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Yesterday Google introduced their player in the browser wars; Google Chrome.  There was a lot of talk about it since it’s accidental early announcement on Labor Day. Like most things Google, there has already been much hype and criticism. Some say it’s too cartoony while others claim it’s simplicity takes the cake!

The experience isn’t much different than other browers, but it’s faster and more efficient. For years, other browser teams have been reusing their code to build upon earlier versions. Bad code might be reusable, but it’s still bad code. Sometimes it’s necessary to scrap previous iterations to build a better, more solid, foundation from scratch.

Google Chrome isn’t reinventing the wheel, it’s truing it.

Chrome has been my default browser for a day. Though that’s not much time in the grand scheme of things, it’s enough for me to say something about it. Let’s get to it…

Some Pros:

• Open Source – This is such an important buzzword these days. An advertising giant like Google needs to be so transparent in their intentions. After all, this piece of software can collect any information passed between you and the internet… without using their services. It’s a gesture of good will.
• Simplicity – There isn’t much to look at to distract you from the website you’re browsing. Chrome offers the bare essentials not the bloat excessives (I just made that up).
• WebKit rendering engine – It’s open source too! It has the most support for CSS3. Unfortunately, it still only gets a 77/100 in the Acid3 Test.
• Task Manager – A god send. Though I’ve yet to see the Sad Tab, I find that this is one of the most powerful and refreshing features of any browser. Each tab is it’s own instance of the browser and does not interfere with any other tabs you may have open. If one website freezes, the rest carry on as if nothing ever happened. This will certainly prevent the loss of many unsaved documents!
• V8 Javascript Engine – Holy Moly! Compiled JavaScript? I never thought I’d see this day come! Chrome executes JavaScript at an unheard of speed. It ran laps around other browsers in the Dromaeo Performance Test and V8 Benchmark Suite. Every JavaScript intensive website I visited loaded in impeccable time! Prompted to abort a script? Could’ve had a V8!
• Speed Dial – Right out of the Opera UI. This was always one of my favorite features and I used it anytime I anticipated a website changing *cough*Google Chrome*cough* Chrome’s take is a bit different. By default it displays the history of the top 9 most visited websites. Not entirely cusomizable, but it’s open source… give it time.
• Incognito – It seems like every browser is going to have a porn mode. It’s potential is so much more than that. Obviously, it’s not the browsers responsibility to dictate where you can and cannot go, but it also shouldn’t be giving that information to others. Incognito allows a user to do secure transactions from public computers without having to worry about deleting history, cookies, and other personal data.
• Google Gears – This is neat because it allows the browser to implement what may or may not become standards. What better way to make that decision than to see it in practice! Gears allows for offline storage, local databases, HTML5, etc.

Some Cons:

• One more broswer to BLANK – This is an argument I’ve seen a lot. I’m not sure I subscribe to it. Developers should be testing in Safari (uses WebKit) already. There isn’t much of a learning curve for regular users as the UI is pretty similar to all of the A-Grade browers.
• Text Zoom – Firefox 3, Opera and IE7 got this right, Chrome failed. Having an actual Zoom trumps a Text Zoom because it doesn’t affect the layout of the page. When text is enlarged, the layout tends to fall apart. For developers, who should be making fluid layouts anyway, it’s one less thing to worry about and waste time on.
• File > Open – Chrome allows drag/drop of files, but offers no way to open them from browser itself.
• Bookmarks – I imported my Firefox bookmarks and most of them are missing. Also, there is no way to access them without having that ugly quick bookmarks toolbar open.
• UI Customization – Since we’re talking about toolbars, I don’t use navigation buttons. I’d like to remove them completely and use keyboard shortcuts exclusively. This would also simplify the UI even more.
• Keyboard shortcuts – Some of the shortcuts I use are missing from this Beta of Chrome. Most notably Ctrl+Shift+Enter and Shift+Enter to autocomplete the URL with .org or .net. This shortcut is in every browser I’ve ever used and I’m sad it was overlooked.
• Bi-directional Autocomplete – I know it’s a shot in the dark since no browser does this yet, but please, someone make this happen!
• RSS/ATOM – Some support, please.