Google Chrome: Time for a Second Chance?

[Deozaan]

Incoming: Integrated PDF viewing is now in the beta channel.

I personally hate in-browser PDF viewing, but maybe Chrome will do it right. (I'm not using the beta.)

[daddydave]

I couldn't print from the integrated PDF viewer in Chrome and I had to force it to use an external viewer. (I use PDF X-Change)

[MilesAhead]

Hmmmmm, this is interesting.  I updated Chromium to 11.x and the Settings page Under The Hood has this stuff about suggesting pages if a url doesn't resolve etc..  To do this, guess what? It sends the info to Google!!

edit: now that I have 10.x set up again(10.0.602.0 seems to be the last one with the old style setting page) I see it had the same "features."  Even the phishing protection sounds like it's sending everything through Google.

Guess they figure if they just keeping popping it up we'll get tired of play whack-a-mole and giving up on pounding it back down. As it goes along it seems like the distinction between Chrome and Chromium is only semantic.

Version 11.x broke my AutoCopy extension so I had to back track anyway.

Just imagine if all the stuff Google collects is in print-outs someplace? I wonder how many trees that would be?

edit2: guess this setting has been noted for quite some time but they should really be lobbied to have it off by default.  Esp. if you use the portable archives, every time you update to a newer version you need to remember to disable the settings again.

[MilesAhead]

by the way, does anyone know if there exists a chart where you can look up a version number to get the build number?

It's really messy the way they do the nightly builds.  When you try to get back to an older version with the version number you pretty much have to hunt down the date.  Even when you open a build folder and look in the revisions or change log xml file it doesn't give any version number info.

I haven't had any luck with search.  Only place they seem to be together is in the About Chromium dialog.

[MilesAhead]

I'm trying the Chromium nightly that was just put on Softpedia.
11.0.668.0 build 74561

Just to be fair I thought I'd note that I had changed my settings Under The Hood under Privacy to disable all features.  The new portable picked up those settings.  Did not enable by default. One less thing to have to remember. I'm just trying it now. I don't see any obvious bugs at this point.

[Deozaan]

Wow. You got me poking around in the Under The Hood section and I found Google Print Cloud. Now I can print to my home printer from anywhere, even my phone. Awesome!

[J-Mac]

Made me open Chrome and check that out. Got it all set, but... I can't print! Chrome says I am connected, I'm signed in, tells me all my printers are now connected to Google Print Cloud. All looks good but when I click on "Print a Test Page" the dialog that opens shows no printers there and says that I have no printers connected. Weird.

Thanks!

Jim

[Ath]

... Got it all set, but... I can't print! ...

-J-Mac (February 11, 2011, 12:54 PM)

Had exactly the same experience! Thought it was because I'm on Win7 x64, so I postponed further testing until they figure it out.

[MilesAhead]

Hmmmmmmmm, I guess MS is locked into "Internet Explorer" otherwise with the "cloud push" in all the ads I don't know why they don't come out with a browser named "Cloud."  It seems inevitable.

[Ath]

Hmmmmmmmm, I guess MS is locked into "Internet Explorer" otherwise with the "cloud push" in all the ads I don't know why they don't come out with a browser named "Cloud."  It seems inevitable.

-MilesAhead (February 11, 2011, 02:14 PM)

Didn't that happen today? IE 9.0 RC (Release: Cloud)

[MilesAhead]

Hmmmmmmmm, I guess MS is locked into "Internet Explorer" otherwise with the "cloud push" in all the ads I don't know why they don't come out with a browser named "Cloud."  It seems inevitable.

-MilesAhead (February 11, 2011, 02:14 PM)

Didn't that happen today? IE 9.0 RC (Release: Cloud)

-Ath (February 11, 2011, 03:02 PM)

That may be the "code name" but they should dump the IE moniker and just be Cloud period.  Plus it's a pain every time you search for stuff about Explorer file manager you get all kinds of IE hits that don't apply.

[Curt]

http://www.google.co...la.html?standalone=1 will give you Chrome without the updater.

