Google Chrome - Does the world need another web browser!

  • Thread starter Robin
  • 129 comments
  • 8,741 views
I am running it right now. It definitely runs smoother on my PC. It gives me an underline for misspelled words and if I right-click on them I get a drop down menu of options to correct it.

Also, my scroll wheel works just fine as well.

My only issue is that my Norton's firewall automatically blocked it and I had to go in and add it manually as a permitted program.

A few tweaks and features and it should be good.

Here is a photo example of spell check.

chromesc1sl5.jpg

chromesc2hq7.jpg

chromesc3ck1.jpg
 
I really like Chrome, although I miss have RSS feed in the toolbar and many of the add ons I enjoy with Firefox such as adblocker and the various skins. I don't think I'm ready to switch yet but I have a feeling I will be doing so once the kinks are worked out.
 
Hah! Look at that!

So far, I'm pretty impressed. It loads easily, skips around without much of a hiccup, and looks good to boot! I like how it stole all of my bookmarks and passwords from Mozilla right away, making it easier for me to go to other websites. I'll have to tinker more, but in general, this seems like a nice meeting place between Safari and FF3.

EDIT:

So I've tinkered with it a bit longer...

All it really needs is the gadget/widget/apps like what you see in FF3 to get me to convert fully. Something like ABP would be lovely, and I hope someone out there is making a Digg toolbar as well. It is an absolutely amazing browser, very very fast with a lot of neat features. Its just missing a few of the nicer details, and that won't allow me to switch fully (yet).
 
Last edited:
And middle-click-to-scroll.

And somebody please start skinning! XP blue = not okay.
F1GTR has obviously "skinned" his installation of Windows, but this is how it looks for me in Aero. Although you can't really tell from this image, even the unselected tabs have a degree of transparency. It's very nice.

16274557ce3.jpg
 
F1GTR has obviously "skinned" his installation of Windows, but this is how it looks for me in Aero. Although you can't really tell from this image, even the unselected tabs have a degree of transparency. It's very nice.

16274557ce3.jpg

It looks like it uses whatever color of the Aero glass you have chosen already. Now that I'm home and using it I don't have the scroll issue. It must have been something with that mouse at the college. I could, however, middle click and bring up the "free scrolling" cursor. It didn't work, but it did appear there. Some of this could be the difference between XP and Vista.

How stable is it running for the rest of you? I haven't run into any issues yet with my usual browsing.
 
Just started... fan-bleeding-tastic. It does lack some of the add-ons that Firefox has, but apparently, Google's knack of simplifying things has paid dividends here... it's the fastest browser I've ever tried (short of the ultra-simple text-only free browser I use when I'm doing heavy pages on a super-slow 56k connection.) It's somewhat faster than FF3 on my laptop, and that's even considering the Java-blocker I'm running to counteract some of the slow-loading pages I'm testing right now.

I love Firefox, but the memory-hogging has just got to stop... as I'm running Firefox, MSWord, CorelDRAW, CorelPAINT and Adobe Photoshop on my laptop... often at the same time, the amount of virtual memory Firefox uses is unforgiveable.

And the interface is so... OMG... clean. If this is just a BETA, I'm impressed. I'm keeping this one. I hope Google doesn't ruin this one with extra, memory eating features like they did GMail.
 
Well as of now, I had 3 browsers on my dad's laptop (IE, Firefox, Opera) and I think its less likely I will add another browser until I get my pc fixed up. By the sound of it, the browser sounds quite cool actually. Hope they fixed everything when the full version is out. 👍
 
Right click anywhere on the unused tab space, and then click Task Manager. Then press 'Stats for Nerds' :sly:.

Also a good feature, press the 'main menu' button next to the 'settings' button, and click on 'Create Application Shortcuts'. It creates a shortcut on eg. your desktop to the page you're viewing. I made a neat little button for GTP.
 
Last edited:
I'm pretty much content with Safari at the moment, but seing as i'm only hearing good things about Chrome i can't wait to try out the Mac version when it comes out.
 
I tried it out earlier today. I would have rather seen them work with the Mozilla team though and implement these new features into a new version of Firefox. Hell, most of the web still doesn't know about Firefox, so the chances of them giving a damn about Chrome are...?
 
I tried it out earlier today. I would have rather seen them work with the Mozilla team though and implement these new features into a new version of Firefox. Hell, most of the web still doesn't know about Firefox, so the chances of them giving a damn about Chrome are...?

But it's google and they make those engines which search the internet!!! It has to be good! I'm pretty happy with Firefox and the features it has so far (especially some of the addons) so I don't think I'll be making the move anytime soon.
 
And since everyone uses google it won't be hard to promote it either. I won't be surprised if it overtakes FF's user base in the future.
 
I would have rather seen them work with the Mozilla team though and implement these new features into a new version of Firefox.
Except their goal was to start from nothing and build it from the ground up to be better than anything else out there.

For a beta that currently lacks features it is still pretty good.


I think everyone should go through the information comic to see what the goal is and what they are trying to do.
http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/
 
G.T
And since everyone uses google it won't be hard to promote it either. I won't be surprised if it overtakes FF's user base in the future.

Well seeing that Google has it posted on their main page, a lot of people are bound to see it, and quite a few will probably at least click the link to see what it is.

