Liberty's Blog

Chrome makes its Mark

Google released their new web browser Tuesday and it shows promise. Google has a reputation for releasing Betas that are pretty solid and Chrome is no exception, although it is a beta, it is rock solid and their have been very few reports unstability.

The first thing that one might notice is the clean interface. There is no menu bar, no tool bar. There is a history bar and a navigation bar thats it. Options and functions are accessed from two tiny icons in upper right hand corner. There are lots of keyboard shortcuts. Navigating the way around the program pretty easy. One enters a search or a web site all in the same textbox. Chrome figures out what it's suppose to do.

There is some concern that Chrome is just another method for Google to gather more information about us so that it can aim targeted advertising at us. While Google promises extension and add-on capability it just isn't their yet. One has wonder whether ad blocking will be allowed to work in further versions. Chrome does have a "porn" mode though where site information isn't logged onto ones PC to ensure privacy.

The most important feature of Chrome may be it robustness. Each tab runs within its own process. a super fast Javascript virtual machine called V8 that uses compiled code technology. Active threading helps prevent ant one action from slowing the whole browser down. Google also promises a much improved memory management than either Internet Explorer or FireFox.

Both Microsoft and Firefox are due to release new versions before the end of the year. Firefox is promising enhanced performance with Version 3.1. Microsoft is still prommising not to support Linux or older versions of Windows.

Chrome shows promise, but right now the lack of extensibility to allow ad blocking and not being ready to run on Linux or Mac machines is going to limit it acceptabilty.

Labels: Tech

posted by Liberty @ 8:25 PM