It was rather exciting to read that Google were releasing a new browser. Sure, they’ve had problems in the past with some of their software offerings, but they’re known for delivering generally well-intentioned and solid products.
I had the chance to install Chrome — the beta of their open source web browser — on a few machines in the last week, and I have to say I’m very impressed so far. It’s deliciously lightweight despite a (surprisingly attractive) application skin, and it’s incredibly well laid out. It’s going to be big when it grows up.
At the moment it seems more aimed at the developers and early adopters types who like shiny new things. With a lack of anything more than a basic browser it’s not going to replace your extension-laden Firefox any time soon, but it’s got some interesting features that promise to make it a power player.
Take the evolution of the address bar for example. Drawing cues from the AwesomeBar in Firefox, Chrome does away with the separate search & address boxes altogether, amalgamating them into one very suave interface. Also consider the very intuitive speed-dial-esque start page, automatically displaying your bookmarks, most visited sites, and recently closed tabs. It’s a contextual delight.
To close the deal, the entire affair starts up in the blink of an eye — much faster than Firefox — with speeds rivaling that of the pre-loaded Internet Explorer. The application itself is zippy but the Webkit rendering engine shines, especially on low-end Pentium machines that are showing their age as Internet Explorer continues to expand.
We saw Chrome overtake Opera in browser share in the first few weeks, and it looks to be holding its position steady. It’s also interesting to note that most of these users seem to have moved from the ageing Internet Explorer 6, which indicates a reluctance for your average user to upgrade to the radically different Internet Explorer 7. If the trend continues this way, Chrome could bring the end of the IE6 tyranny a lot sooner than any of us expected.
While independent reports have stated that Mac and Linux versions are still a long shot without major work, at least there’s another major browser on the Windows scene to mix things up a little. This is the browser we expected from Apple when they released Safari for Windows, and is certainly shaping up to be something very impressive indeed.