Google Chrome: First Look

I'm a Google fangirl. Ever since they came out with GMail, I've been hooked. I didn't always keep tabs on what products the Google team has upcoming, but I've given nearly all of them at least a try (the only exceptions being Google Ads and Analytics; I haven't quite figured out where to put Analytics on Broken Shield and I don't intend to add any more ads than I already have). My favourite application from them so far is GDocs, which would have been immensely useful if they'd been released when I was in college, but who cares now? :D

However, I am also a Firefox fangirl. I've participated in beta testing two Firefox releases and have submitted Bugzilla reports. No, I cannot code, hence why I did not write my own add-on or theme for FF. I do like playing around with Firefox extensions and themes; my current theme is Foxkeh, a cute theme with a little fox that literally runs when you're loading a page.

So when Google said they were coming out with a browser of their own, I was torn. I love both these organizations to bits, and I was genuinely afraid that Google was going to pull out from supporting my favourite browser. Despite that, I'll admit that the first thing I downloaded upon waking was Google's beta browser, Chrome.

I'm biased to Chrome even before I installed it for one reason; it's the name of my favourite female character in Katekyo! Hitman Reborn: Chrome Dokuro. :P Yes, I do realise that it's named after FF's own Chrome section, where User Interaction takes place.

Moving on, the first thing one notices about Chrome is the blue top bar. The Tab has been moved on top of the address bar instead of the bottom, which is an interesting visual change. Chrome gives itself the illusion of having more space by somehow replacing the traditional border frames you'd see on your applications with the blue tabs and a Vista/Mac-looking small rectangular icons.

The result? A much wider screenspace. There's so much space that if you're used to seeing 1/8ths of your browser's chrome (or that top section where you see your address bar, back and front tabs, stop, reload, etc), Chrome's managed to make it seem like it's completely disappeared. It's a pleasant but jarring surprise.

The separation of each tab into its own processes is long overdue, supposedly ensuring that if you somehow managed to crash a tab it won't take the rest of your browser down. However, this had led to claims of Chrome slowing down Firefox when left to itself for periods of time. I can attest to this; Chrome does slow my other browser (Firefox) down at home, and it's very annoying. To call it a resource hog would be putting it mildly; Chrome has managed to force me to restart my computer in an effort to battle the slowness.

Online sources are all pointing out that contrary to expectations, Chrome, while being more responsive even with many tabs and Flash open, actually takes up more resources than others, such as IE8 beta 2 (spawn of hell yes I hate IE). While many take this as a sign of Chrome maximising future hardware specs, I take a far more pessimistic view; any hardware older than 18 months looks likely to get left out, and as I tend to upgrade my PC every 3-4 years this will be painful.

Rendering is faster though, which is something I'm grateful for. What I find amusing is that Chrome doesn't do very well on Acid3; it scores a measly 79/100 and the linktest failed. Acid3 is a test of how well the browser complies to web standards. The score indicates that despite the improved rendering engine, Chrome still has quite a ways to go.

At first glance, Chrome does have many promising features, but I'd wait and see before installing it if you're not a fan of beta softwares. While Chrome is quite stable and pretty solid from the first glance, it still needs more work. What makes Firefox popular is the strong community support and the many extensions; it'll be interesting to see if Chrome can do the same, especially since one of the most popular extensions is Adblock, which blocks the ads you see on most people's sites. As Google gets most of their revenue from ads, it will be interesting to see if they top this.