David Behan's Web Design Ireland Blog

Google Chrome - More To Worry About

September 3, 2008 @ 7:50 am · Filed under Design, Development, Internet

Google Chrome

Google Chrome

Google have just launched a new browser called Google Chrome. It’s aim is to be a faster, simplier and safer browser than what is currently available. Reading about speed tests of the new browser, it seems to be very impressive. I’ve already downloaded it and given it a whirl and I’m quite impressed myself with it’s speed. Flicking through Gmail on FireFox can take a couple of seconds but it flies along in Chrome.

Address Bar

Address Bar

They’ve added some neat features too, like Incognito Mode, where everything you do in this mode is done privately and won’t appear in your web history. I also like the way they highlight the domain you are currently on in the address bar. I’m guessing this to help with phishing websites - a simple but nice feature. They’ve also included crash control so if a web page causes a crash, it will only crash the current tab as all tabs are kept independent of each other. I also like their new tab window that shows most visited sites with thumbnails and a history search box. A bit like the speed dial on Opera but nice all the same.

I quickly ran the Acid2 test to see how compliant it is with web standards and it passed with smiley faces (FF3 also passes but IE7 fails miserably). As long as this does not become a headache to test in, I’m all for it. I’ve tried a few sites I’ve designed and all looks ok and they load exceptionally fast. When I first saw the browser, I thought… oh great, another browser to test in. But so far, it’s been a good experience so maybe not too much to worry about after all.

Well, there’s a quick review and I suggest you give it a try. What do you think of it? Will you give up FireFox or run it parallel?

  • Created September 3, 2008 @ 7:50 am
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4 Comments (post a comment)

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Derek  spacer

Hi Dave, think i will be sticking to ff for now, all the juicy plugins, also have noticed some css bugs with the chrome so far with things like css rollovers, kudos on the golfing site, looks great, super quick, and table less , top notch, still trying to break away from tables {shame on me :},} finding the time lol,
Derek

September 15, 2008 @ 1:00 am
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paul savage  spacer

as far as I know Dave, the engine is based on WebKit, http://webkit.org/ so if your sites work on Safari, they should work for Chrome.

P

September 16, 2008 @ 10:36 pm
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David  spacer

@Derek I’ve moved my main browser to Chrome as I really like the speed and simplicity of it. I still use FF for testing and dev work. In saying all that, I normally have FF, Chrome, IE and Safari open when designing/developing. Just chrome is my main one. It runs gmail lightening fast. Cheers regarding golf site. You should really make the move to CSS based designs. I know it takes a little to get used to but when you get it, it’ll speed up your coding and you’ll have much better code on your site. So much easier to manage. Really, try and do it sooner rather than later.

@Paul Yeah, I copped that the first day I was using it. Everything seemed to be working the same as Safari. I think Chrome will make a good addition to the browser family.

September 17, 2008 @ 9:38 am
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Outsource Web Design  spacer

Derek, am using FF with mac os x. i would say, it gets crashed often compared to safari. Am sticking with FF only for its plug-ins. Or may be i am not aware how to optimize FF to get it working without any mess. So, if all these plug-in stuff is supported by Chrome, why not switching? Wondering. Would appreciate if you have any tips to get FF works without crash too!

September 30, 2008 @ 6:04 pm

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