Google Introduces It's Own Browser! Google Chrome!

[notjustgraphics]

I've been anxiously awaiting this new browser!

It's finally here.. well, in Beta..

FYI: It uses Safari's rendering agent... an engine known as WebKit which is gaining popularity. Most notably, it is the basis for the Iphone browser!

Google Chrome - Download a new browser

Cheers!

[Tamlin]

Downloaded and installed it.
Tried it for about 2 minutes.
Uninstalled it and went back to Firefox.

I realise it's only a beta, but still...me no likey. To be honest, I just don't understand the point. I mean Macfans have got Safari, noobs have got IE, the wifully perverse have got Opera and everyone else has got Firefox...I don't see where the gap in the market lies.

Just my opinion...

[notjustgraphics]

Well, It depends on how you look at the situation...

On one hand, you have desktop browsing which was (until recently) very much a monopoly controlled by Microsoft and its Internet Explorer.

There has always been alternatives, and since Microsoft's support of non-windows OS has been dismal, those with Mac's, Unix/Linux boxes or other OS's have had no choice but to use other browsers.

Firefox IMO represented the first TRUE choice. It is available on nearly all desktop OS's, adhere's very closely to Web Standards, and has always been security focused.

Firefox in all it's glory and celebrity is, unfortunately, not perfect. It may be, by far, the best available, but it is not perfect.

In my opinion, this will always leave room for better products.

Google has long been a super power in our online experiences. Their tecnologies enhance our browsing almost seamlessly, and in many cases, unnoticeably. It should be no surprise that they want to offer a browser that compliments their entire existence.

But, like you ask, Where is the gap in the market?

Heres my considerations:

1. Privacy - Google Chrome has an 'incognito' mode built in that, with a click of the mouse prevents any history, cookies, scripts, or temporary files from being stored on the local machine once the window is closed. The privacy issue has obvious afirmaments, but there are many many situations outside of porn where privacy is a significant issue. Such as accessing corporate networks or intranets from public or shared or even family computers... Such as protecting your online habits from the prying eyes of malicious software and worms.. Such as planning a surprise for a family member using ebay, or online shopping, the list goes on and on.

Other browsers like Firefox can be modded (Addons) to incorporate this type of feature. Google just sees a reasonable demand for it and has included it in the native software to increase their value proposition.

2. Affinity - Google Chrome is the first (as far as I know) browser to open new tabs and windows as unique processes. This means that the content of each Google Chrome window is protected from the others. Sites with malicious scripts cannot capture data you enter into another window and if one browser window crashes, the others are unnaffected. This has always been a problem with Firefox.

3. Simplicty & Speed - Google Chrome is the least intrusive browser in terms of real estate. It takes up less screen space, has less buttons, and loads faster than most browsers, including firefox.

4. Next Generation Devices - More and more people are accessing the web from non-traditiona tools. Tools such as Cell Phones, iPods, Portable Game Machines, GPS Units and more. These devices typically have proprietary browsers that, like Internet Explorer, dont always adhere to 'web standards' for rendering. With the inception of the iPhone and it's massive international popularity and enormous number of copycats, it should not surprise anyone if and when the iPhone browser becomes the most recognized standard. The iPhone, made by Apple, for obvious reasons chose Safari as the browser for the iPhone. Despite it's nativity to Macs only, Safari has long been recognized as the most 'standards' compliant browser. What most dont realize is that Safari used an Open Source rendering engine called WebKit. Google Chrome is the first best offering to bring WebKit to PC's. A turn in the right direction from a web-developer point of view.

5. Standards Compliancy - Again, WebKit!!! (read last sentence of #4 for more info)

6. Property Inspector - Web Developers will love being able to right click any element of a web page to Inspect the Element. The Property Inspector is well developed and in the spirit of Web Developer addon for Firefox.

Of course, the product is still in Beta and is a first generation for this company. I do not believe it is better than Firefox except in very few niche areas. I doubt it ever will be. But what it does do is offer yet another competitor to the fiercly non-compliant Internet Explorer. One that will become MUCH more visible to the average web surfer than even Firefox. I say this because Google will be able to promote Chrome through all of its outlets which include YouTube, Google Search, Google Maps, and so much more. It's always been my opinion that Firefox's growth in market share has always been inhibited by it's visibility.

