Google’s new Web browser has taken the Internet scene by storm with some innovative new features.
- By Monali Gaikwad
The long-rumored Google Chrome Web browser was released on September 2, 2008 promising a better browsing experience. The program, along with a lengthy comic-book style announcement that accompanied it, caused quite a stir, with every major news outlet analyzing the reasons behind, and timing of the launch. The developers at Google have put in a lot of effort into researching and testing Chrome to give users a better Web browsing experience through a more stable and secure browser. Chrome presents many new and innovative features, including a portable version of the browser. However, the OS X and Linux version are not yet released, which might upset a few Mac and Linux fans to an extent.
What’s new
Google Chrome uses a JavaScript engine called V8, which renders JavaScript much faster than the other browsers currently available. Even the download and installation process is very smooth and easy, and takes only a few minutes. Importing bookmarks, history, plug-ins and other information from Firefox or IE is also very quick. Google Chrome loads almost instantly unlike other browsers which take time to initialize. The browser has a clean, simple and efficient interface which has always been Google’s trademark. It doesn’t even have a title bar, and a search-cum-address bar called the Omnibar gives you the benefi ts of Google search in the address bar itself. Whenever you type into the
Omnibar, you have the option to run a Google search or go to the website you desire. The Omnibar also has an autocomplete feature that offers suggestions for sites as you type in.
The browser uses an adaptive home page that shows thumbnails of the nine most visited websites, and also your bookmarks. In spite of this, the page looks clutter-free and is pleasing to the eyes. The most-visited pages change depending on the user’s activity, and the inputs are taken directly from the browser history. Users can search within the History for previously visited sites by entering keywords.
Internet users who use browsers like Firefox and Opera must already be familiar with Tabs. This feature has made Web browsing a much simpler affair as it allows you to open a number of sites simultaneously on the same window. Google Chrome has taken this concept to the next level and improved the tabs by treating each tab as a separate process. Each tab has its own control and URL box, and runs in its own separate system process. It also has a separate memory and CPU allocation. Even if you are running JavaScript in one tab and
a fl ash game in another, there is no lag and the browser doesn’t hang. In case a bug crops up in one of the tabs, just the tab with the error is closed and the rest of the tabs are not affected and do not crash. Hence, you can continue browsing without having to lose any important information. The browser also has a separate task manager to check the system resource utilization of each tab.
Under the hood
Chrome is very stable in handling multiple tasks simultaneously. The tabs can be dragged out and made into separate windows or shuffled between windows with the click of a mouse button. This feature has been an integral part of Opera for years. Allotted memory is also released when a tab is closed, unlike in other browsers where the memory is still blocked and not allocated to the new tabs being opened. The developers at Google Labs have taken special care to import plugins from Firefox and IE, and run them as separate processes just like each tab. When merged with HTML or JavaScript, they are considered to be a single process. Most Firefox plugins are compatible with Google Chrome and run without any changes or tweaks.
Some users may be concerned about their browsing history being shown on the adaptive home page every time. Google has kept in mind that some users might need to keep their browsing habits confi dential. Perhaps the most welcome feature is a browsing mode called Incognito, where no information related to the sites visited is saved in the History. Even cookies are cleared as soon as you exit the browser. In spite of being a second, secret window, the browser still allows users to access their bookmarks. This feature comes in handy to make sure that confi dential sites are not displayed as thumbnails on the default home page! Pop-ups are also restricted to the tab they are generated from, so you don’t have them scattered all over your computer screen while you are browsing. Users have the option to pull out pop-ups and convert them into new windows.
Unlike in other browsers, new popups don’t open even when you start downloading fi les. The download starts immediately and its progress is shown on a wide bar at the bottom of the screen. The bar shows a maximum of four files even if you have 10 downloads happening at a time. When you click the 'Show all downloads’ button, you will see them all on a dedicated page, but even this is clean and clutter-free.
Usability
In an attempt to make it the browser friendly to non-technical users, Google has also gone a step further to keep the options dialog as simple as possible. The ‘Options’ panel has only three tabs. Here, users can modify the settings with respect to the home page, default browser, proxy settings and even the default search engine. Google has very democratically included other search engines in spite of being most people’s default choice. One option that could be a cause of concern for users is the ‘Show Saved Passwords’ button. If you turn this option
on by mistake, all your passwords will be unencrypted in the password text box, and there doesn’t seem to be an option to turn it off.
The developers have also taken care to curb malware and phishing to a great extent. The architecture is such that malware cannot write any files to your hard drive, thus preventing your computer from being infected.
Chrome also has Google Gears built into it. Gears is a Google project that can improve Web browsing by allowing websites to run certain applications on clients’ computers to enable quicker and more powerful features. You don’t have to install Gears separately while browsing. One of the drawbacks of Chrome is
the lack of warning messages. This is a concern because it doesn’t offer to save passwords or even warn you while closing the browser with multiple tabs running, which can inconvenience the user.
Google Chrome is an Open Source browser, which leaves a lot of scope for improvement in the coming years. Even in the Beta version the browser is quite stable and achieves almost everything Google has promised. More web applications and plug-ins are being developed to be compatible with Google Chrome, and as that happens, it will be a strong choice for most people as their
default browser.
