Author Topic: Google Chrome -- a new browser coming (in beta) in a few hours (Read 237734 times)

TPReal · « **Reply #50 on:** September 02, 2008, 04:07 PM »

Hmm, it has no integration with Google Bookmarks. I hope they're going to add it later.

The word 'Google' is marked as misspelled.

I'd like it to be more customisable. And to have lots of extensions, of course

but I guess we're going to wait for it. I'm going to give it a try, but it's definitely not the right moment to switch to Chrome yet. But I like the feel of it (the lack of clutter on screen, for instance), and the fact that it starts as fast as a flashlight, and I'm already waiting for it to come out of beta.
Which may take a long time however - Google Documents are still in beta.

mediaguycouk · « **Reply #51 on:** September 02, 2008, 04:11 PM »

I love how big it is. Amazing what a simple thing like borderless with the address bar directly and soley above the content does.

Darwin · « **Reply #52 on:** September 02, 2008, 04:14 PM »

Hmm... installing it now. I need another browser like I need a hole in the head, but you only live once, right?

Darwin · « **Reply #53 on:** September 02, 2008, 04:25 PM »

Not bad... I personally find the interface a bit clunky, though like others I like how clean it is. Definitely worth keeping my eye on... I'll be more animated about this one when plug-ins are supported.

jayant · « **Reply #54 on:** September 02, 2008, 04:26 PM »

...once I had set ad-muncher to strip advertising from pages it feels no slower than Opera...
-Dirhael (September 02, 2008, 02:26 PM)

Dirhael, how did you set up Ad Muncher to remove ads from Google Chrome?

Dirhael · « **Reply #55 on:** September 02, 2008, 04:37 PM »

...once I had set ad-muncher to strip advertising from pages it feels no slower than Opera...
-Dirhael (September 02, 2008, 02:26 PM)

Dirhael, how did you set up Ad Muncher to remove ads from Google Chrome?
-jayant (September 02, 2008, 04:26 PM)

Just configure is like this

Ehtyar · « **Reply #56 on:** September 02, 2008, 04:39 PM »

For those interested, the source can be found here, more info here. Before you get too excited, the tarball is 430mb, and extracted will occupy 1.6 gb of hard drive space. you will also need msvc 05 and the 08 sdk. Build can take up to 40 minutes and, inclusive of msvc and the sdk, will occupy roughly 10gb of space.

Ehtyar.

Darwin · « **Reply #57 on:** September 02, 2008, 04:41 PM »

...once I had set ad-muncher to strip advertising from pages it feels no slower than Opera...
-Dirhael (September 02, 2008, 02:26 PM)

Dirhael, how did you set up Ad Muncher to remove ads from Google Chrome?
-jayant (September 02, 2008, 04:26 PM)

Thanks for the screenshot, Dirhael - that helps!

Zjooj · « **Reply #58 on:** September 02, 2008, 04:56 PM »

Chrome is pretty amazing...clean... DC renders extremely fast (compared to IE and Opera) of course I am a bit of a Google zealot... there are some things it is lacking but at first blush... she's a beaut! My 2 peas about it

y0himba · « **Reply #59 on:** September 02, 2008, 04:59 PM »

Wow. Just WOW. Fast and clean. Can't wait to see what's in store since it's a beta

quartzite7 · « **Reply #60 on:** September 02, 2008, 05:16 PM »

GridMove does not work with Google Chrome!

Edvard · « **Reply #61 on:** September 02, 2008, 05:27 PM »

wow.
fast indeed.

I think what sold me is the whole multi-threaded architecture I read about in the comic. I've always thought that was a better way to go, and was surprised to hear that single threaded is the way browsers operate even now.

Can't wait for the linux version...

jgpaiva · « **Reply #62 on:** September 02, 2008, 05:30 PM »

GridMove does not work with Google Chrome!
-quartzite7 (September 02, 2008, 05:16 PM)

Actually, it does work, but it interfeers with the changing of tabs, because they don't respect the standard look of windows.
Unfortunatelly, there's not much that can be done

fenixproductions · « **Reply #63 on:** September 02, 2008, 05:32 PM »

2Grorgy
Yes. I know this is still beta and something might change in the future but I really doubt about cleaning installer mess. Take a look on Google Earth or Sketchup. Does any of these allows you to specify installation folder or just installs to PF automatically?

On the other side: it is not so hard to create something from other people bricks / ideas. The problem is to make it so well designed and consistent that everybody will want to use it. Don't rely on your brand only.

Similar thing is happening to any alternative filemanager. There are so many apps of such kind that it would be hard to remember all of them but in the matter of fact only few are memorable. Why? Anyone can make files managing software but not everyone can make revolutionary changes.

Currently Chrome is just a junk yard for other browsers ideas. They put few things together, labelled with double "o" and throw into market. They simply forgot about the "soul". For Firefox it's called "extensions", for Opera - speed and all-in-one. What for G? Imho: label only. In this case Google niched MS

Edvard · « **Reply #64 on:** September 02, 2008, 06:33 PM »

Ok, three things I want already:

1- Better bookmark management.
Just for kicks, I decided to erase all the bookmarks.
Not an easy task, try it sometime if you're bored.

