Well first there is no Mac support.
More importantly there is a lingering question: how does a browser serve Google?
We know that Google is not a benevolent organization. They artificially manipulate the demand curve of advertising and continually create opt-in programs that give them surreptitious access to your information. So, why would Google want a browser? The same reason that Microsoft has one, to subtly monetize office products.
Would you like to import this to Google Docs?
The growing office platform that Google has introduced and offered “enterprise” support for means that Chrome will most likely feature product reference as freely as Internet Explorer references Microsoft offerings. Is that a bad thing? Maybe not. The modern Internet surfer now has another corporate master they can choose from. No one is particularly hurt by that, and every person that switches away for Internet Explorer to a browser that uses web standards for rendering makes web development easier.
I hope that plenty of people dump Microsoft for Google, or better yet use Chrome as a baby step to using Firefox or Opera.
Why I won’t use Chrome.
I don’t particularly mind product placement. I do however DEEPLY mind having my browser scrape the searches I make in on site searches. I also detest the idea that Google will be catering search results based off the browser, instead of how I actually ask the question.
For those people who are “old-timers” on the Internet you may remember annoying Browser Help Objects:
Except for the singing this could be Chrome. Not helping you near as much as it is skewing your money on the Internet to specific areas that Google has economic interests in. But, really, there are no parties on the Internet that are actually free providers — you need to decide who you support. For now I still support Firefox.
What is Good About Chrome.
- They are pushing forward a new framework for handling JavaScript that should be faster
- They are introducing independent tab handling (they call it dynamic), so, if one tab dies the others should not be affected.
I like both of these advancements, but I have not seen performance data from Chrome so I can’t say how resource intensive these new features are. Chrome will be good for browsers by creating more pressure for real improvement and a larger web-standard compliant population.
Will This Affect Search Results?
As long as ComScore, Nielsen NetRatings, and the community at large don’t start consider OmniBox as Google searches I think search will be the same. Potentially Chrome could introduce a lot of data to Google and Google Suggest about what people are searching on other sites. However, Google already gets a large number of searches from browser add-ons; maybe Chrome won’t change that data stream much at all.
In the long run Chrome is just another browser. Go play with it. See if it works for you.
3 Comments
I’ve been using it on a daily basis since it came out. In fact, I’m trying to use it in place of other browsers.
Except for the fact that certain Web sites don’t display and that I cannot use my thread tools on SF-Fandom, I haven’t had too many complaints about it.
It’s much better than FireSucks and Internet Destroyer, but there have been times when I’ve referred to it as Crumb.
I wish it were as stable as they had made it out to be. I’ve crashed the entire browser several times already — so much for “separate processes and separate threads per tab”.
It scrolls better and responds to my keystrokes better than Firesucks. It’s also WAY faster than Internet Destroyer. In fact, it’s way faster than FireSucks, too.
I’m not ready to make it my default browser but in a few more upgrades I’ll probably take that step (note: I have yet to test Destroyer 8 or FireSucks 3).
Interesting that it does run faster. Good for it.
I still won’t be playing with it till the Mac version comes out. I might have to take an afternoon to play with it on my other machine.
I have been using both Firefox 3 and Chrome for the past two weeks. I find that Chrome is way faster the Firefox unless you are looking at a site not in the top million. I love the independent tabs. I did however find it interesting that Google extended it’s relationship with Firefox despite the Chrome launch. It is my understanding that their new partnership will run through 2011 (http://www.ginside.com/2008/1898/google-mozilla-firefox-2011/). Carlos I would love your insight into this partnership because some of your fears about Chrome I suspect are already happening with Firefox thus making Google interested in extending the relationship with Mozilla. Just a hunch but you said it best “Google is not a benevolent organization”.