9 things to love and hate about Google Chrome
Google Chrome is the new web browser from Google. If you think that this is just another browser entering the warzone, think again. This is Google we’re talking about. They don’t simply create. They innovate.
If you haven’t read the comic strips on Google Chrome’s features, I’d suggest you to do so first. Here are my own impressions on Google Chrome.
9 things to love about Google Chrome
- Google Chrome is amazingly Fast
It browses fast, it renders pages fast (thanks to the WebKit rendering engine – also used by Safari), and loading JavaScript really is fast as the comic strip promised. You can also try the JavaScript benchmarking to test, if you are really into it at Google’s V8 Benchmark Suite page.My test using different browsers shows these scores (bigger is better):
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 total score: 25 (after the screen froze for a while)
Safari 3.1 (525.13) total score: 80
Opera 9.52 total score: 9.52
Mozilla Firefox 3.01 total score: 104
Google Chrome total score: 932!! - Google Chrome’s Minimalism
More area to view the page that you are currently browsing on. In Google Chrome, the status bar appears automatically on the bottom left only when needed (page loading, etc) and disappears again afterwards. - Google Chrome’s built-in support for Google Gears
Google Gears is the next generation of application/plug-in by Google. At the moment, I’ve fallen in love with WordPress support on Google Gears. It caches the Administration WordPress files on your local machine, so that you can work with WordPress faster on a slower internet connection. WordPress calls it “Turbo mode”. - Google Chrome’s Tab is King
The Tabs on Google Chrome can be easily “manipulated”. You can drag it around quickly and smoothly, even drag it outside of Chrome’s main window if you want. This will create a new Google Chrome window. If you drag the Tab back to the original (or another) Google Chrome’s window, the Tab will be “re-injected” back to it. Cool stuff. - “One ring bar to bind them, one ring bar to rule them all”
In Chrome, you simply write the keywords you want to search on the URL bar and it will automatically turned into a Google’s search. No more separate search box for searching. Simple and straight forward. They call this, the “OmniBox”. Similar to Firefox 3, you can also search a URL based on the title keywords of the URL. For example you can type “chrome” on your URL and it will display you all of your browsing history on pages that have “chrome” on its URL and its title. IE8 and other browsers still require you to enter the first few characters of the URL to bring the history back.
One bar to search, one bar to browse, one bar to find your history. - Google Chrome’s Stability
I haven’t had a crash even once with Google Chrome. Every Tab is a separate process, according to Google Chrome’s specification, and that means even a crash won’t affect your other tabs. Ever screamed in terror when your browser crashed and you haven’t clicked on the save or submit button (replying to a forum, writing an online document, coding on the browser, etc)? No more!Google Chrome also has a fantastic memory and process management as the comic strip says below:
This comic strip is saying the truth!
Google Chrome cleans properly when the tabs are closed and memories are retained back. Compare that to Internet Explorer and Firefox as my screenshot below:
Even with one tab left, the memory isn't freed fully
I browsed with multiple tabs using Firefox 3.01 and Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. After a while, I closed all of them except one and check my Windows Task Manager. Look at that memory usage! In Chrome, the freed memory is returned back to the system.
- Google Chrome’s Built-In Task Manager, JavaScript debugging, and DOM Inspector
With its own Task Manager, you can view how much Memory and CPU usage does each opened Tab use. Find out the culprit that keeps crashing your favorite browser. A great tool for JavaScript Geeks
- Google Chrome’s Remembers Your Password
Google Chrome will offer you whether you want it to remember your password. Unlike some browsers, Google Chrome will actually wait until you can login successfully before offering it. This will make sure that the password is correct before you ask Chrome to remember it. - Google Chrome’s Incognito Mode
Don’t wanna get caught browsing my blog at work?
Just turn on Incognito mode (a.k.a Private Mode). Google Chrome will open a new window and every tab created on that window will be in private mode. It won’t appear on your browser history or search history. All cookies and every single trace will be removed from your computer once you close the window. Perfect for public computers when you want to stop those prying and pesky eyes!
