Time to consider Chrome
Google's browser has overcome a difficult start and is now a serious contender
- Published: 12/05/2010 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: Database
Almost exactly three years ago, in a discussion about browsers, I correctly back-handed Google Chrome as pre-beta test software masquerading as the real deal - crippled, featureless, even buggy.
Using Google Chrome is like carrying a full-fledged translating program around with you. As soon as the program detects a different language, it offers to make a full translation of the web page.
So between 2007 and today, the Google dweebs and engineers have had their heads down. And they have turned a children's riding pony into a thoroughbred, a browser excellent enough for geeks, but so good even your mother could use it.
I was going to start this piece by writing, "If you are considering changing your browser... " but on second thoughts, that's wrong.
Consider changing your default browser. By all means give it good thought, but do consider your options. I am not bashing the very good Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer (IE) or even Apple Safari. Rather, I want everyone to be aware that there is another serious player.
If you don't use a browser for much more than reading a few news sites and email, then IE, the world's favourite browser, is fine. Windows will pamper it with the proper updates and all, no problem.
Up at the other end of the spectrum, if you have piled on the power-user's add-ons and macros for Mozilla Firefox or Opera, and spend 90 per cent of your computer time inside it, you may decide quickly to give the Google browser a miss for now. And, of course, a few of you use fringe browsers for your own excellent reasons - Safari because you also own an Apple Mac, say, or Slim Browser for the terrific organisation of multiple website groups.
One thing, though - do install and use Chrome once in a while. Its speed alone makes it useful for those one-time hits you have to make at this or that site.
But if you're just in the middle, mostly using a browser that's okay (and no better) and you'd like everything on the web to happen more quickly and efficiently, you'll do yourself a big favour by trying out Google Chrome.
What caused me to mention the early versions of Google Chrome is one of the two overall features of the program: sheer, unrelenting speed. It is fast to load, quick to display web pages. It uses the same basic engine, WebKit, as Safari, which is, however, still only a half-decent browser under Windows.
Chrome is in my own eyeball tests over the past three years by far the fastest browser. Some of that is because of its design. Example: You want to do a web search. In Chrome, you just type your search where in other browsers you have to type "http://www.google.com". Search is always on in Chrome.
But after use of a couple of years, and with 25 or 30 websites open in individual tabs, Chrome is way faster at any new task than any other browser.
The second feature, and the reason that Chrome is now ready for prime-time consideration, is add-ons. Until recently, it didn't do them. Now it does, and Google geeks and fanboys are churning them out nearly as quickly as they do for Firefox.
Google Chrome add-ons are generally known as extensions. They work a lot like Firefox. There are websites dedicated to them (mychromeaddons.com and google.com/extensions are the most popular.) Find an app that does something you want, click to install it, and now you've got a Google Chrome browser that does everything plus something you like.
And Google builds in some of the add-ons. I recently updated my Google Chrome - this is the most painless process in all computerland, and other companies should adopt it. Anyhow, I updated my Chrome and I was looking through some foreign language sites, when I suddenly noticed a simple dropdown menu asking me if I would like to translate the Chinese newspaper I was looking at.
The Google translation service has been built into the browser. As soon as you happen on a web page that is not the default language you picked for operating Windows, Chrome automatically asks if you want a translation.
Now: The Thai-English translation is, to be kind, barely adequate. Other languages, Google handles somewhere between "okay" and "not bad". But it is far better than no translation at all if you're trying to muddle through languages you absolutely cannot read.
The translation in Chrome takes a couple of seconds after you click to go, and the web page itself is entirely unchanged in appearance except that the Thai script (for example) is now in English.
Recent popular add-ons you can install include a very nice manager for open tabs (for people like me with dozens open at a time), adding the ability to use mouse gestures for browser commands, and open a new email message with a click.
This is what turned Firefox from a nice little browser into the program that injured the Microsoft browser monopoly. It is what will turn Chrome into an equally impressive performer.
If you've never tried it, by all means get the fast installation at chrome www.google.com.
Email: wandasloan@gmail.com
About the author
- Writer: Wanda Sloan
- Position: Reporter
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