Google Chrome: My first impressions

This should, in no way, be considered an official review--see CNET and CNET News for the proper shebang. I've just been using Chrome for a few hours and thought I'd dash off some quick thoughts.

First: It is fast as you-know-what. It feels super-responsive, so much so that I first thought it must be a trick. The tabs almost seem to click themselves; the autocomplete is so speedy that I thought it was reading my mind. After download and launch, it pulled in not only my bookmarks but, apparently, also my Awesome Bar history. Once I loaded it up and typed "T," Twitter.com was almost already loaded in the tab. It was slightly terrifying, actually. One note: Chrome did not import my Firefox Live Bookmarks--the RSS feeds that appear in a drop-down from the menu bar, and it sadly doesn't have this as a feature at all.

The "tabs-on-top" interface is actually a tiny bit off-putting at first. I'm so used to tabs being below the URL bar that I initially felt confused about which ones I had opened. Also, there are no traditional menus for...well, anything. There's almost no text whatsoever at the top of the browser window. No File, Edit, View, Tools, etc. You've got a wrench for the very minimal selection of customization settings and a button to the left of that where you access the menu items you normally find in "File," "Edit," and "Tools," along with a Developer option where you'll find Chrome's Windows-style Task manager (and a JavaScript debugger and console, which I think I might really need...see below).

There's not even a separate search bar; you conduct everything from the URL bar. I did discover that the Ctrl-K keyboard shortcut that normally puts your cursor in the search bar in Firefox adds a little question mark to the Chrome URL bar, so the browser knows for sure that you're conducting a search. But it's not really necessary. If you type anything but a URL into the URL bar, Chrome does a search. I like it, but it takes a little getting used to.

Now for the negatives. In my short use, I found that Chrome's got some problems playing nice with JavaScript--or at least, I'm assuming that's the problem. A Safari user told me he's encountered some of the same issues I had, so I suspect it's related to the open-source WebKit on which both browsers are based (and some quick searching seems to bear that out).

Among the issues I ran into today: I attempted to sign up for Hallmark.com to send an e-card. The site launches its sign-in window as a JavaScript pop-up. Once I'd registered and tried to sign in via the pop-up, the window got caught in an infinite refresh loop. I couldn't keep my cursor in the text field or type. Sorry, Hallmark! On Facebook, as I attempted to page through an album, I got about eight photos in, and then, as I clicked Next, the page would display the next photo, then immediately jump back to the previous one, and it wouldn't progress any more than that. Finally, as I attempted to sign in to Hipster Cards (I need to send an e-card today!), that site's online form failed me at the Captcha field: every time I tried to click in it, the cursor leaped out and plopped itself back in the "First name" field. Firefox to the rescue.

I thought maybe Chrome was trying to tell me something about the e-card sites, but then, as I searched for an answer to the WebKit/JavaScript problem, I got this error on a result page:

So, that's pretty terrifying, and I guess as security features go, it's hard to miss. Hopefully it's not a false positive. In any case, like I said, I haven't done exhaustive testing on Chrome, and I haven't yet tested it with Google Docs or other Web-based Google apps. But at first blush, I like the speed, but it's certainly not ready to be my daily browser. At least not if my mom ever hopes to get an anniversary e-card.

Click here for full coverage of the Google Chrome launch.

[Wisnaeme]

So you didn't see the bloody annoying inverted scroll wheel? It seems that, depending on your windows mouse panel settings, machines are getting inverted scrolling by wheel. I was one of them. Four test machines were ALL inverted (Pulling the wheel towards me scrolled UP the page.)

This was SO ANNOYING I closed out and uninstalled. A proper application would NOT mess with the scroll wheel functionality and leave the wheel to the operating system.

Awaiting the next build.
Robert in Ediniburgh.

[Wisnaeme]

So you didn't see the annoying inverted scroll wheel? It seems that, depending on your windows mouse panel settings, machines are getting inverted scrolling by wheel. I was one of them. Four test machines were ALL inverted (Pulling the wheel towards me scrolled UP the page.)

This was SO ANNOYING I closed out and uninstalled. A proper application would NOT mess with the scroll wheel functionality and leave the wheel to the operating system.

Awaiting the next build.
Robert in Ediniburgh.

[Wisnaeme]

So you didn't see the bloody annoying inverted scroll wheel? It seems that, depending on your windows mouse panel settings, machines are getting inverted scrolling by wheel. I was one of them. Four test machines were ALL inverted (Pulling the wheel towards me scrolled UP the page.)

This was SO ANNOYING I closed out and uninstalled. A proper application would NOT mess with the scroll wheel functionality and leave the wheel to the operating system.

Awaiting the next build.
Robert in Ediniburgh.

[Wisnaeme]

OOPS! Please feel free to delete the extra posts, and this one! :-/

[bnoland]

It doesn't have the plugins like firefox.
I have created a site with this goal in mind, but haven't found any details on the plugins yet.
http://www.chromeaddins.com

[sundance808]

also took it for a spin here's my 15 minute experience:

1) common plugin(s) doesnt work (cnn's streaming video certainly doesnt and thinks the browser is firefox too).

2) clipboard module is flaky (i tried to right click then copy images on a webpage and paste that somewhere-- doesnt work).

