Using Google Chrome Internet Browser For 24 Hours

There is a new Internet browser in the market and brought to us by the boys (and girls) of Google Inc. I found out about their new Internet browser; Chrome, yesterday via their Inside Adsense email newsletter. The way I see it, their Internet browser will be in direct competition to Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari. And yes, if you want me to mention it – Internet Explorer.

I’ve been using Chrome almost completely the whole day yesterday except during the time I had a meeting in the afternoon. This was because Chrome is only released for Windows at the moment. *wails* But as I type this entry on Chrome, I’m slowly noticing and appreciating the additional potential it has to offer me. So, how does Google Chrome fair against the others?

Well, let’s see what Google says Chrome has to offer:

• One bar to rule them all
  Your URL, search, bookmarks and history in one place.
• Most visited sites page
  If you’ve used Opera, it’s a similar concept except this tracks the websites you’ve recently visited and mostly visit. You can’t assign your own websites like Opera.
• Application shortcuts
  Launch Facebook directly from your Desktop. I wouldn’t say you’re not loading a browser but you’re loading a very stripped down version aimed to only load the shortcut created.
• Dynamic tabs
  Now, this is one of its cool features. You can drag a tab out and create a new window from it.
• Crash control
  Oh, so this is why Chrome is running so many processes in my computer. Google has created their browser to run each tab on an individual process. So if (by chance), my blog hangs you can then end my process without affecting the browser.
• Incongnito mode (I like!)
  I’ve not personally taken this on a full-blown test. But what it does is allow you to surf the Internet discreetly. It doesn’t leave traces of cookies, history and some others in a new (darker blue) window.
• Safe browsing (most have this)
  Like other modern browsers, it’ll tell you if the visited website could be suspected of phishing.
• Instant bookmarks (Firefox 3 has this too!)
  While you’re surfing, click on the star icon to instantly create a new bookmark.
• Importing settings
  When you first start Chrome, you’ll be asked if you’d like to import in your stuff and you can select the stuff you want to import.
• Simpler downloads
  Instead of a new window (Firefox & IE) or a new tab (Opera), downloads are displayed at the bottom of the browser. If you’re wondering about the status bar, read on and you’ll find it. ;)

In summary, I would say Google Chrome promises a faster, safer and easier way for a user to surf the Internet and go about performing your normal routines; browsing, shopping, emails and downloads. For moderately hardcore (myself) or hardcore users, I’d have to say I find Google Chrome a nice addition to my other most commonly used browsers; Firefox and Opera.

Here are some screenshots to give you a better of what Google Chrome feels and looks like and do click on them for a larger version:

My default browser is still Mozilla Firefox but let’s see what Google Chrome falls short of compared to my default browser. As I said, I’m not a hardcore users so these are stuff I’ve noticed using it on a daily routine:

• No addons
  Hello again, ads! Chrome does block popup ads but it doesn’t have an option for you to filter out ads from unnecessarily loading. It’s unnecessary to me because I rarely look at them. And my partner was terrified to find there ain’t FlashBlock for Chrome as well. LOL!
• No shortcut keys to complete the most common domain names
  Besides .COM, the other two most common domain names I’d say are; .NET and .ORG. Firefox allows me to complete URLs with the following domains.
• Must click to open next bookmark folder
  This is a tiny thing but I noticed you can’t open the next folder on the bookmark folder by strafing across like Firefox.

But overall, Google Chrome (and my partner) taught me some new things. My partner explained it’s good if each tab runs on a single process behind your system because it makes better use your multi-core CPUs. *shrug*

And here’s another thing, you can resize (any) textarea message box. Just look at the bottom right corner of a textarea box and drag the dots which form an arrow icon.

In conclusion, I personally find Google Chrome is an all round basic, simple, fast and easy alternative to Internet Explorer. It may be able to replace Mozilla Firefox for certain needs or users. In the meantime, I’m leaving Firefox as my default browser while I discover more hidden secrets (or super powers) of Google Chrome.

Have you download Google Chrome already?