Google Chrome, new smal & super fast browser

[renderhjs]

for the ones that didn´t got it before

there is now a new open source browser from google using the webkit engine (konqueror, safari, air, android,...) and a new Javascript engine.
The unique thing about the browser is that plugins, tabs and windows have cascaded threads and sandboxes which means that if a plugin crashes you can still view the page, of if 1 tab crashes you can still watch the others without restarting the application. You also get a taskmanager to see how well pages perform on x-many cores how much RAM they need ect. All in all a nice tool to test flash content.

info
http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/features.html

a advertisement comic (the way I see it) was created by scott mcLoud (the comic expert) and introduces the browser and the gears technolgy. You can see a scanned version:
http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

download
http://www.google.com/chrome/

things I noticed:
- copied lots of ideas from opera (speed dial, tab behaviour)
- installer is not a offline installer,- instead it wants to grab the setup files from the server (dont like that)
- you can´t choose the installation folder,- instead it installs itself into
C:\documents and settings\USERNAME\local settings\application data\Google\Chrome\Application
- folder filesize is 46.2 MB
- minimalistic GUI (but ugly colored)

well more to come propably as I am playing around with it,

oh and btw. you might want to stick your nose into the privacy statement because they are indeed sending quite alot data to google.com.

[tomsamson]

Nice its available now. Definately has some interesting things going on there, will be nice to see how it performs in comparison.
Regarding the sending a lot of data to google that´s perfectly understandable while its still in early testing stages, i imagine if they keep it that way in later stages,too that would be quite a problem to many, so yeah, hope they don´t.
Just by itself the propect of having less easily fully crashing and overall better performing browsers is quite teasing.
Will give this a try with some sites now.

[edit]regarding the sends lots of data to google thing you said i wondered: did you not toggle on the option that it should send data to google to help improve it and it still sent stuff to em? (i tickled that option on to help improve it)[/edit]

[hatu]

Is anyone else having trouble with downloading it? The circle thing next to Accept and download just keeps on animating forever

[renderhjs]

hmm firewall perhaps?

[.hooligan]

Great another browser we have to design for :s Just annoying that there's no 100% enforced standards for how browsers should interpret code.

[mr_malee]

i'm typing from it right now. Amazing!

[691175002]

Yeah, I'm typing this from Chrome as well and I must say that I like it. I think the font in the address bar (As well as that entire section) could be a bit smaller but I have always wanted the ability to drag tabs into new windows and so far it has been very snappy. Toss in adblock and I'm sold.

I find it hard to understand the paranoia of Chrome reporting to google. The entire thing is open source, do you really think any form of sinister intent will remain hidden for very long?

[samvillian]

I was just gonna post this lol. Its cool. I love how Google is at least 5 steps ahead of yahoo.

[ImprisonedPride]

It seems like a nice app and all, but these features can already be added on to FF3.

[mr_malee]

IP, I think it comes down to the performance, Chrome is using multiple processes to display different web pages. I think that basically means faster load times and better memory usage.

[.hooligan]

Took forever to download, (Capped to 64K), It loads pretty fast, but just something about it I don't like. I see where they were going with a clutter less GUI, maybe its because it looks like it has no functionality other then browsing that I don't like. Plus I tried it on a couple sites and some CSS elements break

[WesIsGood]

One thing I like a lot is the amount of screen space. And I love Google in general, so I think this will be a browser of choice for a while.

But one thing that I don't like: when I resize the text in firefox 3, the divs resize so that everything stays nice and orderly. When I do it in Chrome, things get out of whack and text goes all over. This used to happen in firefox 2. Hopefully they will fix it at some point in Chrome. Unless somebody knows of something I can do to fix it right now.

[samvillian]

I liked the incognito setting lol. You should read that... lol.

You've gone incognito. Pages you view in this window won't appear in your browser history or search history, and they won't leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer after you close the incognito window. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be preserved, however.

Going incognito doesn't affect the behavior of other people, servers, or software. Be wary of:
Websites that collect or share information about you
Internet service providers or employers that track the pages you visit
Malicious software that tracks your keystrokes in exchange for free smileys
Surveillance by secret agents
People standing behind you
Learn more about incognito browsing.

[The Helmsman]

Don't work for me. I tried it on my work computer and get application error on start-up. ;(
The negative side is the installator that determines the region settings and install the browser with the language settings based on user's location. So if you're multilingual person and live in the country other from your mother tongue language one, you'll get the language of the location where you live and that's bad. For example I live in Israel, my mother tongue is Russian and I usually prefer to use programs in English, but get browser Hebrew because I live in Israel Where the logic? Why can't I get English by default and switch to any other language (if I want) later through the menu. Besides that you don't have this option at all. Got Hebrew? Use it or re-install browser. That's a big f#ck from Google. All above is IMHO.

[tomsamson]

I agree that its not good to autmatically set a language as default one without at least asking the user but there is an option to set the language in the settings, i set mine from the automatically set german default to english. I have o idea how the options to get there are called in hebrew but just click on the settings icon in the top right,then in the menu that comes up on the fourth item from the bottom (should be something like options), then there on the second tab (should be called something like minor tweaks) and ten it should be the last option at the bottom (and in that menu the second tab).

[tomsamson]

and yeah,to give some feedback too after some more trying: Yup, not every JS and CSS related thing works as it should and also some plugins don´t work as they should for me (flash seems fine though), but what works (most sites i visited so far) seems to work noticably better in average.
I have the feeling there´s better performance and stability on all sites, more noticable when i have several tabs open or just visit bigger sites/web apps where more is going on.
Sure there are some kinks here and there but for a first launch version it seems to be in very good shape so this could become quite big. Even in rather short timespan considering google has a link to it right under the search bar on their site now.

[hatu]

Just a warning to everyone, the EULA is very shady. I wouldn't recommend uploading any content through Chrome at the moment you don't want Google to get some ownership over

http://tapthehive.com/discuss/This_P...e_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.

No thanks, Google

[tomsamson]

I feel like this is a badly phrased term and therefore misinterpreted. The way i saw it was more that its the case when you submit content to google, not when you submit/upload it to somewhere else. I´d wait for a clarification from their side before doing the crazy dance.

[renderhjs]

security and privacy
every URL you type, mistype or search for is send to google as hash value. With the unqiue ID every Chrome installation has (you get one as soon as you download the fake installer)- it is very well possible to track user behaviour and interrests - even though google claims they wont - or eh they wont be evil.
You propably have to take googles word for it.

For anti-democratic countries that would be a very nice tool for example fore for the US government to sort people into terrorist databases - based on their surf experience ^^ - or the chinese government giving "healthy" type suggestions or filter out results.

praises
However what I think chrome impresses me most with is the technology under it- it is so far the fastet browser I expierenced and that even though I used Opera before (which kicks the fat firefox and the rotten IE in terms of usuablilty and performance often). Chrome is even faster- doesn´t hang unlike Opera or Firefox with 40+ tabs or CPU/RAM intense sites.
So from a usuability and performance site Chrome is already my new favourite - now if I just could trust that thing more....

[tomsamson]

I totally understand the worries and share them to some extend, hope they will clarify some things soon. Seing how such hype/bashing things explode quickly on the internet they probably will (have to)
On the other hand pretty much any tool/app/gadget/widget collects user data/behaviour in some way, this can also be useful for the user in many cases (like when amazon is reccomending me books that might interest me based on what i bought before).
It will be important how Google uses that data of course, then again i trust em more than many other companies whose tools i use/have to use in lack of better alternatives.