Browsers Blog - Nick Davis

For the last three weeks, I have been using Google Chrome as my default browser at work and home. Why the sudden jump from the standard options? This question is particularly valid as Chrome is brand spanking new.

When I opened Chrome for the first time after installation, it felt something was missing. It felt a lot was missing. They hadn't included any sort of bells and whistles. I had expected at least google toolbar functionality would be apparent. Then I realised, apart from the sole purpose of browsing the Internet and basic bookmarking, this browser had nothing. Initially, I felt severely underwhelmed and commented that Chrome was possibly under bloated.

What am I going to do without my Google Toolbar for IE, Twitterfox and Facebook app for Firefox? After a little bit of a fit, I then took a step back. What has Google generally been good at? Keeping functionality on the Internet. They don't really make desktop apps (besides the likes of google desktop, which I felt was sort of a fluke). Google Docs, Gmail, Analytics, etc. are all web apps. Google Chrome is simply takes the focus off the browser and puts the focus on the web apps.

Once I realised the purpose of a web browser, then Chrome started making sense. I don't need an RSS aggregator built into my browser, I use iGoogle and Google Reader. I don't need a weather app, I get my weather on iGoogle. The sites I do check, I simply have them bookmarked and accessible right under the address bar. Any other frequently visited websites are accessible by their "Most Visited" pages when you open a new tab. It just makes sense.

Another absolutely amazing and huge benefit is the fact that each tab is it's own process. I can't tell you how much I can tell the difference between running Chrome versus IE and Firefox. I will at times have up around 10-12 websites open at once, when things get a little pokey, I don't need to restart the browser, I simply close a couple tabs. Nice!

The only beef I have with Chrome is that it seems it can get finicky when trying to watch flash based videos and it's not too hot with pdf reading yet. But hey, we are still in Beta (like any other Web 2.0 thing out there) and I believe they will have a firm grounding in the browser race.

Google Chrome

Tags: Browsers, Technology, Chrome, Google

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