I like the name – a bit sexy, a bit retro.
There’s been a bit of a buzz on Twitter and around the blogs as Google launched its new browser, Google Chrome, this week (Beta). I admit I’ve installed it, out of curiosity, albeit onto the virtual Windows machine on my Mac (no Google Chrome for Mac OS yet, one definite downside.)
I haven’t spent much time on it yet but I agree with Dave Chaffey that the combined search box/address bar is great, doing away with the need for the Google Toolbar and throwing up search results, recently visited pages and helpful keywords. Having recently visited pages displayed graphically whenever you open a new tab is also quite useful. According what I understood from the Google Chrome comicbook it looks like if one tab crashes or fails to load, it doesn’t mean the whole browser crashes, which sounds good (although personally I don’t experience that very often).
Elsewhere, folks have commented on its speed, although there are detractors who say better to wait until the technology is more stable (both sides of the argument are currently raging at e-consultancy).
Interestingly, Elaine Fogel at MarketingProfs noticed that her email marketing provider’s site didn’t recognise Google Chrome. So I tried to do the same and found the same problem – the secure login page wouldn’t even load. So a bit of a bummer for those of us who spend a lot of time at those sites.
Yes, interesting to see the browser wars hotting up again. I’ve installed it out of curiosity but unlikely to use much as I feel I already use enough Google apps and give them tons of information. I’ll be sticking to Firefox!
To be honest I really like Firefox too, and I like the way you can just type a name or part of a name in the address bar and if it’s a site you’ve been to before or well-trafficked it comes up with the site you want right away. Doesn’t take much to keep me happy!