Google Chrome Incognito Mode
9 things to hate about Google Chrome
- Google Chrome is for Windows only
If you are on a Linux or a Mac platform, too bad. Google Chrome only supports Windows platform by the time of this release. Of course, I’m pretty sure it will be available on other platforms soon. - Google Chrome’s Minimalism
If you love seeing all bookmarks, histories, status, and etc all on the screen at once, you’ll probably find that Google Chrome is quite lacking in this area. It provides a clean and minimalistic approach, so you may need to click on a few menu options to do what you can usually do in one click. At the moment, there are not many options as well at Google Chrome (to control the cache, browser settings, etc). To some basic users, Google Chrome is enough and more options may actually confuse them. - Google Chrome’s lack of total control on browsing history
Unless you are using the “Incognito” browsing mode (a.k.a “Private Browsing” mode), you can’t remove an item from the Most Visited History unless you clear the entire history and you can’t press DELETE to remove a URL from suggested URLs (when you are typing an URL on the “OmniBox”). - Google Chrome’s lack of extension support.
Well at least, at this stage. If you have more than ten extensions installed on your Firefox, you might find that you are leaving Google Chrome as soon as you’ve used it for a few hours. Again, this is Google we’re talking about. With Google Gears support, it will be just a matter of time before they start putting extensions into Chrome. - Google Chrome is almost ready.
Don’t get me wrong. It is stable and for a first beta release, it shows promises. However, of course, a beta is still a beta. It will take a few iterations before we can really see something that is “Wow” and the feeling of “completeness”. - No RSS Support
At the moment, Google Chrome doesn’t have a built-in RSS support. There is also no RSS icon indicator appearing anywhere on the browser when you browse a Feed enabled page. - Google Chrome’s lack of Bookmarking management
There is no easy way to organize your bookmarks on Google Chrome. You can add folders and bookmarks, but not through an easy drag-and-drop window a la explorer. - 99% CPU Usage mystery
Sometime Google Chrome use 70%-99% CPU usage on my computer. Don’t know why. Don’t even know if it’s caused by a Tab or by my computer. It doesn’t last long though (less than 10 seconds) and no crashes happened.
I don’t know why Google Chrome also uses 2 separate processes with no opened tab (+1 extra process for every tab)
Three separate processes for one opened Tab?
- Plain password stored on Google Chrome?
I’m talking about the Remember your password feature. You can see your stored password on Google Chrome Options, in plain text. I’m not sure how secure this is, especially if you leave your Google Chrome on for a toilet break and some pesky eyes quickly go to your password settings and note them down.. It should ask at least a master password to be able to access this area, at least.
Sorry to disappoint by scratching my password list
Conclusion on the first Google Chrome Beta release
Google Chrome is still in Beta but it has shown promises. If you are a casual user who only uses your browser to browse sites, it’s worth trying Google Chrome.
I’m somewhere in the middle. I love Google Chrome (and I guess almost every innovation from Google) because it’s fast, sleek, and reliable. The memory consumption definitely helps me in the office, because the computer hasn’t been upgraded and the windows hasn’t been formatted for 4 years 
Every single less memory and CPU consumption helps.
Download Google Chrome at its official web site.
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yeah i use it now… its very simple browser
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I didn’t know Chrome had this many facilities.Especially the fact about tabs. That’s super cool and i really wish Chrome did something about extensions!But this is just the beginning!we’ll give them some time to improvise in the future!:) I don’t know why, but i still love Firefox!
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Great post. I wonder how come you have done the review of the browser so quick and also come up with a post
Anyways it was very nice review.
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Fantastic post! And fantastic beta too! I have downloaded Google Chrome immediately as they posted the link online at the Google Blog – the download took five seconds and when I actually launched the finished, installed Google Chrome… ah, it was heaven!
Incredible fast, incredibly sleek – just so cool! I have to say though, I do have to get used to the “type in the omnibox to make a search” feature – I’m used to seeing a “Home” button, and even though Chrome does provide it, it’s not the same! The default for a homepage is simply just a new tab, and not an actual website like google.com. (although again, you can change that)
The bookmarks I haven’t tried yet, but I can see where you’re getting at. And I’m half – half like you. One side, anything by Google (at least the software and stuff like Gmail) you just gotta try and at least use for a while – but stuff you’ve grown to love like Mozilla Firefox – you won’t give that up so easily. At least I won’t!
A thing I liked is that Google Chrome doesn’t repeatedly keep asking you to put their browser as the default one. In fact, it never asked me, and I only found out about the option by going to Options!