What I dont look forward too, but I'm sure will be soon to come, is the likelihood that Google will aggresively promote the browser... I suspect they will reveal that the browser can communicate with Google installations such as AdSense, Urchin, YouTube and so many more in ways other browsers cant, making a strong case for people to atleast try Google Chrome.

But that is just my guess.

I'm forcing myself to use Google Chrome, and yes, I have to force it because I still am much more comfortable in Firefox, but I do want to give it a decent run through. I will always keep it installed for the simple reason that I can now test my sites in a Safari equivalent browser without actually turning on my Mac!

Cheers!

[Jacorre]

I tried out Google Chrome as well and so far it's looking very good. Of course, the possibilities of integration with other Google products is going to be a big plus as well.

[Jolt]

Anyone who uses Chrome and doesn't think Google is tracking all they can is blind. Google makes billions by watching what people do on the net. What better way then a browser that feeds things back to them?

[Tamlin]

Originally Posted by Jolt

Anyone who uses Chrome and doesn't think Google is tracking all they can is blind. Google makes billions by watching what people do on the net. What better way then a browser that feeds things back to them?

I must admit, that thought did occur to me too - especially if you read between the lines of the Licence Agreement at the point of install (something that admittedly I don't normally do but which I did do in this case).

[notjustgraphics]

Umm... not only is it possible, Google is widely advertising the fact!

Google included OmniBox with Google Chrome. Omnibox is much like an autocomplete address bar/search bar.... Meaning you can use the same bar to address a website or search google.

OmniBar tracks the last 20 sites you visit or searches you enter. This information is then used as a seed for google controlled ads on the site you visit.. like the Google Ad boxes on this site! For example, if someone is looking for an MP3 Editor and searchs a few terms in google, maybe visits 2 or 3 sites and then decides to come to BioRust to ask for advice, the GoogleAds on this site would most likely lead me to MP3 Editors or related sites.

Now, it should be noted that this function is pretty common in today's browsers. However, the threat to Google's empire is anonymous browsers such as soon coming Internet Explorer 8's 'InPrivate Blocking'. These anonymous or 'porn' modes as they are commonly referred to are expected to cleanse the cookies that Google uses to key the ads mentioned above or removes them altogether. It is likely that Google hopes to gain market share with a browser that will provide surfer's with privacy AND still allow them to provide targeted information like ads. Another example is youtube... Google technology is hard at work keying ads surrounding the videos (and in many cases on top of your videos) that are related to the content you are watching.

Personally, I would like a web world where everything is anonymous and there are no ads. That's never going to happen sadly. I'm not ready to abandon Firefox, it's a far superior browser in most aspects and if it was possible, I would remove Internet Explorer from my machine altogether. But you cant. Even if you forcefully remove Internet Explorer from a windows machine, all of your Microsoft applications stop working. This bothers me a lot more than Google tracking a few search terms to send me info I might be interested in. But I live with that too.

I know the next logical question is 'well what else are they tracking'.

My answer: Nothing your ISP isnt.

I know when I buy gas at a gas station, my every move and license plate number is recorded. I know when I access the internet, someone is recording my activity. I hate it, but live with it.

Hell, if I'm looking for decent porn, maybe Google will have some good advice lol! (jk)

I would love Firefox 4 to include some of the features Google Chrome has. But i'm also looking forward to seeing how Google Chrome can elevate the browsing experience in terms of Google Technologies... ie youtube, googlemaps, googlesites, etc...

There are also a whole bunch of applications developed by Google (leading towards GoogleOS) that provide a much needed alternative to Microsoft... however, these apps dont play nice with Internet Explorer. Google Chrome gives them a reasonable platform from which to climb up.

Cheers!

[MoodsR4Cattle]

Why do you think that Google's browser tracking is something new?

Practically every program you install (legal or not) reports back to someone every time you launch it on your computer.

How about your phone? There is a lot more personal info traveling through those lines than what shows up on your caller ID.

Seriously, we have no privacy anywhere.

LOL NJG!

[turvas]

Originally Posted by tamlin

[...]the wifully perverse have got Opera[...]

And what's wrong with Opera? Opera runs faster than Firefox on Windows, which is exactly what I'm looking for.

[Tamlin]

Originally Posted by MoodsR4Cattle

Practically every program you install (legal or not) reports back to someone every time you launch it on your computer.

