Polishing the Google Chrome
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Google, the juggernaut on the block, released an alternative to browsers this week with Google Chrome. As a mac user, I had to lug myself over to a PC to get to check out the answer to the browser question and I have to say it's quite impressive. As a programmer, I have to applaud the fact that this browser is fast. I'll give you a quick web 101 primer on how your pages load, in case you're a web layman- When you load a web page, it's not just that one request going out. The first thing that happens is the framework (HTML) of the page loads. Then, requests go out from your browser to servers...each element of the page that needs to get loaded is a separate request. So, assuming it's your first time visiting said website, if a page has 4 javascripts, 20 images, a style sheet and google analytics tracking it's a total of 27 requests and responses going on. Some browsers will limit the number of requests going out at a single time and the ye-olde-browsers used to have serial requests where one would go out and wait for the response before sending another. Bad connection? Slow ISP? Good luck getting those 27 requests back before your microwave popcorn is done. Google chrome seems to fly. It offers multiple requests with seemingly no cap except for your home's bandwidth. Also, as a programmer, it's exciting to see that javascript is finally natively running with a revamped engine. In the world of AJAX and web pages that pop, that's huge. The speed improvement is palpable and the chances of crashing have been mitigated with the way Chrome spawns off new processes for each plug-in and web tab. Yay! If one tab crashes it won't knock out your entire browsing session! Also, as a devhead, the fact that I can now use the browser for debugging my javascript instead of relying on hacking my code up and putting it on a desktop just for ease of use is amazing. Yes, other tools exist for other browsers such as Firebug (which rox if you haven't used it in Firefox) but it's a 3rd party plug in. If you have JS problems in Internet Explorer, g-d help you. You don't even get the right line number usually where the problem occurs. Chrome allows you to drill into all aspects of your javascript with ease and debug on the fly. Again, in a world of AJAX I can't tell you how important that is. Easier development for me means cooler website applications for you in a shorter period of time. For a first release, this is an amazing browser. I compare it with the Safari 3 browser for Windows launch that was a total clusterpoo (Safari is still struggling to pop above 6% market share). I'm excited that Google seemingly hit a home-run with a well-crafted piece of software that can only get better from here. Now, please get me a Mac release already...it's been a week! |
Comments (3)
The Google browser is a pile of crap ... and will be for a long time to come. The distinguishing features are not that hard to duplicate by the competition, and they have not gone through any independent testing for standards and security. They are also (as an organization) ill-equipped to offer any sort of organization up to its users at the imagined scale pundits are predicting, nor do they have the disciplined software engineering processes to sustain any high level of innovation and quality. The more seriously threatened are the wussy boys at Opera, and the Netscape Orphan Mozilla. Also remarkible is the deafining silence from the radical left of the Open Source movement (like bowel movement?) who Google has again paid off thru 2010 and ripped off their technology.
Posted by Mr. Reality | September 14, 2008 2:39 PM
Bitter?
If the distinguishing features aren't that tough to dupe, why have they not been done so far? Considering the manner by which it spawns processes for each tab and if someone writes crappy code, it crashes the tab and not the entire browser/system, that alone is better than anything else out there.
Furthermore, the fact that the v8 engine for JS has "Pimp My JS" written all over it to the point I think Xzibit is going to pop out...and is faster than anything else written by Opera and Moz. I don't get what your beef is...
Look, I'm not a fan of Google taking over the world, but considering what this brings to the table right out of the gate I am willing to give them a shot.
Nothing you've said in your comments aside from Netscape being an Orphan is based in reality. I still don't see you support the argument that "The Google browser is a pile of crap...". Rather, I saw that statement and then a whole bunch of ad-hominem and red herring attacks.
Posted by Jack | September 14, 2008 7:45 PM
Some of the flash sites related to Online Chess Programs, cricket sites, or some of the flash sites are experiencing problem while opening in google, chrome. Though it is very fast, but don't know what happen to it.
Posted by akshay | October 8, 2008 9:16 AM