Greetings Readers!

Sorry it has been so long since I wrote anything.  Starting today, that will change.  Today I wanted to talk a bit about Google Chrome.  So without further delay, here are my thoughts on Google’s Chrome browser.

I will start off with what the browser does well.  The browser is amazingly fast.  Thanks to the V8 JavaScript engine, the browser is incredibly fast.  The simplicity of the browser also helps here.  The browser does a great job with sites like Hulu and all of the web services that Google offers.

The other things I noticed that are great include having each tab as a separate process and some of the security features such as the incognito mode.  Having each tab be its own process is great for a couple of reasons.  First, if a website makes the tab crash, it only takes down that one tab rather than the entire browser.  This also makes things more secure when browsing.  The browser seems to have been designed with security as one of the biggest concerns.  Before I move on, I will say that having each tab as its own process has a major drawback in that it uses considerably more memory.  This is not what you want if you are using a bunch of different browsers.  Incognito mode is pretty cool.  This will allow you to type things into the address bar without having it saved.  If you want to leave even fewer tracks, you can delete all your browsing data with a click.  It also does a good job of importing and exporting bookmarks.  Those are the good things, but now its time to address the things that aren’t so good.

To start, functionality seems to have been sacrificed in the name of simplicity.  The perfect example of this is the lack of a home button.  How something as crucial as a home button can be sacrificed for a concept such as simplicity, blows my mind.  Also, the browser seems to have got rid of the idea of the traditional status bar.  While there is a status indicator at the bottom of the page when its performing an action or when you are hovering over a link, there is no traditional, static status bar.  For most people, I’m sure this is just a minor annoyance but thanks to Firefox extensions, I have come to need a status bar.

The browser also lacks good ad blocking.  Something I have become very attached to is the Firefox extension, Ad Block.  I like being able to block ads and focus on the content I am consuming.  Considering Google is an advertising service, I understand why there is no ad blocking, but that doesn’t mean I like this choice.

There also don’t seem to be any support for saving tabs to open them back up where you left off the next time you open the browser.  Many browsers have had similar features for years, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Chrome.  The browser also lacks RSS support.  There is no way of reading an RSS feed from your browser like Firefox and other browsers have.  Worse yet, It doesn’t even tell you when an RSS feed has been detected on a site.

I’m not too sure what to think of the Chrome logo either, it looks like a redesigned Pokemon Pokeball.

Finally, I want to talk about the EULA.  If you aren’t one to read EULAs, you might want to think twice.  The Google Chrome EULA states the following:

By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

This is rather disturbing.  Basically anything you use Chrome to create, including blog posts, videos or pretty much anything else, becomes Google’s to do with as they please.  I plan to avoid creating anything on the browser for this reason.  If you want to read more, I suggest heading over to Gizmodo.

These are just some of my thoughts on the browser.  While it is a good start for a new browser in beta, not having something as simple as a home button is a deal breaker for me.  If you are looking to replace Internet Explorer, you might want to give Chrome a look, but if you are a power user or enjoy the extensions that browsers like Firefox and Opera enjoy, this is not the browser for you.  Personally, I will be sticking with Firefox.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the new browser, so please post them in the comments!