Google Chrome browser 1 week later

Last week I gave a first 5-minute impression of Google Chrome, the new browser that is supposed to be faster and better than anything else out there.  A week later and what seems to be a hundred thousand reviews in the blogsphere later, everyone seems to like it, and no one seems to be using it.  Less than 1% of Crenk readers are using it, more people are using Opera belive it or not.

What’s so great about it?  Well it’s new and shiny, has a minimalist look and feel to it and consumes about 75% less memory than Firefox does, at least for me on my Windows XP box.  Google really seems to have done their homework with regards to chewing up your CPU cycles and there appears to never be a memory leak.  Additionally, you just need to type something in what used to be known as the address bar, as it now functions as a search bar and many other things.  It’s also fast, but how fast?  My seat dyno says slightly faster than Firefox, but to a normal user, it might only feel faster because it’s new.

What’s not so great about it?  Well first and foremost, Windows only.  As a Mac user, I once again feel like someone put me out in the cold.  Lack of any add-ons that I’ve come to love with Firefox is also missing, but if you were coming from Internet Explorer you wouldn’t know what I’m talking about anyway.  Dedicated search box is something I miss.  Why you ask, since Google answers all questions on it’s own?  Because it simply doesn’t.  I’ve been using a Firefox add-on called OpenSearchFox for more than a year now; it allows you to add a drop down in Firefox to search any site that has search enabled on it.  That means, rather than going to say Netflix and then searching, I can select Netflix from my drop down menu in the search bar and type in my query there.  My other gripe is the lack of a status bar.  I understand how important screen real estate is, but I like it, I’ve been using the status bar for more than 10 years in browsers, I’m used to it.  Lastly, Chrome doesn’t work with all websites yet.  One site that I order digital photos from requires a Java plugin, to upload the photos.  I have the plugin installed in Windows but the browser doesn’t pick it up.  I’m sure small kinks like this will iron themselves out but it’s still an inconvenience.

One of the most interesting Easter eggs is kind of a joke in Chrome.  In the address bar type about:internets – then sit back and chuckle, at least someone around the Google camp has a sense of humor.  Chrome is interesting, but it’s not a killer app for me yet, nor do I plan on switching.  For now, I will use it to beta test website design and other various things on the Internet but Firefox will continue to be my primary browser.