3) autocomplete messes up login pages (logged on to my ISP's web mail and I cant log on because the browser seems to be have a mind of its own and keeps on replacing the text I'm typing!)

anyway, back to firefox! I'll probably give it another spin a few months from now.

[someguy999]

just tried to go to hotmail and it said it wasn't compatible... I guess I won't be using Chrome for quite some time. bummer, I was excited too.

[speedyclick]

No problems with the scroll wheel or Hotmail incompatibility here. It's VERY quick, and my guesses about how to make things work have so far matched Chrome's reality.
I don't know about the bells and whistles people enjoy, but anybody who can make computer use FAST has got my vote!

[seannj427]

So my buddy sent me a link, here download this and try it out. Wow is all I can say! But I do have issues with certain sites with javascript. For example, one site that pops up a larger image on mouse rollover does not work in chrome but it does in IE. No doubt, since they wrote it from the ground up, there are going to be things that aren't ready yet. I can hardly fault them. Look at what they did!
But I DO like the fact that if one tab dies the browser keeps running. I also like the absolute HTTP GET speed of this fantastic tool!
Try putting about: in the URL window. It gives you some nifty details. unlike other versions you don't have to put 'about:mozilla', etc. just typing about: will do it.


I look forward to seeing what Google does next!

-S
PS I have not looked at the source but I'm sure by looking at it we can unlock some more of that google goodness for the tweaker in you........

[sbcomposer]

I have used it all day and its quick!!! I tested it both with Hotmail and Hallmark after reading the mini review and comments here - and no problems at all!

( Of course I am running Windows Vista (the best) and NOT using Norton (The WORST).

[bruno-braga]

Hum... Seems interesting, although some standard features should not be changed, especially keyboard navigation which is in deed one of the usability issues well considered by Google programmers.

I got so disappointed when writing one email using Gmail, since I was so used to write my message, press TAB key and hit the Space bar (this sequence would move the cursor to the Send button, and by pressing it I would be sending the message, without having to put my hands on the mouse, move the cursor until the Send button to then click it... usability is everything).

Maybe they will work on this on future releases... that's why they advertise BETA's first. Wise people....

[TurboFool]

Well, so far I'm in love with the speed, but I'm missing my Firefox extensions (especially the ability to sync bookmarks), and the session restore functions. Also, similar to the aforementioned inverted scroll wheel, my scroll pad on my touchpad only scrolls down (and way too fast) in Chrome, not up. As well, the hot zone I have set to the top-right corner for F5 doesn't function in Chrome.

Honestly, I'd manage with the lack of Firefox features for a while just to get the hang of it if it weren't for the scroll problems. Until then it's a passing interest. Looking forward to the next beta, though.

[bholder13850]

The first thing I discovered was that it has no usable bookmark management. The second was that it's not at all hard to crash (within my first minute of use). Several pages I tried to use didn't load correctly. It seems to be missing "disable referrers" functionality, which breaks some things I use. Something confuses one site into thinking Chrome is Safari.

So far, not impressed.

[dave-x]

I like Chrome a lot, but noticed a few issue though: I logged into my Facebook page a few minutes ago to add a friend, but each time I clicked the tab nothing happened. I ended up launching Firefox to complete the task. Also, several times using Chrome, I attempted to go to some websites, Chrome actually displayed an error, but with other browsers I was able to get there. Funny enough, closing and restarting Chrome solved that.

[jroyall140]

Try loading a java applet - even after updating to the beta version

[punkosu]

clicky web analytics has a real-time display of Chrome usage across all 45,000 web pages they track. Interesting the usage is already around 2%, I'm interested to see if all this talk will fade after a few days, I'm reminded of cuils launch....

http://getclicky.com/chrome/

[nbfritz]

I have to say that as beta releases go -- especially one with relatively little fanfare prior to release, this one is pretty good. I haven't encountered any of the issues mentioned above, but I can't say I'm surprised to hear that it has bugs. I'm sure they'll be resolved.

I really doubt that addons will ever be a big selling point of this browser. It seems that the whole point is to provide the most simple, fast, stable browser possible. Addons and customization will probably be best left for the other browsers that do that better (go FireFox!) as they can potentially fly in the face of this goal.

That said, I think this thing (I'm using it now) has fantastic potential to be the browser I recommend for my friends and family that just want to use the internet. Techies will favor more sophisticated, customizable options, but for just-plain-easy, this is looking very promising.

[sketchee]

I think the way that Google talks in the comic about the plugin architecture in such detail makes the possibility of powerful plugs more likely. The simple and easy install of plugins compared to a microsoft program also makes them pretty appealing to me. And since it's open source, there is pretty certain to be a plugin option for the tech saavy. Not to mention that the Google folks are techies themselves and won't overlook the tweakers.

[JEC45459]

So far, I like it.
Fast, friendly, and it typical Google style, the interface is simple, clean and easy to adapt to.

With no offense to the author:
Even though Chrome is free, I'd happily pay good money to Google to force my "friends and loved ones" that love me enough to send "e-cards" ::cough::: to use this browser, if it can in any way stop those silly folks from continuing with the process.
Really.

[stalepie2]

I liked it, but I'm back to using IE6. These modern browsers just aren't for me. I almost never even have more than four "tabs" open anyway. As Harlan Ellison always said, you should use the level of technology that best suits your needs.

[thespian77]

It's fast as all get out. But I've found that a lot of facebook apps. don't seem to work correctly.