Google Chrome logo image via Google
A new browser just established itself yesterday and joined the Browser war against other well known browser such as Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera and other browsers. Apparently Google has a lot of confindence in them and launched their own browser called Google Chrome on September 2nd, 2008. It’s still currently in Beta stage so a lot of bugs are to be expected, however, the future looks promising from user feedbacks that I read on various forums.
Google introduced a minimal design combined with faster,safer and easier browsing experience within Google Chrome. I downloaded it today and posted this post using Google Chrome. My impression so far is that it’s faster than firefox 3 when loading pages especially pages with a lot of images and I also felt that it’s smoother than FF3.
One noticable bug that I found right away is the number of processes it creates. Everytime, you create a new tab, Chrome will add another processes on your system. To check this bug, you need to Ctrl-Alt-Del and click on Processes tab. Sort the name in ascending order and you will notice a lot of Chrome processes which adds your memory usage.
I had 13 tabs opened at the same time and each of them created its own process. The total memory usage for those processes is 298,744 KB (298 MB). This problem obviously creates a huge burden for those with limited RAM (Less than 1 GB) on their system but I am sure they are working on to fix it because after all, it’s still only a beta ^^.
Changing into Google Chrome is probably the smoothiest transition that I have ever had. It imports not only settings but all your saved passwords and bookmarks during the installation process. Not to mention, Google Chrome put the bookmark list on the top-right side so it reduces the chance of blocking whatever on your browser at that time.
What is even better is that Chrome also imports your page history so anything pages that you have visited on your previous will be listed under Google Chrome page history.
The next tab is Minor Tweaks which contains download location, passwords management and fonts/languages. One feature that I really like from FF and Chrome does not have is Master Password function. It protects your saved password by adding a security password to view those passwords so no one can easily take a look at your password on your system. On Chrome, you or anyone else can easily view saved passwords on a particular computer.
The last tab is Under the Hood and it contains General, Network, Web Content and Security settings which all are pretty similar to what other browser has.
as iron sharpens iron, so one browser sharpens another
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On first impression I did find Chrome seemed to load pages faster. The odd thing that I liked better was it doesn’t have the bottom bar in its window.
@Super rats: It’s a good thing because you will be able to view a page more than the usual. They are trying to be a simplistic , hence why the browser has only a few bars.
Be extremely careful when using Chrome. It will cache everything that you do including sensitive information such as your bank accounts and such. Read more about it in this article.
Use CTRL+SHIFT+N to go to ‘incognito’ mode so you leave no traces such page history and cookies.
@superrats, Saku: Firefox can be made somewhat similar, using the Fission extension (it effectively makes the address bar take care of loading progress and links when hovering).
Also, I don’t know what to make of my above analysis for memory usage anymore; to me, it’s irrelevant because Chrome just feels more responsive than other browsers (except for some strange stalling at times).
I admit I might be concerned about it now, had I less RAM, but it’s weird how we get different numbers; here’s what Chrome reports for memory usage for around 24 of the same URLs, per browser: http://bit.ly/3yMXFJ
nanus last blog post..Tech Geek EDC
@nanu: Oh didn’t know that. Thx for the tip.
I do agree with you that as long as Chrome is more responsive, memory usage does not really matter assuming you have plenty of memory. However, I am still curious what happen when an old computer uses chrome, Will it be as responsive as a more powerful computer?
I looked at the link and Chrome uses a lot more of private memory than Firefox 3 unfortunately. Just to be sure, I did a test on my computer and I got the same result: http://tinyurl.com/63enxg. I also got random stalling too sometimes but haven’t crashed my Chrome yet.
I am going to try to see how it works on my old laptop p4 1.8 ghz with 256 MB RAM ^^ tonight.
Well, dunno, but i still prefer FF than Chrome now. Its all about scrolling speed and pluggin availability… Chrome has a slower speed in scrolling a page, if i’m not mistaken.
Over all, Chrome really has a potential to be developed and stand with the browser now a day… May be one day, i’d like to use this browser.. but now, FF is enough for me..
Anyway, Indonesian are you?? me too.. ^^
If you mind, i want link xchange with you.. I’ve added yours.. ^^
Sandykuns last blog post..Let’s Sing Together.. ^^
@sandy-kun: It’s still in beta so Chrome is far from perfect and FF is still better in term of plugins as you said. It will take years for a Browser to mature just like FF before.
Nice to meet fellow Indonesian blogger ^^ and I added you to my blogroll already