News Feature- CHIP Magazine, October 08
- By Monali Gaikwad
The long-rumored Google Chrome Web browser was released on September 2, 2008 promising a better browsing experience. The program, along with a lengthy comic-book style announcement that accompanied it, caused quite a stir, with every major news outlet analyzing the reasons behind, and timing of the launch. The developers at Google have put in a lot of effort into researching and testing Chrome to give users a better Web browsing experience through a more stable and secure browser. Chrome presents many new and innovative features, including a portable version of the browser. However, the OS X and Linux version are not yet released, which might upset a few Mac and Linux fans to an extent.
What’s new
Google Chrome uses a JavaScript engine called V8, which renders JavaScript much faster than the other browsers currently available. Even the download and installation process is very smooth and easy, and takes only a few minutes. Importing bookmarks, history, plug-ins and other information from Firefox or IE is also very quick. Google Chrome loads almost instantly unlike other browsers which take time to initialize. The browser has a clean, simple and efficient interface which has always been Google’s trademark. It doesn’t even have a title bar, and a search-cum-address bar called the Omnibar gives you the benefi ts of Google search in the address bar itself. Whenever you type into the
Omnibar, you have the option to run a Google search or go to the website you desire. The Omnibar also has an autocomplete feature that offers suggestions for sites as you type in.
The browser uses an adaptive home page that shows thumbnails of the nine most visited websites, and also your bookmarks. In spite of this, the page looks clutter-free and is pleasing to the eyes. The most-visited pages change depending on the user’s activity, and the inputs are taken directly from the browser history. Users can search within the History for previously visited sites by entering keywords.
Internet users who use browsers like Firefox and Opera must already be familiar with Tabs. This feature has made Web browsing a much simpler affair as it allows you to open a number of sites simultaneously on the same window. Google Chrome has taken this concept to the next level and improved the tabs by treating each tab as a separate process. Each tab has its own control and URL box, and runs in its own separate system process. It also has a separate memory and CPU allocation. Even if you are running JavaScript in one tab and
a fl ash game in another, there is no lag and the browser doesn’t hang. In case a bug crops up in one of the tabs, just the tab with the error is closed and the rest of the tabs are not affected and do not crash. Hence, you can continue browsing without having to lose any important information. The browser also has a separate task manager to check the system resource utilization of each tab.
Under the hood
Chrome is very stable in handling multiple tasks simultaneously. The tabs can be dragged out and made into separate windows or shuffled between windows with the click of a mouse button. This feature has been an integral part of Opera for years. Allotted memory is also released when a tab is closed, unlike in other browsers where the memory is still blocked and not allocated to the new tabs being opened. The developers at Google Labs have taken special care to import plugins from Firefox and IE, and run them as separate processes just like each tab. When merged with HTML or JavaScript, they are considered to be a single process. Most Firefox plugins are compatible with Google Chrome and run without any changes or tweaks.
Some users may be concerned about their browsing history being shown on the adaptive home page every time. Google has kept in mind that some users might need to keep their browsing habits confi dential. Perhaps the most welcome feature is a browsing mode called Incognito, where no information related to the sites visited is saved in the History. Even cookies are cleared as soon as you exit the browser. In spite of being a second, secret window, the browser still allows users to access their bookmarks. This feature comes in handy to make sure that confi dential sites are not displayed as thumbnails on the default home page! Pop-ups are also restricted to the tab they are generated from, so you don’t have them scattered all over your computer screen while you are browsing. Users have the option to pull out pop-ups and convert them into new windows.
Unlike in other browsers, new popups don’t open even when you start downloading fi les. The download starts immediately and its progress is shown on a wide bar at the bottom of the screen. The bar shows a maximum of four files even if you have 10 downloads happening at a time. When you click the 'Show all downloads’ button, you will see them all on a dedicated page, but even this is clean and clutter-free.
Usability
In an attempt to make it the browser friendly to non-technical users, Google has also gone a step further to keep the options dialog as simple as possible. The ‘Options’ panel has only three tabs. Here, users can modify the settings with respect to the home page, default browser, proxy settings and even the default search engine. Google has very democratically included other search engines in spite of being most people’s default choice. One option that could be a cause of concern for users is the ‘Show Saved Passwords’ button. If you turn this option
on by mistake, all your passwords will be unencrypted in the password text box, and there doesn’t seem to be an option to turn it off.
The developers have also taken care to curb malware and phishing to a great extent. The architecture is such that malware cannot write any files to your hard drive, thus preventing your computer from being infected.
Chrome also has Google Gears built into it. Gears is a Google project that can improve Web browsing by allowing websites to run certain applications on clients’ computers to enable quicker and more powerful features. You don’t have to install Gears separately while browsing. One of the drawbacks of Chrome is
the lack of warning messages. This is a concern because it doesn’t offer to save passwords or even warn you while closing the browser with multiple tabs running, which can inconvenience the user.
Google Chrome is an Open Source browser, which leaves a lot of scope for improvement in the coming years. Even in the Beta version the browser is quite stable and achieves almost everything Google has promised. More web applications and plug-ins are being developed to be compatible with Google Chrome, and as that happens, it will be a strong choice for most people as their
default browser.
News Feature- CHIP Magazine, October 08
Comments
Post a Comment