Google Chrome

No preview, no advanced notice at all. Surprise surprise... and I bet they do a great job with it.

Can't wait to see what it can do...
 
shoot -- it looks like no linux version yet.

it sounds pretty good though, even if we have to use it in windoze. :p

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.
Click to expand...
 
I hope [H] does an article comparing Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and IE8 for kicks.

Tomorrow will be interesting...
 
Since it's OSS, i'll wait for someone to strip the Google tracking from it. :p

Otherwise, it sounds pretty nice for process isolation features. I wouldn't mind giving up a little speed in order to get better stability and security.
 
See, this is going back to what I believe was the original intention for Internet Explorer - not just a browser, but a component that was so tightly coupled with the OS that it basically became the OS itself.

As I'm reading the "comic book" they created, all the stuff it mentions and talks about goes right back to - instead of having an OS running a browser - you end up with a browser that works almost like a mini-OS in and of itself. GoogleOS, Thinstalled, anyone? :) Sure seems like it based on the comic book...

I wonder...

If they can do a browser, and it's successful, there's nothing stopping Google from developing an entire OS infrastructure around Chrome, much to Microsoft's dismay - they had a project called Chrome long ago, remember? ;)
 
OK, darn. So tomorrow's release is only a BETA version of the browser, which is still OK I guess.

And they are making a Linux and Mac version as well (duh, but maybe some are curious):
This is just the beginning -- Google Chrome is far from done. We're releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.
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As long as a software product is in development, it could theoretically - and quite logically - always be referred to as "beta" software. It's when the development stops cold that the project is "final." :D
 
Mixed feelings about this. Google has made some great apps so far. That being said they are using a mix of stuff from webkit and mozilla?

We have

Trident which is IE or anything based off it.

Gecko which is anything based off mozilla.

KHTML or webkit which is Konqueror from KDE(apples safari uses this as well)

Presto which is opera.

From what I'm reading they are using webkit which is interesting since they are taking something from KDE which apple improved on and yet releasing it on windows first? Also I'm interested to see what they were taking from mozilla.
 
Could be the first step towards that GoogleOS I'll bet they have under consideration. It's not an unreasonable line of thinking...
 
Joe Average said:
Could be the first step towards that GoogleOS I'll bet they have under consideration. It's not an unreasonable line of thinking...
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that was my first thought, too. maybe googleOS is taking longer than they thought, so they decided to release this now as a prelude to googleOS, while they continue to develop and refine it.
 
swatbat said:
KHTML or webkit which is Konqueror from KDE(apples safari uses this as well)

Presto which is opera.

From what I'm reading they are using webkit which is interesting since they are taking something from KDE which apple improved on and yet releasing it on windows first? Also I'm interested to see what they were taking from mozilla.
Click to expand...

all I know is that konqueror is freaking fast! I mostly use FF and as a rule don't use KDE, but the few times I've used konqueror I've been impressed by how fast it was. definitely faster than ffox.
 
synaptical said:
all I know is that konqueror is freaking fast! I mostly use FF and as a rule don't use KDE, but the few times I've used konqueror I've been impressed by how fast it was. definitely faster than ffox.
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gnomes browser is switching from mozilla to khtml/webkit. Yea it does seem to generaly be a good product.
 
This sounds interesting. I'll definitely be giving it a looksie.

You think they would have released information about it earlier, though.
 
I'm looking forward to trying it out. From the screenshots I've seen and what little I've read about it, it seems to have great potential.
 
]|[ Mar']['in ]|[;1032975578 said:
I wonder what time today :( I want to test it now!

edit: oh, wait, does it come out today or tomorrow?
Click to expand...

Today their are saying, but cant find a posting yet
After reading more, it seems tomorrow :D
 
I guess they got caught off guard by the leaked announcement and want to make sure they shore up their servers.

unless it's all just marketing and publicity to increase buzz. ;)
 
So let's see ..., Google, the main worldwide company that makes gigantic profits from selling ads on the Internet, is now also attempting to control the way you browse the Internet.

I like innovation just fine, and I appreciate all Google does for the tech community at large, but I can't help to feel that Google is really the Evil Empire. Google knows more about you than you do yourself, because Google never forgets.
 
