Google Chrome – Close, but no cigar

Internet Explorer and Firefox account for more than 90% of the market share of web browsers today, and it seems nearly impossible to get a successful web browser out into the market today. Odds like that have never stopped Google in the past, of course, and not long after their release of their new mobile OS Android, Safari has climbed up to nearly a quarter of a percent. An infinitesmal figure, it may seem, but that puts them in the top six with their first beta of the product.

“Fast, simple and easy”
The installation file is small and installation is fast. After setup, Chrome prompts you to import settings, favourites etc. from other already installed browsers, just like Firefox does. This did not seem to work at first, but the process was seamless and Google-like.

“Built from scratch, with stability and simplicity in mind”
Well, not exactly. Chrome is built upon other open-source projects like Webkit and Firefox. But Chrome will, because of this, also be open source. This will let others develop upon Chrome to create a good eco-system of add-ons, just like what Firefox has accomplished.
As far as stability goes, there was a funny incident where writing “about:%” in the address bar would crash the entire browser completely. This has been fixed by now, though. But seriously, both Microsoft and Mozilla have two really stable and mature browsers today. It will be hard to improve about that.
Simplicity is a keyword for any of Google’s projects. They don’t get over-excited and build in tons of worthless features like Microsoft, nor do they choose form over function all day long like Apple. They’ve come out on top with a simple and elegant browser, that clearly shows how the site and not the application is in focus.

Smarter tabs and address bar
How often haven’t you had one of those 30-tab windows where you wish you could just group them up into at least a few different windows? In Chrome it couldn’t be simpler. You can simply drag-and-drop the tabs to create new windows or move them between already existing ones.

Tabs are also run as separate proccesses by Windows, meaning that if one crashes, it doesn’t crash the entire browser. This is not always the case, however. And although Chrome is stable and rarely crash, when it does, it might just break more than just that tab. This feature, I might add, does also exist in the upcoming IE8.
The “awesome bar” of Firefox or the new address bar in IE8 still confuse me. With all these improvements, why is there still a separate search box? Chrome has corrected this and combines the two into one seamless bar. Neat.

 

Features
Chrome includes some developer features targeted for web developers, although nothing really exciting or new here. For end users, something like Incognito might prove interesting. Incognito, just as the inPrivate function of IE8 (also dubbed “the porn mode”), doesn’t retain any history or saves any files during your browsing.
Safety is where Chrome falls short. Unlike IE and FF, it doesn’t integrate with any major safety products and does very little in order to prevent things like remote code execution. Keep in mind, however, that this is still in an early beta stage and is likely to change if (or when?) Chrome starts to grow. Chrome does include malware and phishing site protection, which works pretty much as in IE or Firefox – a red toolbar pops up wondering whether or not you really want to visit this site.

Final verdict

There is obviously a lot going on with this Google browser right now, and getting in deep requires weeks if not months of usage. But Chrome has potential. A lot of it. Although I’m not comfortable with naming Chrome my main browser just yet, Chrome might just put up a strong fight with both Mozilla and Microsoft. Time will tell. I myself will be extremely hyped over Chrome’s next update (more so than I thought at first).
And if the world actually can manage three major browsers, is a question only time can answer. With the now more standardized web rendering and IE actually moving towards it (with mixed results, see my review of IE8), only time will tell.