by Debra C.
Member since:
April 19, 2007

Reactions to Google's Chrome, Day 1

September 04, 2008 12:17 PM EDT
views: 110 | rating: 10/10 (18 votes) | comments: 35

 

Despite the warnings that DoS attacks could crash all tabs in the browser and other, less urgent, comments, I installed Chrome. Call me curious, but Google has released some intriguing product (ie, can you say Google Earth/Sky) ... and who can argue with free?

 

 

 The first thing I noticed was screen real estate. Chrome limits the tool and menu bars to bare, and I mean bare minimum.

I had to "elect" to show a bookmark bar. For me, the bookmark access is far more beneficial than showing my most frequent visits or history in thumbnails on a page. If, on the other hand, I installed this on a netbook designed to check email and a few other pages, Google's thumbnail page would probably be a great feature.

The second, and my view an outstanding feature, is the speed of page-loading. Installed on a machine that also has IE7, Firefox 3, and Opera 8, Chrome consistently loads MUCH faster. I'll leave it to the labs to measure the differences, but this is especially noticable with pages that contain a lot of feeds such as news/media sites.

Videos were the third area in which I spent some time last night. I did not try RealMedia pages, but moved between YouTube, several news sites, and some archived tech webcasts. All of these played smoothly with good sound and video resolution. I mention this, in particular, because some others have talked about "freezing" on video sites. The ability to close one tab and leave others open to resolve a freeze is one of Chrome's touted features, and it is a potential workaround for this problem.

Summary --

I will continue to play with Chrome and, I suspect, enjoy it. For general surfing, it will load quickly ... which is important to me.
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Comments: 35

Donna T. Sep 4, 2008, 1:31pm EDT
Thanks for the info
Mary K. Sep 4, 2008, 2:19pm EDT
Thanks for the information. I tried it and at first, I loved it because it was so fast. But it kept getting slower as I went on and I kept getting frustrated. So I went back to Firefox, which is much better for my computer.
I did love Chrome's search box at the top. It was so handy and cool.
I wish Gmail Manager was available for Chrome so I could keep track of my email at all times.
Dawn S. Sep 4, 2008, 3:05pm EDT
Chrome is a browser?
Leah A. Sep 4, 2008, 4:22pm EDT
It seems like it is easier to monitor web activity with this browser, which is good if you are administering an organization and want to track employee's web use. I wouldn't like this feature for personal/home use, though. Faster page loading is definitely an important feature, however, so I would have to weigh the positives and negatives.
Leah A. Sep 4, 2008, 4:23pm EDT
Thank you for posting this article to the group Computers and More. Your article has been chosen to be featured in this group.
William Dotani Sep 4, 2008, 4:46pm EDT
I heard about this from a friend, but he said it only works good if you have firefox 3. Thanks for the info.
Linda DeMerle Sep 4, 2008, 5:35pm EDT
Thanks for the review. I think I will try it.
Debra C. Sep 4, 2008, 6:11pm EDT
Mary K -- mine hasn't gotten slower (yet), but I've seen a few comments about that. It is something that is worth looking at.
Debra C. Sep 4, 2008, 6:12pm EDT
William -- that is an interesting note. My test machine has Firefox 3 on it as well.
Debra C. Sep 4, 2008, 6:13pm EDT
Leah -- I will comment on it more in the next installment, but there is a mode, controllable by the user, to avoid history tracking. That could negate your bit on corporate security.
~*~ tinksmagic ~*~ ~ Sep 4, 2008, 10:49pm EDT
I am finding it to be very fast too, still having javascript issues and page not found issues. It is slower right now than it was earlier today, but it is so much faster than IE 6, so I will also continue to test it.
Debra C. Sep 4, 2008, 11:56pm EDT
I am wondering about the java and javascript compatability too, Bonnie. While I suspect this will improve as time goes on, I have run into some issues, too.
Deborah C. Sep 5, 2008, 9:39pm EDT
I think I will wait while and see if they can get the kinks out. I have the site bookmarked when I am ready to intall it.
Teresa T. Sep 6, 2008, 3:08am EDT
Thanks for the info.
Margy Rydzynski Sep 6, 2008, 5:22pm EDT
Thanks. I've heard about Chrome, but have no immediate plans to install it. I use Firefox and am content with it. Of course, I love to play around with new software, so that status quo may change at any moment!
Ethan . Sep 7, 2008, 12:40am EDT
Now all I need is a GoogleOS.
Brian .. Sep 7, 2008, 10:08am EDT
good to learn about.
thanks.
Dove D. Sep 7, 2008, 11:28am EDT
good info
Nurse Nancy S. Sep 7, 2008, 8:32pm EDT
Never even heard of it. Thanks for the info!
Debra C. Sep 7, 2008, 9:12pm EDT
I heard a lot of buzz about GoogleOS a couple years ago Ethan, but never saw it on a machine. It was supposed to be web-access system. I wonder if it will re-emerge now that netbooks are starting to appear in the mainstream. XPLite was supposed to accomplish this on eBooks, but the true stripped-out version is only available outside the US.
necee t. Sep 8, 2008, 12:34am EDT
thanks Debra... i find it to be faster too... cool...
Dove D. Sep 8, 2008, 11:33am EDT
good info
Kathryn E. Sep 8, 2008, 3:02pm EDT
So what is Chrome exactly? I use Firefox 3 and of course use Google for all searches. And Picasa.
Sarah (I want points) Sep 10, 2008, 10:39am EDT
Sounds pretty interesting... I only use IE...
Lisa K. Sep 11, 2008, 12:41pm EDT
This looks very interesting. Thanks for the info.
Pamela K. Sep 11, 2008, 10:20pm EDT
thanks for the information
(Jasper,(Disciple for Christ. w. Sep 13, 2008, 9:33pm EDT
Thanks for he info, worth looking to.
Heather ~of the Whippets~ M. Sep 21, 2008, 12:33am EDT
It sounds interesting, but I won't be trying it anytime soon-- at least, not with Vista as my OS.
Kelly M. Sep 22, 2008, 11:23am EDT
Thanks for the info!
Afternoon, Debra!
I'd never heard of this add-on(?), it's an add-on, right till just now, thanks for this. I'm going to see what you continue to think of it as you use it more before making any decisions as a slooower computer is the last thing I need! lol
Keep updating, k?
Marilyn
M C. Sep 25, 2008, 1:40pm EDT
Thanks for your review Debra. I haven't played around with Chrome too much yet, but have been enjoying Safari and Opera on the PC..
J R B. Sep 29, 2008, 7:08pm EDT
Thank you for the info.
Sheila Deeth Oct 22, 2008, 8:19pm EDT
Fast page-loading sounds good. I seem to wait forever for Gather pages to load. I'm not sure I'm ready to experiment yet though.
Brian .. Mar 6, 2009, 7:50pm EST
I'm wondering if you're still using Chrome
and if you still like it.

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