Category: Technology Author : Duncan Riley Posted: September 3, 2008
Tags : crunchmeme, firefox, google, google chrome, microsoft, walt mossberg, windows
And so it was fortold, that in its 11th year Google would step forward and deliver Chrome, and the world of browsers would never be the same. If you’ve been monitoring the Crunchmemeosphere today, that’s what you would have heard, a browser that will kill Windows, kills the operating system, and kills rogue CIA agents.
I’m possibly the only person left in the tech community who hasn’t tried Chrome. It wouldn’t install under Crossover Office and my legal Vista install under VMWare Fusion has decided that it can’t be used because the copy is illegal…the very reason I switched to being a Mac user in the first place. I could do a fresh install, but I’m not feeling compelled to do so, so I’ll just wait until the Mac version is eventually released.
There is however a pile of news out there already on Chrome. Our coverage: Google Chrome, Google Chrome anti-competitive? and Google Chrome and Firefox.
The good
The good news, delivered by Matt Cutts, is that Google Chrome isn’t as anti-competitive as we’d first thought. You can swap out search engines, or even start searches with live.com or yahoo.com to search elsewhere, but lets be honest: very few people will be swapping this out and ultimately it’s pushing Google build-in. Still, at least there’s an out of sorts so the anti-competitive cry can’t be too loud.
General reviews tend to be positive. Quick, handles javascript well, nice layout etc..
The bad.
Stupid and/ or fanboy coverage. Two strong streams: this is an Internet Explorer killer, and this is the end of the Operating System.
It’s not an Internet Explorer killer. Think about it logically: Internet Explorer users already have better choices, and yet people are still using IE6. If they were going to abandon the Microsoft product for something else, most would have done so already. IE7 isn’t as bad as some make out, but it’s not brilliant either. Internet Explorer users fall into four fields. Corporate lock-in, where the corporation standardizes around Internet Explorer. Stupidity, where they either don’t realize that there are alternatives, are unable to download an alternative; Old age: my mother prefers Internet Explorer because it’s a safe choice for her and it’s what she knows; or Grumpiness, which is basically Steve Hodson. These people aren’t about to download and switch to Google Chrome. As I wrote previously, the biggest switch will be from Firefox users, who are smart enough and think about their browsing experience to the point that they are both aware of competitors and willing to try them out.
On the OS side Mark Rizzn Hopkins says it best on Mashable: Chrome is Not a Windows-Killer. The occasionally reasonable Drama 2.0 also argues along the same lines, noting that you can’t have Google Chrome without an OS.
Conclusion
Yay! It’s exciting! Google has a browser! Yay!
Sorry, carried away in the spirit of the occasion for a second. Competition is always good as it promotes innovation, a point previously demonstrated when Internet Explorer ruled the waves and browser development went to sleep for several years, only to wake when Firefox hit a double figure market share. Google couldn’t impress Walt Mossberg, so if they can’t impress god, there is still work to be done. I’m willing to give it a shot when it comes to the Mac, but in the mean time, enough already. It’s a browser built on Apple’s open source WebKit that helps the search market’s near monopolist lock in more people. When it starts whistling dixie, and delivering me multi-million dollar Adsense checks, then I might get excited.
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Sep 3, 2008
The good ol days were funny when people thought Netscape the browser and Netscape the site were one and the same. Most people who use IE will never ever ever ever ever use the features that Firefox brings. Now having said that I think Chrome would make an excellent alternative to people that are less computer literate. The biggest problem is that a lot of computer illiterate people do not know how to change their homepage so you can bet they will never take the time to download Chrome.
I do feel that if they are shown they will like the how light-weight and fast it is. I love my wife to death so I say this with love and compassion. She is one of those computer illiterate people who opens new sessions of IE7 instead of using the tabs. It is highly unlikely that I will ever get her to use Chrome although I am making it my browser of choice. I just wrote this comment in it. The funniest thing is that I taught my son to use the Avant browser when was 5 so there is hope in the world.
Browser: Someone in a department store with no money who is looking for the next big trend in shopping (circa. 1984)
Shane
Sep 3, 2008
I'm sitting on the fence, gathering splinters, too. I've installed Chrome on my XP box, but nowhere else as of yet. It seems to be working fine so far – although there are obvious missing interface elements at this stage (bookmarks are a good example).
On the Mac I still use Safari almost exclusively – mainly because it's so damn fast compared to anything else.
Sep 3, 2008
you hit this on the head–i was telling some at work about the new Google chrome browser, and there response was “–great to hear Google improved I hate Yahoo search results…” I inquired further to realize there were using IE 4 and did not know they could change the default search engine. Scray…and possibly typical. Personally Chrome looks nice, but I am not switching from FF any time soon….
Jan 25, 2009
I use Chrome sometimes. Why? It's fast. I'll give google that. On my slow b of a computer, it starts up in a second.
That's about the only good thing about it, though. I admit I also like the fact that you can “drag” tabs off the browser to create a new window, but I don't use that much and personally, it's not worth it.
The arrangment of history sucks, as does the lack of toolbar. At first I thought it was really cool and sleek. Until I began using it. Ugh. You have to open a new tab to see your history, which comes up like a webpage, and even then it's only “most visited” and “recently closed tabs”. No easy, convienent way to see that page you visited yesterday.
Plus, the browser appears to be bipolar. I visited google.com, and GOOGLE's browser informs me that “this site may contain malware”. O.K then. I click “I understand that this may harm my computer, blah, blah” and then “countinue”.
It closes the tab without prompt or permission and I have to open a new one and type google.com again to go on.
It wouldn't be so annoying if it didn't happen so damn often.
Plus, when it's not being super-fast it's being retarted. I click on a link and wait for it to load. And wait. And wait.
The browser informs me that “This webpage is not responding. Kill or wait?” I click wait. It doesn't load after 5 min., so I close it and go onto another website. The same thing happens, and countinues to happen until I close the browser and open it again.
I'm sticking to firefox – Google has disappointed me.