Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a brand new internet browser available only for PC. That "only PC" part immediately doesn't sound good to me, since Macs are better, but let's take a look anyway.

It installs after a while (it advertises that it installs in 'seconds'), and then I open it. Immediately it looks different from any web browser you're used to. You know the 'File Edit View History...' thing at the top of your window? That's not there at all. There's also no top part that says what web page you're at. It gets rid of a lot and relies on simplicity of use. I have to say, it looks pretty cool. If Google made an OS, I think it would look cool too.

When you open it, it has one tab. Even when there's only one tab open, you can see the thing on top that shows the different tabs. It's hard to explain, but it appears that tabs are the main idea of the web browser.

You have all the standard buttons: Back, Forward, Refresh, and some preferences and 'control the current page'. There's the address bar, which by itself doubles as a search bar. And that's it. It reminds me of what Safari set out to do: get rid of all that useless crap on the top of the window and as Steve put it, "let the actual web pages speak for themselves". After all, isn't that what web browsers are for? Viewing the web pages?

But now it's time to put it to the challenge, test it at what to me is most important for a browser: speed. I'm going to open another tab on the Safari (the fastest web browser I've used) window I'm using to make this blog post. That should give Chrome a head start.

Apple.com: Uh oh. It's not the speed I'm uh oh-ing about. It seems Chrome is lacking something very important: a loading progress bar. In Safari, the progress bar is right on the address bar, but for chrome, it doesn't look like it's anywhere. It's going to be hard to see if it actually loaded the whole page, but I'll just go by instinct. Let's try again... It's a tie. One point of interest, though: Chrome doesn't load every item on the page until it is finished. It loads the entire page at once. It's an interesting technique for revealing the web pages.

Let's try a page with lots of stuff on it...

NYTimes.com (New York Times): Safari is slightly faster. But it's so small that it hardly even matters. You can really see that Chrome loads the entire page instead of the different items here. It starts as a white screen for a second, then it reveals the entire page.

Derek's Tablet: Safari wins again. But it's not a bad lose for Chrome; it is a difference you don't notice when you actually use it.

Basically, Safari wins with speed, but by a little. As for interface... I don't know if Chrome's is better yet. I have to try to adjust to it. I'm not sure if I'll even try to do that at all. Overall, kudos to Google for trying something new, not just copying other browsers and slapping the Google brand on it. Nice job. I'm probably going to keep using Safari though. Sorry. It's nothing personal. It's just that I love Safari, and I don't think I want to change to something slightly more unfamiliar. Seriously, don't feel bad. I like your Blogger service. I like your search bar. But I just don't feel like using your browser. Okay? Are we cool? Awesome. See you later.

-Derek