GBrowser -- enduring rumour no longer just vaporware

[Darren Dirt]

Google Announces Chrome Web Browser

The introduction of Google's Web browser could spell even more trouble for Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The Microsoft Web browser has been losing market share to Firefox and Safari for well over a year, and Google Chrome could eat into Internet Explorer's eroding dominance even more.

Google's plan was to design a new Web browser from the ground up based on technologies on WebKit, just like Apple's Safari Web browser, and Mozilla's Firefox. The result is a browser that Google claims offers a more streamlined user experience for people that spend most of their working time in a Web browser.

Google Chrome will also sport performance enhancements compared to other browsers, including sandboxing for individual browser tabs so that if one tab crashes the rest of the tabs and the Web browser will continue to run. The browser will also include what Google called a "more powerful" JavaScript engine, V8.

[Melbosa]

Hmmm another one eh...

[Lazybones]

I say go for it, the more standards compliant browsers out their the harder it should be for the Microsoft team to build crap into IE and get away with it. Also someone has to push the Mozilla team to improve Firefox, it is far from perfect.

The google browser uses Webkit as its render engine so it should have the same site compatibility as Safari on Mac platforms, which is good. If your site works in gecko/Firefox it should work under Webkit browsers as well anyway.

[Darren Dirt]

I'm just happy to see a few of the annoying quirks of tabbed browsing being addressed (although I also enjoy the FF "restore last session" option -- when restarting after MS Windoze freezes up on occasion, only the *non*-MS browser offers me that! 


http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10030255-93.html

Officially, Microsoft welcomes the competition. "The browser landscape is highly competitive, but people will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their fingertips, respects their personal choices about how they want to browse and, more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal data online," Dean Hachamovitch, Internet Explorer general manager, said in a statement.

Vast numbers of people haven't upgraded from IE 6, which is ancient in Internet years. That cuts both ways for Microsoft: it's hard to get people to upgrade to IE 7 much less to IE 8, but those folks aren't moving to the competition either.

Of course, with Google's Web application agenda, the bigger long-term threat is to Microsoft's Office team, not to its IE team.

I lol'd.

[Darren Dirt]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10030522-2.html

"fine print" -- nothing too surprising, or maybe it could be interpreted as less-than-dontbeevil ... you decide

[Mr. Analog]

I'm using it right now, so far so good. It's very stripped down, no junk or clutter.

I like it a lot better than Firefox 3 which tried to cram unwanted "features" down my throat.

Spartan is how a browser should be, because I'm less interested in the browser itself and more interested in the content I can view through it.

[Thorin]

A security researcher managed to find a security hole in Chrome already:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1843&loomia_si=t0:a3:g4:r2:c0

Basically, Chrome is based on an old version of WebKit that has a vulnerability in it, and that gets combined with a Java bug to make a "carpet-bombing" attack.  There's a proof-of-concept here: http://raffon.net/research/google/chrome/carpet.html.  Of course, you need to visit the proof-of-concept using Chrome to see it in action.

[Mr. Analog]

Hopefully Google can stay ahead of the bug curve...

[Lazybones]

I like it a lot better than Firefox 3 which tried to cram unwanted "features" down my throat.

What unwanted features? It basically has all of the recent features ADDED in Firefox 3 and Opera.

- Awesome bar equivalent
- Favorite tagging
- Opera's  Dial pad or what ever it is called

And it is missing a plug-in engine for customizing the browser. Digg and Slashdot are CRAMED with ads, I want my adblock.

[Mr. Analog]

I like it a lot better than Firefox 3 which tried to cram unwanted "features" down my throat.

What unwanted features? It basically has all of the recent features ADDED in Firefox 3 and Opera.

- Awesome bar equivalent
- Favorite tagging
- Opera's  Dial pad or what ever it is called

And it is missing a plug-in engine for customizing the browser. Digg and Slashdot are CRAMED with ads, I want my adblock.

Right off the bat, there is no big ugly FAIL Bar, even when I have my bookmarks imported, just nice slim and easy to use location bar (as it should be).

Favourite tagging is something I never played with in FF3 so I couldn't care less.

Zooming doesn't scale all content by default (just text) and the scaling is smart (when I scroll fast it gets real big real fast).

Best of all full screen mode is actually full screen with no browser widgets (gasp).

Finally the text and background colour scheme for GoogleB is nice and high contrast, unlike FF3.

