Google Chrome Review: first impressions not good
Filed under: Computers, Software | By: Peter Chubb
Posted on: September 2, 2008 | 77 Comments
Well I have been waiting since yesterday to get my hands on Google Chrome, the search engine giant’s open source web browser. So I downloaded it from Google and then installed the software, and then decided to give Chrome a go. My first impressions are not that good.
So I then opened Google Chrome up and had a little play, and that was when I noticed the first of my problems. Firstly I could not find a button or logo to go back to my homepage, on further investigation it seems that you need to have your toolbar on for the Homepage button to appear.
Then there is the problem with my bookmarks which I imported from Firefox, for some reason I could not get them to show up. No matter what I tried I just could not find my bookmarks.
So what are your first impressions of Google Chrome?
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I have tried the browser and I must say that what really impressed me is it’s performance, really fast to open pages. I miss the home button, and one or two issues with the bookmarks, but for effects of a beta this points are not that relevant, at least not for now. Another issue is the potential of the browser to eat memory, now that each tab is a process and not a thread, in this beta there are currently some “leakings” becuase the browser may not kill the process of a tab that you closed.
I have high hopes, but only that “hopes”. For now, Firefox is still the best elected by democracy and explorer still the imposed supreme ruler.
I installed google crome last night and since then the overall impression is good but still some issues.
I don’t use bookmarks so don’t really care about it. But i tried playing youtube and after some videos it hanged. It does have problems with flash….
Plus when we press Ctrl+N, instead of opening the home page it opens the most visited page which should not be the case.
Plus in the history, there is no option for the selective deletion of pages. The only option is to delete the history of the day. What if we want to keep the track of certain pages and delete the rest.
But I think these all issues would be resolved in the final version. At least Google has bothered to launch a beta version. IE sucks… right now FF is only good I see… No Opera, No Safari…
Being that this is a Beta, i’m very impressed with Chrome. I love the new tabs page. I love how to omnibox allows me to search google, wikipedia, amazon, ebay, ask, urbandictionary and any other search engine directly from the address bar.
Of course their are issues, its a beta, and as beta testers, we are supposed to help out.
I see a lot of potential, especially once people start releasing apps. and google fixes a couple issues (bookmarks, backward compatibility, privacy)
PS. I don’t know what you’re talking about when you said you need a toolbar to get a home button and my bookmarks imported from IE and firefox without issue…
Go to Options >> Basics >> Home page >> Show home page button on Toolbar..
booom…
You can show up the homepage button in the Options. Just check “Show Home button in the toolbar” in the “Home page” section.
For bookmarks press CTRL+B to unhide the bookmarks bar.
Way too slow for all of the sites that I regularly visit. I see no need to switch to it.
I think it’s an awesome idea, and the main problems I see could be due to the “beta” status of the program. I think it will really take off, especially for some of us die-hard google-product fans.
For most people however, I think it will be similar to the OS Ubuntu - another open-source product (linux-based). Simple, fast, and effective. However, most people won’t see a need for it. Yeah, some of us watch how much memory we use, but most people don’t even know what that term means, or what memory does. Not to mention that the miliseconds that Chrome saves web-browsers will make little to no difference to most users. Why get a Honda Civic when you have an Escalade in the garage? (if that makes any sense)
All in all, I think that google will produce one of the most effective and useful browsers available, especially when they get rid of the “beta” from Chrome’s name (look at gmail). I look forward to seeing where google takes Chrome. I will definitely be checking for newer versions daily.
I totally agree with Bill. This browser is insanely quick. It will eventually take over as the majority browser! Google is king!
It’s fastest compared with IE and firefox. But compared with firefox, without supporting plugins, it’s useless. I cannot live without extensions in firefox like tax mix plus, ad block, flash block. It’s ok if it is designed for mobile device but for computers, it is like a browser designed in the last decade.