Google Chrome

While working on my laptop, I went to youtube.com to obtain an embed code where I encountered a message that said:  We will be phasing out support for your browser soon.  Please upgrade to one of these more modern browsers.  Optional browser buttons provided include Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 8, and Google Chrome.    I’ve got IE8 installed on my primary desktop, I’ve had Firefox installed on the laptop, and so being a Google fan, I decided to give Google Chrome’s browser a spin.   Google is such a leader in the digital and internet frontier that I can’t help but consider that their browser also contains some very innovative features. 

This article is geared toward Google Chrome, its features, its pros and cons and my overall impressions of the new browser.  I hope its good.  MSN and Yahoo are arming themselves enforce to go head to head with Google’s search engine.  I believe Google will remain the leading force in the search engine space.  Thats another subject though, to be addressed in an article that will perhaps compare google.com with bing.com (Microsofts new search engine).

LIKE:  Google Chrome installs lightening fast.  Nothing like Internet Explorer.  It seemed to have take a minute or less, compared to IE8 which needs to be downloaded to your computer (a huge file) and then run or saved and run. 

 LIKE:  Google Chrome has a new tab feature that seems to show my most frequently visited sites in little visual boxes.  VERY NICE!  Most people really respond to visuals, as they do in youtube.com with the small thumbnails that let a person scan through what they might like to view.   Of course at this point, since the Google Chrome browser is newly installed, it probably needs some browsing history to begin logging my most visited sites.  I can do that!

LIKE:  Google says: On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff – the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.  Great!  I love speed and Chrome seems pretty fast so far!

LIKE:  I noticed that Google Chrome has a built in Crash Control.  The crash control is built into each tab individually so if one tab crashes, it doesn’t mean (according to Google) that all tabs crash along with it.  If you’ve used IE8, you’d find that frequently there is a crash, just when you’ve typed something brilliant, and if you’re lucky, the browser will recover the page, but typically you’ve lost your information typed into a form field.  Well, we’ll see if I relive that experience with Google Chrome. 

LIKE:  When you install Google Chrome, you don’t have to lose your previous bookmarks and favorites.  There’s a tool that looks like a wrench in the top right that allows you to quickly select options to import all of your existing bookmarks and favorites into your new Google Chrome browser.  EASY!  I’ve posted a video I found on the Google Chrome site to help with this task.

LIKE: to actually bookmark a new web page, just click on the Star icon at the left side of the address bar and in 2 clicks you’re done.  Wow! thats easy.

DON’T CARE:  Google Chrome has a featured called InCognito Mode.  I guess for folks who are shifty, or trying to hide something from their spouse, or perhaps planning a birthday bash (thinking of a scenario without guile), this might be just the ticket.  Google says Don’t want pages you visit to show up in your web history? Choose incognito mode for private browsing.  This could also be used by a mischievious kid who is searching for naughty photos.  Oh well, I really don’t care.  Won’t use it.  But I’m sure for some, it would be a useful feature.

Google really steps up to the plate with helpful video clips and information to help their browser audience to understand the full scope of the new Chrome browser.   click here for lots of helpful video clips: http://tools.google.com/chrome/intl/en/features.html#

I’ll continue to post occassional updates  as I experience the new Google Chrome over a longer period of time.  For now, you get the jist of things.  Most of my impressions of the Google Chrome browser received “LIKE” ratings and so overall, I really like it!