2- A shortcut for "Incognito mode"
Like, a way to start it up in incognito and keep it that way for the session.
I'm not paranoid about my surfing habits, I just like cleanliness.
That, and the little spy dude next to my tab in incognito mode is kinda cool...

3- Bigger back button.
Reviled as it may have been, I have gotten used to Firefox's keyhole back/forward button and even installed it on my Linux box.
Normal button sizes just seem weird now.

Got any more?

Lashiec · « **Reply #65 on:** September 02, 2008, 06:57 PM »

Well, the browser is sleek and fast, all agreed. Actually, it's almost too fast, my guess is they're using Google Web Accelerator inside the browser for that extra speed, it's not the same in all pages, but to see some heavy ones load in a flash with my connection amazes me.

It shows it's a beta: Java does not work, opening tons of tabs is a recipe for a graphical disaster, it's almost in pants when it comes to features (I almost forgot what it's to surf without ads, and it almost scared me what lurked in some pages), and takes too long to exit the browser after running for a while, even with a minimum amount of tabs. There's nothing revolutionary into the browser, although the more technical features like the task manager and the JavaScript console look nice. And those little things here and there, like the interface for history searching, very fast and using an excellent way to show the results, or how it uses the scroll bar to indicate where page search results are located, nice touch. The way to send bug reports from the browser should be cloned by the competition, it includes screen captures and everything.

I guess the nonstandard way to install the browser is because of the UAC, they would not want to bother in programming a installation routine that does proper elevation.

All in all, it looks like we have a decent WebKit based browser for Windows, and a competitor for Internet Explorer and Safari, as Firefox, Opera and the rest of the alternative browsers are in another level so they don't have to worry for now (in theory). In fact, as a lightweight alternative to IE, it's indeed very recommendable.

Still, I wonder what's the reason of its existence, Google does not really need to launch a browser. I hope mouser's theory it's not the answer, otherwise both Opera and Firefox could be in BIG problems. The fact that the Chromium source code is available, and that the Chrome license agreement says you can't mess with the program (ya know, all the usual reverse engineering) it's suspicious.

Oh well, it's BSD-licensed, so anyone can take the code and run with it :D. BTW, it's V8 really developed by Google, or just enhanced?

V8 assembler is licensed as follows:

Copyright (c) 1994-2006 Sun Microsystems Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #66 on:** September 02, 2008, 06:57 PM »

Edvard: regarding '2': ctrl+shift+n, or something like that. It opens a new window on incognito mode

Ehtyar · « **Reply #67 on:** September 02, 2008, 07:28 PM »

For anyone concerned about privacy, the installer creates a scheduled task to launch Google Updater that runs, believe it or not, when idle. I suggest removing it immediately.

Ehtyar.

Ehtyar · « **Reply #68 on:** September 02, 2008, 07:46 PM »

They do deserve some credit in one respect. When importing settings from IE, they actually import the default search engine, which is Windows Live. Microsoft certainly wouldn't be as accommodating.

Ehtyar.

lanux128 · « **Reply #69 on:** September 02, 2008, 07:57 PM »

apart from quirky install location, they actually have an option to set other search engines as default.

google apps load very fast even though flash bogs it down a little. if anything else, this may be useful access google stuff on the web such as reader, gmail, office etc.

lanux128 · « **Reply #70 on:** September 02, 2008, 08:03 PM »

i meant to post this earlier. anyway according to this article, Google pays up to 85% of Mozilla's total revenue. if that isn't influential, then i don't know what is. all being said this may merely turn out to be flexing of muscle on Google's part. also note the date of the post, just a few days before they released a public beta of Chrome.

• http://www.techcrunc...-google-for-3-years/

Lashiec · « **Reply #71 on:** September 02, 2008, 08:11 PM »

Yeah, mouser quoted Mozilla's CEO in another article which also mentioned the extension of the deal. Firefox also has another deal with Yahoo! IIRC, but if Google is intimidating Firefox with this, perhaps something should be done. For now, I don't think this is a possibility, Google enjoys a nice 1st place in the search engine business, and there's no reason to believe someone could challenge them in the short-term, at least not in a way that Firefox could switch its main source of revenue.

Perhaps this is why they're developing things like Prism, Weave and Fennec, to diversify its product line, and be able to score deals with other search engines, software companies or hardware makers, much like Opera Software does (which also depends on Google's deal to fund Opera for Desktop).

kartal · « **Reply #72 on:** September 02, 2008, 08:19 PM »

I would probably use chrome here and there if it was a firefox or kmeleon extension

Mark0 · « **Reply #73 on:** September 02, 2008, 09:14 PM »

Java works pretty well with Chrome, but you need the last Java 6 rc10.
http://java.sun.com/...ase/downloads/ea.jsp
Just download, install, and then it will work.

On another note, JavaScript performances are great!

jayant · « **Reply #74 on:** September 03, 2008, 12:49 AM »

Just configure is like this
-Dirhael (September 02, 2008, 04:37 PM)

Thank you Dirhael!