MikeJ Posted September 2, 2008 Posted September 2, 2008 Google's new web browser, called Chrome*, has now been released (windows only right now, Mac and Linux versions to come): http://www.google.com/chrome Read details in their cartoon released yesterday: http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/ * Note that this is a BETA product. Quote
MikeJ Posted September 2, 2008 Author Posted September 2, 2008 I'm running it now, and it's pretty fast! Just wish there was a Mac version so I didn't have to go to my windows instance to run test it. Quote
TCH-Bruce Posted September 2, 2008 Posted September 2, 2008 I'll wait for it to come out of Beta first. I'm still having issues with the newest Firefox. Thanks for the info Mike. Quote
nortk Posted September 3, 2008 Posted September 3, 2008 I'll wait for it to come out of Beta first. Isn't most of Google just one big permanent beta? As for me...downloaded it, and on my laptop's touchpad, Chrome would let me scroll down through a page, but not scroll up. Promptly uninstalled. Quote
Lisety Posted September 3, 2008 Posted September 3, 2008 (edited) I took Chrome for a test ride and was very impressed with the speed!!! Another feature I really like (I use IE) is that if one tab crashes, that's it, it doesn't close down the whole browser. So far, I think it's a great improvement over IE but I might wait until it's out of Beta until I customize it and use it exclusively....we'll see PS. I had no trouble scrolling up or down so not sure what happened with you Nortk. Edited September 3, 2008 by Lisety Quote
TCH-Thomas Posted September 3, 2008 Posted September 3, 2008 Thanks Mike. Google's new web browser, called Chrome*, has now been released Uh oh, one more browser to download to check my sites in before releasing them to the world then. Another feature I really like (I use IE) is that if one tab crashes, that's it, it doesn't close down the whole browser. IE 8 will have this feature too as I have understood. Quote
carbonize Posted September 3, 2008 Posted September 3, 2008 Thomas Chrome uses Apples WebKit engine for rendering so testing in either Chrome or Safari should give same results. Same as testing in Firefox, Flock or Kmeleon 'should' give the same results. I installed Chrome and was instantly annoyed at their choice of fully skinning it using the Vista theme given that I was on XP at the time. The pages I tested were fast but then so is my Firefox after I tweaked it. To me it looks like each tab is a whole new window which is just docked to the main browser component (which Google pretty much says anyway) hence you get a new entry in your running tasks for each pane. Can't say I was that impressed specially given the very sparse options available. Possibly part of why I don't like it is that is is very different in some ways to what I am used to but then again maybe not. Anyway I cannot see it replacing Firefox on my systems any time soon. Quote
MikeJ Posted September 3, 2008 Author Posted September 3, 2008 I took Chrome for a test ride and was very impressed with the speed!!! Google wrote their own Javascript Engine (poorly named V8) which is up to 10 times faster than other versions. With the heavy usage of Javascript, AJAX, etc... on websites, this will give a decent improvement in performance on most sites. However, being open-source, you may see some of this filter over to Firefox which Google still has an invested interest in at least through 2011. Whether Google's browser gains any significant market share or not, hopefully it'll help push others to optimize and become better featured and standard compliant. Quote
carbonize Posted September 3, 2008 Posted September 3, 2008 Google wrote their own Javascript Engine (poorly named V8) which is up to 10 times faster than other versions. No Google paid a company to make the new engine for them. To my knowledge the main engine parts of Chrome (the renderer an Javascript engine) are both made by third parties. Quote
MikeJ Posted September 3, 2008 Author Posted September 3, 2008 No Google paid a company to make the new engine for them. To my knowledge the main engine parts of Chrome (the renderer an Javascript engine) are both made by third parties. Well, largely the same thing. A new javascript engine was created for the google browser. And yes, the rendering engine is webkit, developed by Apple. Quote
carbonize Posted September 3, 2008 Posted September 3, 2008 (edited) I just had a look at a CSS3 test page in both Chrome and Safari and Chrome doesn't display somethings that Safari does which makes me wonder if either Google is using an old WebKit or if they have messed with it or if Apple just hasn't released an up to date version. The page I tested on was http://www.westciv.com/iphonetests/ I just looked and both browsers claim to be using the same WebKit Chrome: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/0.2.149.27 Safari/525.13 Safari: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1 Safari/525.13 Oh and just to add that apparently Mozilla has a new Javascript engine that they are introducing in Firefox 3.1 and some claim it may be better than V8 but we shall see. Further Update: - No RSS support neither :| Edited September 3, 2008 by carbonize Quote
Lisety Posted September 3, 2008 Posted September 3, 2008 In another forum they mentioned that Chrome does not support the Google Toolbar and indeed they were right! The've obviously got some kinks to work out but I sure like the speed compared to IE. Quote
MikeJ Posted September 3, 2008 Author Posted September 3, 2008 Oh and just to add that apparently Mozilla has a new Javascript engine that they are introducing in Firefox 3.1 and some claim it may be better than V8 but we shall see. Firefox is reporting that TraceMonkey is indeed faster (whether it is or not, it definitely is comparable on my system). Quote
carbonize Posted September 3, 2008 Posted September 3, 2008 I just tested Firefox 3.1 on a test site and it's a lot faster than the current one. The test site I was on lists Safari as the fastest engine and yes they did test Chrome. Quote
nortk Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 PS. I had no trouble scrolling up or down so not sure what happened with you Nortk. Yes...it was a strange problem. But a Google search revealed that I wasn't alone. Given the open source nature of the project, I'd like to think that there is active bug tracking and swatting going on. Quote
Jeter2Fan93 Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 I gave this a shot, and to me it's just another browser. It's fast, but that's about it. I wasn't impressed with what it has to offer over the new javascript engine. As for Thomas, you shouldn't have to code for this browser as it's using WebKit, which was pointed out already. Right now, it's back to Firefox on the VM in Windows and Safari/Firefox on the Mac side. Quote
JTD Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 It is rather ugly. With no way to skin it that I can see. Quote
TCH-Thomas Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 As for Thomas, you shouldn't have to code for this browser as it's using WebKit Thanks. Quote
Just_Rob Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 Some interesting information I found. http://cyberinsecure.com/carpet-bombing-vu...me-new-browser/ Hours after the release of Google Chrome, researcher Aviv Raff discovered that he could combine two vulnerabilities, a flaw in Apple Safari (WebKit) and a Java bug discussed at this year’s Black Hat conference, to trick users into launching executables directly from the browser window. I might wait a bit before playing with it. Quote
carbonize Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 The Google Chrome logo/icon reminds me of the electronic Simon Says game from the 80s - wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game) Quote
mike Posted September 10, 2008 Posted September 10, 2008 Chrome is ok I guess. I still prefer Opera. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.