The first hour with Chrome – Google’s new browser

It was impossible to escape the buzz around Chrome, so I just had to test drive it.

It has now been more than an hour since I have been using Chrome, and here are my first cut comments:

First, the positives:

Google’s no-clutter, minimalist interface is apparent. The tabs are above the address bar, which takes some getting used to but does seem like a great idea. No menus on top, no bottom status bar and just a Page and  Settings icon to manage stuff – overall quite intutive

Not only did it import my IE bookmarks without a problem, but also my browsing history, which was neat. Typing in the address bar has a refreshingly different feel. The text size is large, browser history is listed with  not only the full URL (like IE) but also the website name, and the same bar also lets you search your default search engine (in this case Google). 

Opening a new tab is where some cool Chrome innovations appear. The thumbnail view of most visited pages is great, so is the ability to see your bookmarks arranged by date and the ability to search browser history. The “bookmarks bar” is a new thing which lets you drag or add the more frequently used bookmarks for quick access.

Overall, web pages do seem to load faster. I think Google’s use of multi-process and webkit has made a difference. The “Task Manager” and “stats for Nerds” lets you take a peek under the hood – which is a definite first among browsers.

Now, some negatives:

It doesn’t seem to handle RSS feeds at all. No built in reader apparently and not even a neatly formatted IE style view. 

I have only visited a handfull of pages so far, and while there have been no apparent formatting or page layout issues, I did stumbled across issues with javascript based date calenders and javascript menus either not working at all, or rendering in a different font size. This may pose a serious problem as this can cause the browser to be unusable for some web sites or pages.

On some pages, tables appear with distinct borders which are otherwise not visible in IE. I also noticed text size and font changes on form list boxes.

The biggest issue so far – my WordPress spell checker did not work and came up with a javascript kind error message box. I will investigate this in detail, but if you do find typos in this post, you know whom to blame!

It is interesting to note all this buzz and activity around browser software – Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 8 and Chrome. The next few weeks will be exciting. I will be keenly watching the browser war unfold – as it undoubtedly will.

Tags: Chrome, Firefox, Google, IE, IE8, Web browser