on Chromes memory management. Not sure what you meant B-). -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 9:34 AM
		If you read carefully... after that "strange" part you may read: "This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services." i think this means that they have the right to use any of the information in their services for advertising their Services (just like if you take a screenshot of a site for making an ad, or if you took a picture in a street and could read a newspaper in the background) but you still have the "copyright", it just doesn't apply for their advertisement but they don't have the right to sell your information
Ivo

9/3/2008 9:39 AM
		on my last post: any-one using your information (except google for Service promoting) could still go to court for braking your copyrights (google can be sued for using your information for other tasks that are not mentioned)
Ivo

9/3/2008 9:39 AM
		Ivo, I guess it's time to bring out the experts to dissect it B-). Any lawyers out there? -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 10:50 AM
		Chrome is crap. I dont get it. Wheres the beef? Whats better about chrome over opera? The only feature I get is tabs being independent processes, its nice that a crashed tab doesnt take down the browser. Apart from that, what is there? -horrid old-school history. no trashcan ie "recently-closed" list either, which once you use it you cant live without it. -download manager is crap. only an IE user might think its brilliant. it doesnt even resume! opera's is a thousand times better, less intrusive, and useful. -virtually no keyboard shortcuts for anything! -crappy old-school zoom, ie text-only and ruins formatting completely -no session support whatsoever everything vaguely nice about it, like the "one box" which also searches your history and bookmarks, speed dial, detachable tabs, etc, is done better in opera (or firefox, if you can find the right addons), yet it lacks the rest of their features.
joe blow

9/3/2008 11:14 AM
		joe blow, very good points. But keep in mind that this is a very early beta release and many of your concerns I'm sure will be addressed. I have a question for you: Since Opera is the best thing out there, why is it lingering at around 1.5% of the market? (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp) I'm not saying that Chrome is anywhere close to the competition yet, but it will be soon. I think Opera is most likely going to be the first victim to drop off (although there isn't much more to fall from 1.5%). -Joe
Joe Pruitt

9/3/2008 12:00 PM
		I think opera has 1.5% market share because 98.5% percent of all people are idiots. No but seriously...fact is, the vast majority of people simple do not care what browser they use. They can't be bothered to learn even the simplest keyboard shortcuts or time-saving repetition-reducing features. Like take a look at how opera can synchronize bookmarks between all your installations, or how you can create custom searches so that simply typing for example "wi something" will go straight to wikipedia's search results for "something". Or has a keyboard shortcut for _everything_, in fact it can be fully used even without touching the mouse. Most people couldn't care less. IE and Firefox make up the vast majority of the market share. I think we can safely say that most people still using IE aren't going to switch to anything. If they havent switch by now, its