Not if you have a properly-configured firewall.

[MoodsR4Cattle]

Originally Posted by tamlin

Not if you have a properly-configured firewall.

Or a little program called "little snitch".

[supertackyman]

Whatever happened to the good 'ol days of internet browsing without popups, targeted ads, and "tracking" ??!?
oh yeah thats right <56kbps.
nevermind.


btw- hi turvas!

[notjustgraphics]

Originally Posted by turvas

And what's wrong with Opera? Opera runs faster than Firefox on Windows, which is exactly what I'm looking for.

1. OPERA IS ADWARE! (Or at least use to be). I stopped using Opera when Firefox arrived because you could only rid yourself of a bombardment of advertising by purchasing the license for Opera Premium.
2. Opera is not OpenSource
3. It uses Presto as a rendering engine, a proprietary some-what non-standards compliant package despite the fact that they present Opera as 'exceptionally standards compliant' (although vastly improved over IE)

Other than that, Opera is a very well developed vastly superior alternative to Internet Explorer. It does pale a bit on Privacy issues, but has a very well developed Feed Reader (RSS/Atom etc). It also incorporates email and chat within the browser window... a plus to some perhaps but for me I will always want my Email to be handled independently of my browser.

If you report it as faster than Firefox, I would give that a nod in it's favor as well.

It's still Firefox for me though

Cheers!

[notjustgraphics]

Originally Posted by tamlin

Not if you have a properly-configured firewall.

Im not sure this is entirely true either, even with hardware firewalls.

We use applications relentlessly that depend on Internet Access. ALL Adobe products access the internet at every launch, and there's a persistent Adobe process that resides even when no applications are running that reports back to Mom! Mostly these processes check for updates to software or are required to verify your license, but if we fail to permit these applications access to the internet, suddenly our legal applications throw a fit.

For those who don't believe me, just launch Adobe Reader (you know, that Get Adobe button you had to click way back when to get the free reader so you can view PDF's?)
This is Adobe's most aggressive trackback tool. I doubt the fact that it's free and resides on 89% of Internet capable machines is a coincidence. In fact, Adobe once had an agreement with Hewlett Packard to include 'Light' versions of Adobe applications on new machines providing Adobe Reader was a part of the System Restore function.

Internet Explorer is ever present, even when we least expect it. It's DLL's are routinely accessed by all Microsoft programs to send information back to Microsoft. This is proven by the fact that nearly all MS programs stop working if you remove the Internet Explorer files from your computer. Unfortunately, since XP, many of the DLL's are shared resources that can no longer be uniquely identified as belonging to Internet Explorer.

iTunes, Quick Time and all Apple Software applications do the exact same thing. How often are we working away on an image or script when a giant box pops up to tell us there's a new version of some program we rarely use?

Roxio CD/DVD Suite comes preloaded on nearly every big box store computer. Guess what.. major trackback agent already installed and configured when you flip the power switch!

Any Dell comes with DSAgnt or Dell Support Agent pre-installed. (removing it voids your service plan). This is how they know if you've changed the configuration of your machine since you purchased it.

Almost all Virus Suites have a trackback to monitor new virus lists and version updates.. not to mention licensing information.

Even Intel has a process built into Windows Vista that reports back information about the use of it's chipsets.

It's my opinion that both soft and hardware firewalls are effective blockers against malicious and unknown internet exchanges, but there are soooo many exchanges that we, either through intention or complacency, have authorized at some point.

In reality, we either accept it or our machines become effective desk anti-theft devices. Come to think of it, i wish someone would steal my desk.. i could use a bigger one.

Feeling strangely like I'm being watched, I think i'll log out for a bit!

Cheers!

[Tamlin]

Originally Posted by notjustgraphics

ALL Adobe products access the internet at every launch, and there's a persistent Adobe process that resides even when no applications are running that reports back to Mom! Mostly these processes check for updates to software or are required to verify your license, but if we fail to permit these applications access to the internet, suddenly our legal applications throw a fit.

I beg to differ. It's true that Adobe products attempt to access the Internet at every launch, but you can (and I do) block their access if you have something like ZoneAlarm installed. The only times these apps need to access the Internet is when you first verify your licence (which most times you only need to do once) and if you want to check for updates (which you can do manually). My Photoshop works quite happily even though it's not permitted to "phone home".