Which is good, at least for a beta, when people just want to try out a software. Good first impression, if there are no annoying popups!
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Damn it! Where have I been not realizing that there is a new browser in town? I’m all for it as long as there isn’t an issue of browser inconsistency. I’m grabbing it as I’m writing this…..
Yan
I have also downloaded chrome and i the first thing i noticed in this new browser is its blinding speed on loading pages, and also I like the incognito mode feature lol
24patrols last blog post..My First Review On Google Chrome
Sometimes less is more, and I’ll have to find out if that’s the case. If so, that would be a reason to love it. But, I need more than what it’s offering right now. So I’ll have to wait this one out and see how it evolves.
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It supports window XP and vista only.
Some of the IE support website can’t open with Google Chrome.
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some say google chrome is next generation browser..
but i think its not so robust..
maybe there some bug that chrome cant do like IE or mozilla..
nice post….i need new browser right now, my FF 3.0 have a lot of bug. It can’t open some website.
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With it being open source, it won’t be long until some things are tweaked. For its first release, its not too bad.
Really great post! Stumbled, Digged!
Very good summary of Chrome, I especially liked 6,8 and 9 on the positive side, they solved some problems that annoyed us for years
And I’m sure the majority of the negative aspects will be corrected quickly, especially the extensions.
What I like about Chrome is it’s open-source, so any problems will be fixed quickly, and I’m sure there gonna be a Linux and Mac version soon.
My 10th point I dislike about Chrome is I can’t even install it now, but I’ll try again and again
But in my opinion, the positive aspects clearly outstrip the negative ones, so I’m sure I found my new favorite browser
Amazingly, today everyone everywhere is talking about Google Chrome lol. It’s like the next hot trend thing
Rjani, you can’t install it? Try downloading the standalone installer (Google it). Maybe it can help with your problem
OK, I downloaded it, but it’s still not working. I can now install it, but every time I try to load a page it freezes and I get an error message.
Could it be because I haven’t installed SP2?
Nice review, I’ll add it to my week digest
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You mean you haven’t installed Windows XP Service Pack 2?? It’s already up to Service Pack 3 now man
You really should update yours, not because of Chrome
Thanks, Roland. Went to your site but it’s all in French lol
I have downloaded, installed and love it. I enjoy the minimalist approach, as that is the way I configure IE and Firefox.
The speed is unmatched by any browser I have seen, and the fact that it cleans up after itself (in terms of resources) is a huge bonus.
Let’s see how long before it makes some headway into the IE/Firefox dominated browser world.
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STUMBLED! and Engaged!
Downloading as we speak.
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I guess I have to install it now… hope it’ll work then
OK, I installed SP2 and it works!!! Neat and fast!
Thanks Michael!
King Google does it again. Is crome really better than FF3?
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Oh ya, and dugg!!!
Better Interpersonal Communications last blog post..What is Signposting
i noticed the CPU spikes too. when i took a look using process monitor from sysinternals, i could see chrome writing to files named “safe browsing” and “safe browsing-journal.” i think this might have to do with their anti-phishing/malware stuff, perhaps it’s updating the bad-site database. why it has to use up so much CPU for that is a mystery to me!
For those who asked why Google abandoned Firefox:
http://gigaom.com/2008/09/02/why-did-google-abandon-firefox/
it’s still not totally clear, but at least it answers some questions
by the way, I was wondering when Google decides to develop his own OS, it would be interesting to see if they can build a better one than Mac or Linux, cause they always produce quality products and, as for now they’re doing way much better on the “browser field”.
(But I have to admit I miss the extensions, so while they fix this little problem I stick with Firefox)
Another Google Try to take the world over, tried it really crappy. crashed on me 3 timess
What attracts me is the incognito mode and the memory part, should be quite good except i’ll use ie7 for the moment, in case if somebody tried to steal my passwords
WAS a little bit disappointed when the password was scratched but…
just noticed google chrome yesterday… and saw this post and this just let me know more about google chrome which is quite useful THANKS
quite a long post as well and a good one
Mozilla CEO uncertain about future relationship with Google:
http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-39148-118.html
an another article on the topic. What I realised that Chrome’s appearance has started an even bigger competition among the various browsers, and who benefits the most from the situation is us, cause they’re developing good software more quickly
Dugg , buzzed, reddit and stumbled Mike. I was looking around for a good review of Chrome and this one’s the best. Good job!