Other stuff just worked, the version of Flash I like was just there already, spell checking was on and correct for my region (Canada / UK).

Now, if there is good plug-in support for crap like AdBlock, SU and ChatZilla I'm all set.

[Darren Dirt]

"Five reasons Chrome will take over the world"
http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-219392.html

Google is taking the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach with Chrome, shamelessly borrowing features from its would-be competitors.

These include the open source approach of Firefox; Opera's speed dial function, where a homepage presents thumbnails of your most visited sites; an "incognito" window for private browsing where nothing is recorded, similar to Safari and the forthcoming IE8; and an address bar with auto-completion features.

Opera's Odland said: "It is very much a market where everybody knows what everybody else is doing and you can expect Google to take innovations such as the speed dial homepage and tabs on top from Opera and vice versa."

Not convinced by Chrome? Read five reasons why it may crash and burn here...

"Five reasons Chrome may (will?) crash and burn"
http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-219394.html




Another review/critical analysis...

http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/35865-Google-chrome-reviews.aspx

General review comments

1. The font does not look very sharp and clear.

2. Chrome is much faster than IE and firefox.

3. Chrome works perfectly even with 30 tabs open.

4. It takes much less memory and processor share compared to IE and Firefox.

5. The default home page with tabbed thumbnail images of frequently visited sites are pretty cool, even though it raises some privacy concerns.

6. During installation, it automatically downloaded all bookmarks from other browsers, which raises some privacy concerns.

I will post a more detailed review of Google Chrome browser after I research little bit more.

...and so on...

[Mr. Analog]

"Five reasons Chrome will take over the world"
http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-219392.html

Google is taking the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach with Chrome, shamelessly borrowing features from its would-be competitors.

These include the open source approach of Firefox; Opera's speed dial function, where a homepage presents thumbnails of your most visited sites; an "incognito" window for private browsing where nothing is recorded, similar to Safari and the forthcoming IE8; and an address bar with auto-completion features.

Opera's Odland said: "It is very much a market where everybody knows what everybody else is doing and you can expect Google to take innovations such as the speed dial homepage and tabs on top from Opera and vice versa."

Not convinced by Chrome? Read five reasons why it may crash and burn here...

"Five reasons Chrome may (will?) crash and burn"
http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-219394.html



Another review/critical analysis...

http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/35865-Google-chrome-reviews.aspx

General review comments

1. The font does not look very sharp and clear.

2. Chrome is much faster than IE and firefox.

3. Chrome works perfectly even with 30 tabs open.

4. It takes much less memory and processor share compared to IE and Firefox.

5. The default home page with tabbed thumbnail images of frequently visited sites are pretty cool, even though it raises some privacy concerns.

6. During installation, it automatically downloaded all bookmarks from other browsers, which raises some privacy concerns.

I will post a more detailed review of Google Chrome browser after I research little bit more.

...and so on...

See, this is what I'm talkin' bout

The Browser Wars are back on baby!

[Darren Dirt]

Spartan is how a browser should be, because I'm less interested in the browser itself and more interested in the content I can view through it.

Ironic, isn't it, that it appears minimalistic (and the speed and processor usage back up that presumption) yet some of the reviews mention it has lots of OS-like features built-in to reduce the need for Windoze and the like to do certain things (can't remember specifics) so somehow it has a smaller footprint doing more than it needs to do (!)

[Mr. Analog]

Spartan is how a browser should be, because I'm less interested in the browser itself and more interested in the content I can view through it.

Ironic, isn't it, that it appears minimalistic (and the speed and processor usage back up that presumption) yet some of the reviews mention it has lots of OS-like features built-in to reduce the need for Windoze and the like to do certain things (can't remember specifics) so somehow it has a smaller footprint doing more than it needs to do (!)

I believe their design ethos was to make an "OS window" instead of a browser. This shift in thought doesn't seem like a big leap but it certainly falls in line with my way of thinking.

Edit: That is to say the browser as a service not an application.

[Lazybones]

The awsomebar omnibox seems to work almost exactly the same as firefox 3 the ONLY difference is that it doesn't put a page match in the input box and instead sticks to the root domain or subdomain.

The maximize bug on my dual monitors is a critical fail, it is a BASIC application function.

Also without at block I simply will not use it, the animated ads are so bad on several sites I visit regularly it makes me sick.