Interesting browser. It highlights text fields like Safari, which is nice, but potentially troublesome for web developers. Safari has its own mechanism for disabling text field highlighting (which is nice when you're using a background and doing your own highlighting via an on:focus rollover), but that likely doesn't work in this browser. One minor annoyance is the lack of a progress bar, which just feels very unusual for me, and no way to modify the default theme. Inline search isn't nearly as nifty as it is in Safari, but the same's true of Firefox and Opera as well, so no real beef there. Anecdotally, scrolling feels very sluggish in Chrome.

I'm going to keep using this here at the office until I encounter some problems. Things look good so far, though. It feels like a solid foundation of a browser at the least. I'm just not finding anything that could "separate it from the pack".

Hey...and this text field is easily resizeable. Nice.

Thuleman said:
So let's see ..., Google, the main worldwide company that makes gigantic profits from selling ads on the Internet, is now also attempting to control the way you browse the Internet.
Click to expand...
So, you obviously equate "releasing a free open-source browser" to "controlling the way you browse the web". Makes sense :rolleyes:

EDIT: Just noticed that the installer dropped a shortcut in my QuickLaunch. -1,000,000 points. Don't do that shit unless I specifically fucking ask you to, Google.
 
It's a bit resource intensive from what I can see so far, a bit sluggish when moving around, probably because of Webkit; I've tested Safari for Windows before and it does precisely the same thing, just like iTunes for Windows does as well - there's no real reason for it as proper Windows apps don't get all sluggish like these do.

It's fast, definitely, but will only get faster as they really tighten up the code. Releasing a beta is the surest way to get people to report on the nearly infinite variety of Windows installations, so if you spot bugs, let them know, it'll only make it better.

I do like the concept of the tabs, however. I mean, think about it. You have a "Desktop" that stares you in the face, much as you'd have a desktop on your physical desk. Say you're working on research and you have a lot of research materials in front of you (the Internet content). Say they're all nicely separated in the form of manilla folders that you're going through, and there you can easily see the correlation to "tabs" - tabs on the folders, a big stack of folders... on your Desktop...

Hell, the only thing missing really is making the Chrome interface that same pale yellow manilla color and the effect would be nearly perfect. :)

It'll get better, but so far it works. Some nice aspects I find interesting, and one big one that I don't:

Don't close the last tab showing, it'll shut Chrome down. :) Guess it needs an option to always remain open or something, like Firefox that can display the browser interface without any tabs open at all yet the browser is still there.

We'll see what happens...
 
phide said:
Interesting browser. It highlights text fields like Safari, which is nice, but potentially troublesome for web developers. Safari has its own mechanism for disabling text field highlighting (which is nice when you're using a background and doing your own highlighting via an on:focus rollover), but that likely doesn't work in this browser. One minor annoyance is the lack of a progress bar, which just feels very unusual for me, and no way to modify the default theme. Inline search isn't nearly as nifty as it is in Safari, but the same's true of Firefox and Opera as well, so no real beef there. Anecdotally, scrolling feels very sluggish in Chrome.

I'm going to keep using this here at the office until I encounter some problems. Things look good so far, though. It feels like a solid foundation of a browser at the least. I'm just not finding anything that could "separate it from the pack".

Hey...and this text field is easily resizeable. Nice.


So, you obviously equate "releasing a free open-source browser" to "controlling the way you browse the web". Makes sense :rolleyes:

EDIT: Just noticed that the installer dropped a shortcut in my QuickLaunch. -1,000,000 points. Don't do that shit unless I specifically fucking ask you to, Google.
Click to expand...

Well when you install, there's an option to customize, and when you click customize you can deselect adding an icon to quick launch. So it's your fault :p

My scrolling is fine, no slowdowns.

There is also some sort of a progress bar. At least at the bottom of the browser when you load a page, it shows the connecting, loading jpg.jpg, etc. I haven't looked it at much though because my browsing is super fast.

The problem for me is that it seems that Chrome is set to be ontop of all Windows, so it eats up my taskbar. I have to alt-tab.

