Google Chrome

Skrying

S K R Y I N G
Veteran
For those who haven't heard yet Google Chrome is a web browser being released (or just released if the reports are correct). Chrome is basically Google's attempt at bringing the browser into the modern world. It has a number of features not yet really seen in the mainstream browsers out there such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Saferi.

A link to the official Google blog talking about Chrome.

Link to the comic book explaining Chrome. (Very very good.)


Ars Technica news posting with some more links.

So my opinion? First off I want to say I'm highly impressed by the comic. It gives out a lot of technical details about the browser in a extremely easily to understand format. It also really has me excited for the browser. So many of these concepts have been talked about but Google seems very serious about making these work. Also the way they're going to have each tab as it's own process will really go a long way in helping the memory fragmentation issues of other browsers *cough* Firefox still *cough*.

While it can come off as a bit "we're so nice" with the constant mentions of being open source and trying to spur the Internet as a whole I really do like Google's willingness to provide many of the advances coming with Chrome has open source APIs, etc. V8 being able to be used by other programs and browsers will be great, especially if it's performance improvement is to be believed.

I'll be one of the first to download and mess around with it. I really hope the UI is solid and usable.
 
IE has independant processes IIRC, but it's controlled by the browser itself- displays as a single process on TM.

With the exception of Tab-New Window (Opera?), V8 (ouch, that is impressive) and Sandboxing, the competition is pretty much close. I won't say Google failed on their first attempt, in fact rather the contrary- the emphasis on performance, stability and security rather than promising the sky with interface refreshes speaks volumes on what they'll get right next.
 
Funny, this reminds me of something an insomniac presentation (Mike?) said about browsers and multi-threading (or rather, lack thereof).

Looks very interesting!
 
It sounds very good, but I wonder what percentage of their users will come from firefox vs. ie

It seems firefox will be disproportionately effected. It might not affect the competitiveness then overall just rearrange the deck chairs so to speak.
 
To be honest, from the first report I thought, "Great ... another browser," but once I read the comic I got pretty excited about it. I'm not really happy with the current state of browsers. They're ok enough, but the browser has stagnated far too much. I'll definitely give this a go when it's out later today.
 
To be honest, from the first report I thought, "Great ... another browser," but once I read the comic I got pretty excited about it. I'm not really happy with the current state of browsers. They're ok enough, but the browser has stagnated far too much. I'll definitely give this a go when it's out later today.

This is where I'm coming from as well. Every browser I've tried as of late (Firefox, Opera, IE7, IE8 beta, Safari) all seem about stuck in the same place. The only real reason I stick with Firefox is the plug-in integration and just how useful they are. With Chrome, Google has picked a point where they too see stagnation and think by starting entirely anew they can produce a product better suited for today's Internet and I think they're right. Even the IE8 browser is nothing really new and what it does do is hidden from the user. Google takes the typical open source approach with this and shows all the details to the user if they wish. They're providing a number of API's and information lists to those who wish to have them as well. Overall even if the browser itself isn't the greatest (which again I think is entirely up to the UI), what will come from it will be great and that message is hammered home with the comic over and over.
 
I also became excited after reading the comics. A really well-done method for teaching about the web browser. It's pretty technical, but easy to understand.

IE8 Beta 2 seems to have a lot of similar features, though using different approach. Google Chrome beta will be released later today, we'll see how they both compare.

The problem with using separate process for running each tab is, higher memory usage at start. Some people already reported high memory usage on IE8 Beta 2. Hope Google's approach will be better than that.
 
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-02-n72.html

So, you can run a web page with the chrome interface entirely hidden. Looks like you can create shortcuts (desktop, quick launch, start menu) for web applications. So, as in the screenshot, I can put a google calendar shortcut on my quick launch bar, and it would load up with the chrome interface hidden, as if it were a native application.

Is it just me or is the chrome platform as much a semi-os for web applications as it is a web browser? Could this be the start of a long term strategy in cloud computing and thin clients?
 
I also became excited after reading the comics. A really well-done method for teaching about the web browser. It's pretty technical, but easy to understand.

IE8 Beta 2 seems to have a lot of similar features, though using different approach. Google Chrome beta will be released later today, we'll see how they both compare.

The problem with using separate process for running each tab is, higher memory usage at start. Some people already reported high memory usage on IE8 Beta 2. Hope Google's approach will be better than that.

I don't know. Nowadays memory is very very cheap. Most computers have far more memory than they actually need. I have a gig and a half of ram, and unless I'm playing games I never really approach anything close to using it. That's no excuse for needless bloat, but I think the security their sand boxing will provide is worth it. If they're aggressive garbage collection really works, I think that will make up for it. My firefox3 sometimes gets up to 120 megs after a good amount of use, even after I close all of my loaded tabs.
 
In a way I wish that browsers did less
the internet would be so less worrying without activeX controls for example
 
I ran the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark on my work PC. Running an AMD Athlon 3200+ with 2GB RAM on Win XP SP2. The following are the results (less is better):
  • Google Chrome Beta Build 1583
    Total execution time: 3811.6ms +/-16.7% - Full Result
  • Firefox 2.0.0.14
    Total execution time: 32,393.8ms +/-6.4% - Full Result
  • Firefox 3.0
    Total execution time: 5,442.2ms +/-2.4% - Full Result
  • Internet Explorer 7
    Total execution time: 57,794.6ms +/-8.1% - Full Result
  • Safari v3.1.1
    Total execution time: 7,393.0ms +/-6.3% - Full Result
Will test on dual core later at home. Sunspider's website is running real slow right now (probably lots of people are benchmarking).
 
In a way I wish that browsers did less
the internet would be so less worrying without activeX controls for example

I'm not a big fan of activex, but I'm kind of into the idea of cloud and distributed computing. Online services can be fantastic. I have my calendar synced all over the place.

I draw the line when I'm being asked to store a lot of personal information online. I don't need some online passport that stores all of the information about my identity. For example, I fill out very little information on facebook and the like.
 
So far no complains here ... works pretty good!

I like. Looks very clean. Very simple. No problems loading any of the pages I normally use. Seems very responsive. No crashes. I like the task manager and the "stats for nerds." It gives you quite a bit of information. You can see each process and how much memory, CPU and network bandwidth. If you go to the stats you can see the PIDs and how much private and shared memory they're each using, as well as virtual memory. Memory use is fairly high, I guess. With beyond3d, facebook, hotmail, gmail, shockwave plugin, task manager and stats open I'm around 130 mb. It does seem very responsive though.
 
Back
Top