Thanks to dotTech: [CC] Trick to get Google Chrome’s standalone installer (instead of using Google Updater) | Community Content | dotTech:

The trick to avoiding Google Updater is to add ?standalone=1 to the URL address. In other words, instead of going to http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html, you should go to http://www.google.co...la.html?standalone=1.

[MilesAhead]

http://build.chromiu...ots/chromium-rel-xp/

I've taken to using the link above for Chromium. I download the chrome_win32.zip instead of installer.  Before trying a new one I save my Chromium folder from AppData\Local.  Also I put the version and build numbers into the filename once I find out what they are. Makes it easy to go back if the new one has bugs.

I'm using 13.0.762.0 build 84892 now.  The only 2 things that kept getting killed on these nightly builds for me were favicons, so I wrote a tool to visit all the bookmarks to get them back, and AutoCopy, so I wrote my own as a Tray Hotkey.

I tell you Chrome is fast, but this build I'm using right now is super snappy!!  It seems to run 8 instances of chrome.exe plus 1 for each tab, but it's worth it!!  On my Windows7 PC I only have 2 GB ram and a dual core and it honks!!

[Mark0]

Starting from June 15 about everywhere:

Google Chromebook

I think it's a great concept for a lot of people / situations. Probably game changing stuff.

[MilesAhead]

I enjoyed using Speed Dial but when the disk is busy it really slows down loading.  I've been looking around all day for something that would let me load a bookmarks file as New Tab automatically.

Found it just now:
https://chrome.googl...ebagbmdbhnlpiopdcmna

You can use file:/// notation to have it load a local file.

I periodically export my bookmarks as html.  Sometimes it just easier to do Control-f search on the bookmark list than remember what folder I stuck the bookmark in.  I miss the graphics but I'm using a "Frequent" bookmarks folder to copy bookmarks I use all the time like Donationcoder.  Not perfect but it doesn't slow loading and you don't need to have a local web server running or pick up the list from internet.

edit: I found it will also accept about:blank.  Think I'll load my bookmarks file as the home page.  Then use about:blank as New Tab. I usually open a link in new tab anyway but got into the habit of New Tabbing to Speed Dial.  Just for eye candy.

[MilesAhead]

Alright! I give up!! I need my eye candy!!  Now I don't load Speed Dial on startup though.  Just on New Tab.  Good thing I could sync my customizations over from my other machine.  Wouldn't want to do all that again!

[MilesAhead]

I think I finally found the balance for me with Chromium.  Start page is about:blank and of course Speed Dial is New Tab.  Then I set Home Page to use New Tab.  Now even doing a malware scan it pops right up. Then I can click the Home button or New Tab to get Speed Dial with no waiting.  Seems loading Speed Dial on startup is what bogs it on a busy disk.

I'm only running LastPass, Speed Dial and AdBlock for extensions.
But I typically use 4 or fewer tabs.  I also don't really have need for simultaneous searches or other enhancements.  Everyone will tune it a bit differently.

[bit]

1. Chrome listens to you without being prompted:
"Whistleblower: Google Chrome Can Listen To Your Conversations"

2. Adware vendors buy Chrome Extensions to send ad- and malware-filled updates:
Adware vendors buy Chrome Extensions to send ad- and malware-filled updates
Once in control, they can silently push new ad-filled "updates" to those users.
One of the coolest things about Chrome is the silent, automatic updates that always ensure that users are always running the latest version. While Chrome itself is updated automatically by Google, that update process also includes Chrome's extensions, which are updated by the extension owners. This means that it's up to the user to decide if the owner of an extension is trustworthy or not, since you are basically giving them permission to push new code out to your browser whenever they feel like it.

To make matters worse, ownership of a Chrome extension can be transferred to another party, and users are never informed when an ownership change happens. Malware and adware vendors have caught wind of this and have started showing up at the doors of extension authors, looking to buy their extensions. Once the deal is done and the ownership of the extension is transferred, the new owners can issue an ad-filled update over Chrome's update service, which sends the adware out to every user of that extension.

[wraith808]

Posted here quite a bit ago, but there wasn't much uproar over it on DC.