Google seems to have an odd way of deploying their Chrome browser. The first reaction when it appeared was, "Hey! Where’s the Mac and Linux versions? What gives?"

It was nothing short of strange why Google seemed to concentrate on Windows so much concerning their own browser offering. Granted, Windows is the most-used desktop operating system in the world, but hey, there are plenty of Mac and Linux users out there.

So now the 64-bit version of Chrome is available for…

Linux.

And nothing else.

I’m not kidding. Linux people can build it right now if they want to in all its 64-bit glory.

Windows people still get the 32-bit flavor only.

As for Mac OS X? It’s still in development. Sorry, Mac people.

In all seriousness, this is why so many people stick to Firefox. When Mozilla has a release of that browser, it’s worldwide, has almost every conceivable language version available and has versions ready for Windows, Mac and Linux that are ready-to-run.

And yes, there’s 64-bit Firefox just in case you were wondering (as well as several other Mozilla products).

I’m seriously trying to like Chrome.. but.. well.. um.. no.

To our Linux users in the audience, if you’re able to build a 64-bit Chrome and get it to work, please feel free to comment on your experience with it. Many would be interested in your thoughts on it.

Since Google Chrome has a new version I decided to download and check it out to see what’s new.

Here’s what happened:

First, on attempt to load in a YouTube video, the plugin crashed. Not a very good start.

After that I had to manually go into my Task Manager to stop the browser processes because it would not shut down on its own.

Then I found out that on install the browser put in a resident file called GoogleUpdater.exe without telling me (or if it did, I never saw the option to choose, "NO, DON’T DO THAT") and has it run on every Windows startup. Not cool. Not cool at all. I had to manually edit my startup sequence just to get rid of the stupid thing.

After all that crapola, here’s the good stuff. Well, not really.

Do web pages load faster?

Yes. All sites seem to load quicker.. that is when Flash "agrees" with the browser and doesn’t hose it.

Do tabs load faster?

No. Firefox still beats it because Chrome has a dippy animation that slows it while Firefox does not. And of course there’s no way to shut the animations off. Firefox gives you instantaneous gratification. Chrome does not.

And the Chrome animation is not like those super-cool ones you see in Mac OS X, Windows 7 or Ubuntu with Compiz (which can all by shut off by the way). Instead you have totally unnecessary animation that just wastes time.

Why does this matter at all? Because if the browser is supposed to promote speed, those animations shouldn’t be there, period.

Is it easier to manage your bookmarks?

No. Here’s why:

Bookmark a site in Google Chrome. Oh wait, silly me.. I forgot.. the browser didn’t tell you how. You have to click the star icon next to the web address.

Okay, so the star lights up. Cool! But where did your bookmark go? Where is it?

Oh wait, I forgot.. you have to press CTRL+B or the wrench icon at far right, click Always show bookmarks bar and THEN it shows up – something else the browser didn’t tell you how to do either.

Firefox has an ingenious way of handling bookmarks. Ready? It’s called "Bookmarks" at the top of the browser. Wow! Oh wait.. that’s been in web browsers ever since they were invented.

Sorry for the sarcasm, but the Google Way of mucking up something as stupidly easy as bookmarks just plain sucks.

Can you extend Chrome like you can with Firefox?

Yes, but not in the way we’d hoped.

With Firefox there is a central location for this, addons.mozilla.org.

With Chrome, well.. you’ve got third-party sites.

But then there’s no plugin/add-on manager in Chrome, so you don’t know what’s being installed, and furthermore don’t know how to get rid of an add-on afterwards.

The only saving grace to Chrome is its speed

You’ve probably seen many web sites saying, "Yeah! Chrome rocks! Fast! Speed-speed-speed! Woo-hoo!", provided with a bunch of benchmarks flexing it’s muscle, so to speak.

Is Chrome fast? Yes, obviously. The fastest? No, that honor still belongs to Lynx and always will. Fastest GUI-based browser? Quite possibly.

However all this speed comes at the expense of anything else that would make a browser better for you, the user.

If you want a barebones browser done the Google Way where you have to relearn simple things like Bookmarks, then yeah, you’ll like Chrome.

I know there’s going to be some Chromeheads that will gladly tell me I’m wrong, and that Chrome is the bestest super-duper-pooper awesomest browser ever.

I beg to differ. Benchmarks does not a browser make. Ease-of-use and extensibility does; that’s why Chrome loses.

As you may or may not know, Google has its own web browser and it’s called Chrome. When first released it was done so in beta form, but now it’s been at version 1 (out of beta) for a little while now, so I figured I’d give it another shot.

This version of Chrome is 1.0.154.36 (see screen shot below). I am running it on Windows XP Professional Edition Service Pack 3.

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Giving credit where credit is due, the GOOG updated their Terms of Service for the Chrome browser. Section 11 now reads:

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

For those not aware, it previously stated something that literally said GOOG owns everything you do in the browser – but no longer.

Much better.

Everybody has been talking about Google Chrome this week. First they announce using a comic book on Labor Day (slow news day), then they launch yesterday and it seemed everybody and their family was giving it a try. Some have gone so far as to make it their new default browser. Some even uninstalled Firefox. Others, still, have proclaimed it to be a Windows killer.

So, the question is: can this thing possibly be a Windows killer?

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Google Chrome is a web browser very recently released by Google. While Dave concentrated more on the “guts” of the browser, I concentrated more on its usability. What I discovered is that while Gmail and Yahoo! Mail work, the full version of Hotmail does not. The bookmark import from Firefox on initial install didn’t work. There’s also some Java stuff that doesn’t work and the zoom feature isn’t too great either (compared to IE or Firefox). However I will say that yes, it’s really fast, zippy and easy to use. See video below for details.

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