Is there a way to turn off the balloons that pop up over links (like individual threads)? I find that highly annoying to have a paragraph pop up whenever I hover over something. It makes it a little harder to use. Other than that, it's simple and quick.
 
I'm missing the word find that was on-page with FF3. I used it frequently to bump down or when I was finding obscure references in large bodies of text quickly.

-edit- my bookmarks lined up in a nice line along the top of the page with FF, but now 4 of them got demoted to a drop-down. Simple graphics issue would solve it, hopefully with some new skins. Otherwise, I'm loving this!
 
Last edited:
Wow! I downloaded chrome here at the college library. So far, I am super-impressed. This browser is nice and clean. It's great. You can even resize the quick-reply text-box here on gtp. It has Firefox's spell checker too. I love how clean it is. My favorite feature is probably that tabs run in their own processes, and the whole browser won't crash if one tab does. That's great.

The only thing I don't really like is that there is no adblock. I think I'll stick with firefox at home just for that reason. I doubt Google will permit an adblock feature, as a huge chunk of their business is online advertising. But, otherwise, Chrome is just like an amalgam of the best of everything out there already, and more.

Resources look good too. Surprisingly, IE runs at about 21kK, followed by Chrome with 15kK plus anywhere from 18k-28kK per tab, and then Firefox at around 30kK.

Good job, Google.
 
Last edited:
Add that AdBlock and some sort of JavaBlocker and Chrome would be perfect. I like how it compartmentalizes memory so you can see which sites are real resource hogs... and how they compartmentalize javascripts so the browser doesn't freeze up completely when you load a bad one... (happens a hell of a lot on Firefox if you have no anti-Java defense), but still, being able to switch java off for certain sites is a good feature to have, especially, if like me, you browse over twenty tabs at a time.

For a Beta, this is gut-damn impressive. The fact that I'm using it now instead of FF3, despite the lack of a Java-blocker like NoScript says a lot.
 
In the reading of the day's news, I came across a little problem with Chrome.

Gizmodo
So, are you enjoying the snappy, clean performance of Google Chrome since downloading yesterday? If so, you might want to take a closer peek at the end user license agreement you didn't pay any attention to when downloading and installing it. Because according to what you agreed to, Google owns everything you publish and create while using Chrome. Ah-whaaa?

I don't think it will deter me, but I'd love to hear why Google has that in the EULA.

===

Another thought on Chrome: When I hit 'CTL+I', 'CTL+U', etc it doesn't automatically insert the tags. It doesn't kill the experience, but its something I'd like to see changed later. That, and I've also noticed that the spell-check can be a bit buggy at times too, not allowing me to change words that I misspell frequently.
 
I am surprised that noone on this forum has questioned the privacy with Chrome yet.

EDIT: How did I miss that YSSMAN has?
 
Last edited:
It reads like they're giving themselves permission to cache whatever you post/publish from Chrome and add it to their database. They're not claiming ownership... what they're asking for is a royalty-free and non-exclusive right to republish... which some idiot in legal thought was needed to allow Chrome to... I don't know... actually display stuff?

Do note in the cartoon guide that they say they're using the public beta to gather data on how to make Chrome better.. I actually clicked the "send my browsing details to Google... etcetera etcetera etcetera..." button when I DL'ed it. I don't particularly mind... I'm not doing anything illegal on the internet.

They can't actually claim free use of stuff I do publish on the web as part of my work... but... oh... it's online writing... which is free access to begin with... stuff that is published for membership only sites... well, the copyright on those sites have precedence over any EULA.

EDIT: Oh... read the EULA fully... basically, they're asking you license to run your data through proxy servers and to provide information on your browsing preferences (like search engines don't do that already) to their partners for technical services.

They don't claim ownership... note that the EULA is worded so that you retain ownership of your work... you're just granting them permission to display your data and possibly modify it so that it can be transmitted and used in syndicated services (most likely involves crunching your search texts into keywords... etcetera) . And the license is not irrevocable... but you have to read the rest of the EULA to find out how it can be revoked... blah blah blah...

While some of the wording may technically be questionable, I suppose it's Google's way of reinforcing its own search database, adsense engine and etcetera.
 
Last edited:
Anyone figure out how to get rid of the blue bar at the top and make it clear or something? It looks really good on the library PC, but it just doesn't flow with my home screen.

Also, I find that Chrome doesn't work as well as firefox for flash videos and stuff, but that's because my computer has to process all of the graphic advertisements that don't exist with firefox.
 
Last edited:
Google went all "We totally didn't mean that" when people started freaking out about it.
My problem is what would happen if Google crumbled under the pressure to hand over their search histories like the government keeps whining to them about doing? Would this EULA crap get mixed up in that?
I think I'm okay with Google being just a search engine.
 
Ok, so I'm on Google chrome right now and I'm loving it. Spellcheck is good, The tabs are good. Everything so far is good. I just gotta watch what I browse as it might show up when I create a new tab. Google did a nice job with this.
 
i had a look today.. and it ok... but too minimal for my needs. seems reasonably quick.. but no quicker than ff in my situation.
I didn't like the fact it didn't pick up i use FF so can't import bookmarks, no ad blocking ability, and where is the homepage button ???????
 
Back