MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
02 September 2008
Get it while it's hot. There's a brand new browser in town. Google Chrome. It looks good. And you can download it now. (Windows only - Boo!) For more detail, there's also a groovy comic with details of features, etc. Here's a picture of me making this post. W00t! Geek Love. !11!One!
Does Google imagine this becoming a default market browser? Or is this more of a niche thing for the very technically inclined? I don't know much, and the browsers I use seem fine, so I don't feel any urge to switch (plus, I really can't; my personal computer is old and slow and about to be replaced, and my work computer needs IE for the work we do).
I'm downloading this like the second I get home tonight. I have every browser available, though, so I can check sites on all of them. (except Safari since, well, no mac)
I think Google are doing this to piss Microsoft off. The thing has a blazing fast javascript interpreter (all the better to run hosted applications with) and in terms of the UI, it looks for all the world like it could be used as a desktop substitute.
Anyway - It's small and it's fast and it's new & that's enough for me.
TPS - the analyses I've read indicate that Chrome isn't really intended to be useful to the average internet browser, but that it's a platform for some cool software that Google's got in the pipeline. So basically, they've been working on all this stuff like 3D video, and they need a browser designed to showcase it.
There's a write up on it in the nytimes. I hadn't heard of it till yesterday, but I'm not up on these things. Based on what I've read, I think they're aiming at the mass market and enabling better web applications.
It's pretty clean looking and fast so far. I can't see giving up all the bells & whistles of FF3 when I'm on my desktop, but I could see using this an ultraportable laptops.
There is a safari for Windows. It isn't as good as the Mac version (but it does use the exact same Konquerer rendering enging Google Chrome does)
I played with the Google Chrome on my Windows machine and used the Sarah Palin mefi thread as a test. I didn't like how after reloading the page it wouldn't go to where I was, but rather to the top of the page.
Also, I wish it were a little less blue.
If anyone can take on Microsoft, it will be Google. I can't wait to see the next release.
I'm posting this from Chrome, seems to work pretty well. I don't really like the way that it looks though, it's got weird looking window buttons and no menu bar, does't really fit into Windows very well.
I like it. I am posting from it right now, and it works. Sure there are some details to work out, but I'm liking it, and it's definitely faster than anything else I use on my system.
I like it, but I don't think it'll be my primary for a while. At least not until the ad filters are available. On someplace with google ads no biggie, but msnbc and cnn are hellish with their animated ads that freeze the page.
box: the geeks on Slashdot are guessing that it's because the Webkit rendering engine is more compact and easier to work with than the Gecko engine Mozilla is based on, making it more suitable for their "one process per tab" architecture. It's also likely that Google sees a future for their browser in mobile devices (Mozilla is considered to be "too heavy" for this).
It's ok. I don't like the lack of right-click options that my FF add-ons give me, no flashblock and no 'undo closed tab' option. I run AdsGone so haven't noticed any ads problems.
It loads some pages very quickly, which I do like, so I'll probably keep it for them.
You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. 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
Wow, no thanks. And this:
I didn't like how after reloading the page it wouldn't go to where I was, but rather to the top of the page.
is a dealbreaker! That's one of my key requirements for a browser.
Somehow in all the hubbub (of the last week's news, as well as my life) I didn't realize this was already released. Thanks, seanyboy.
I don't think Google is entering the "browser market" per se. They have been inching toward more independence for their "Apps" business and this is apparently designed to be a platform for that.
Google has this history of tentative pokes into various ponds. They also, sometimes, have things like Gmail, which even though it was a johnny-come-lately in the web-based e-mail world, suddenly become the market leader. So dunno.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