– btw, your sponsorship slot (non-cash or cash) is still reserved. Hehe. Send me the details.
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rjani,
Developing an OS is altogether a different ball game. create a new OS is very difficult. I think google will only concentrate on web services where they can gain from advertisements.
They won’t create an OS and try to sell.
This is what i feel…
Nihars last blog post..Google Chrome – How to Browse Privately
I guess it’s interesting when Google can come up with a new O/S. I’ll definitely give it a try
But yeah I guess it’s not easy especially with Microsoft and Linux dominating the market (and Mac? hehe)
Rjani, you should just upgrade to XP Service Pack 3 altogether
Also, I heard that if you turn off the Anti phishing/malware thing, it’ll make Chrome run faster, but I’m quite happy with what it is, even if I have it frozen here and there a couple of times (on some Flash movies, I think)
The “Show passwords” button is in Firefox too.
I didn’t say they’ll sell it. If they create one, and I’m sure they will, they’ll do it open-source, totally free, just like other Google services.
Google Chrome was also free, because it enables Google developers to write their code more easily, and write programs that run faster.
If they create an OS, I’m sure they’ll do so for the same reasons.
Well, I’m considering SP3, but it runs quite well with SP2, so I’ll postpone it I guess
While extensions are missing, I can’t do much with Chrome anyway…
[...] to offer. Which browser is faster? Google Chrome or Mozilla FireFox? Take a read on the "9 Things to Love and Hate About Google Chrome". Please also post your feedback and experience with both browsers within this thread, to help [...]
[...] Michael Aulia – 9 things to love and 9 things to hate about Google Chrome. [...]
@Natasha: I guess you’re right although in Firefox you can put a Master password to protect it
@Rjani: Well SP3 has an improvement on performance, along with other fixes. You should have just upgraded straight to SP3 rather than going to SP2 lol
I a big Firefox loyalist and therefore a bit reluctant to change but Google seems to have a lot of very attractive features built into it.
Wow.. great write up… your writing skills have been growing and growing and now it looks like a world class technical review site…
keep up the good work..
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After waiting a week to comment I think we will see substantial and quick upgrades to Chrome in the near future. What they did was release a really solid BETA version of the platform and then just sat back to read the hundreds of thousands of comments like the ones here.
Knowing Google’s history it would not surprise me at all if they already have a big number of upgrades already ready to be released. Personally I think with their unlimited resources they will quickly be competing with FF and IE
—
Political Disgust
@Ann Arbor: It’ll take some time for Google to be able to beat Firefox and its popularity (especially with the extensions)
@quakeboy: hey, thanks for the compliment. This post took me 2-3 hours to write and finalize, believe it or not O_o. Glad if you think it can be compared to a world class technical review
@PoliticalDisgust: As you said, it is a solid beta (considering it’s even the first). I certainly can’t wait for the next major update from Google Chrome. Hope it’s soon. You can actually find Google Chrome Nightlies build here if you are desperate in getting the most updated version of Chrome. But I’ll wait if I were you
It takes a bit of getting used to if you’re a diehard Firefox user like I am but I have to admit it is a very fast browser. Great article.
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Unfortunatly Chrome’s Incognito mode isn’t really private. It keeps so-called “flash cookies” even after leaving the Incognito mode. So every website can still keep track on you using this technique. And other users of your computer can see where you have been surfed too.
there are so many advantages and features with Chrome, such as it’s speed, for example; now if only they would take care it’s quirky cookie management…
@Danielle: True. I’m a Firefox user myself but I find that Firefox is “heavy” and quite slow to load-up (compared to other browser). It is very stable at the moment though on its v3.0.1
@Mike: Hm that’s pretty scary. I guess we have to wait until some bugs have been washed out. I’ve been downloading the nightlies (Google is updating that baby a few times in a day!)
@film fan: Cookie management? I rarely check this (or maybe don’t even care about it). Care to elaborate more on what’s happening?
[...] here are 9 things to love and 9 things to hate about Chrome. I hope Google would fix the ‘9-things-to-hate-about-chrome’ in their next [...]
I am very much thankful for this great article, you have share..
i love google chrome, but you know guys there was no perfect software and i think google is doing its job to give the people the best!
True, but this is probably the only browser that survives the first Beta ever