I also haven't found an easy way to access my bookmarks. I have to specify to keep boomarks bar open at all times when I want to access them
 
Nice, give it a couple weeks then I can dump Maxthon. I wouldnt be surprised if Google the o/s is underway



edit
Meh someone beat me to it
 
phide said:
So, you obviously equate "releasing a free open-source browser" to "controlling the way you browse the web". Makes sense :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It will soon enough, unless you really believe Google did develop Chrome out of the goodness of their heart to save the starving children and achieve world peace.

Using "open source" as any type of quality and intent control argument is misguided. Just because others can in theory look at the code doesn't mean that any significant number of users have the background to understand what they are looking at. It also doesn't mean that experts will actually look at it (see Debian ssh fiasco).

I am not talking about control as in making you browse to specific sites or whatever, I am talking much more subtle manipulative control. Google is already displaying targeted ads based on one's search history. For example, I used Google to search for physician at the Mayo clinic, spent a few pages at the Mayo clinic web site. A day later, I am looking at EQ2i.com, and all of a sudden an ad for a hotel in Rochester, MN, came up.

Here's the thing, unless my previous search history was used to target that ad to me personally, there is simply no way that an ad for a hotel in Rochester Minnesota would show up on a web page about Everquest to a user who has an IP that is located in Alaska. I am sure we can agree on that.

Be that as it may, in the end Google is about profit (and profit is good), so keep that in mind during the "Google is God" chants.
 
Tylerdurdened said:
Well when you install, there's an option to customize, and when you click customize you can deselect adding an icon to quick launch. So it's your fault :p
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Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't recall being presented with any options. Maybe the installer glitched on me, but I'm pretty damn sure I didn't get any kind of options screen. Weird. I'll uninstall and try it again.

Tylerdurdened said:
There is also some sort of a progress bar. At least at the bottom of the browser when you load a page, it shows the connecting, loading jpg.jpg, etc. I haven't looked it at much though because my browsing is super fast.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there's that, but it's no progress bar. I hit up a site that stupidly uses a large number of images (like 250 or so), and I couldn't determine what the loading progress was on that site unless I scrolled down and watched each image pop in. It's not a major thing, but it bugs me a bit.

Thuleman said:
Here's the thing, unless my previous search history was used to target that ad to me personally, there is simply no way that an ad for a hotel in Rochester Minnesota would show up on a web page about Everquest to a user who has an IP that is located in Alaska. I am sure we can agree on that.
Click to expand...
This was a Google-served ad?
 
Is Chrome opening multiple processes for you guys as well? Like if you open task manager, right now it shows 3 chrome.exe's for me. Is this intended?

Hmm apparently it opens a processes for each tab. Which I think is a feature they discusses, I just didn't expect it to make a an actual processes
 
I hate to contribute to Google's empire, but I'm running it. Seems OK. Can't middle click to quick scroll. There's no option for smooth scrolling. I don't get the new obsession with getting rid of the menus at the top of a window. They never bothered me. Memory consumption is a bit high. (IE with [H]ardforum, slashdot, and our company website uses 46 Megs, Chrome uses 72.) It's a nice concept. Process separation is nice, but until plug ins all run with no privileges there's still a big hole. Right now it doesn't do enough to separate itself from everything else in the field. I'll give it a B. It'll stay on my computer for a while, but I probably won't remember to use it.
 
Tylerdurdened said:
Is Chrome opening multiple processes for you guys as well? Like if you open task manager, right now it shows 3 chrome.exe's for me. Is this intended?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is intended so that should something in Tab A causes a crash, you don't lose all your opened tabs.
 
I do have to admit, not having a separate Google search box is a DAMNED COOL THING. :)

Just realized it and decide to give it a shot and damned if it doesn't work perfectly... outfuckingstanding...

As I said, there are some nice things, some not so nice things, but it'll improve over time. Just tried the Acid2 test and passed as expected:

acid2mi1.png


Acid3 is a whopping 76:

acid3lz2.png


Click-hold on Back/Forward brings up immediate history (past few pages back or forward and gives the Full History option). It's a basic browser at this point showing the most basic functionality. Hell, it's open source - get the source and make it your own for all I care... ;)

And it's beta... seriously beta, so, expect big things to come. It's promising, in many ways.
 
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