Four years ago, there was a rumor that Google was planning for its own browser, but nothing showed up and Google remained a super hero for non-profit Mozilla’s Firefox. But everything’s changed since yesterday when Google officially lauched its first and promising browser, called Chrome. As promoted, Chrome should be clean, fast, smart and reliable alternative to Microsoft’s IE (Well you can see, they didn’t say anything about their best friend Mozilla huh?). They said, Chrome “was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications”. It might sound great, but don’t be fooled, let’s look into the details.

Chrome really rocks!

‘Cos TechCrunch already had a pretty adequate review about new features in Chrome, I won’t make myself a geek by rewriting them down. But I do have something, eh, not new to say.

It took me seconds to adjust Chrome interface, and I soon realized that I loved it, clean and elegant just like every other Google sites. Google removed almost every toolbars and half-used buttons in order to free space to enhance users’ web experience. But where is the status bar for all my forthcoming (yeah, it has to come) lovely add-ons? Do you developers like it? You can see, Google leaves a door for sluggish IE6 to be still alive.

Hmm, to talk about add-ons. As argued earlier via Twitter, AnhHung said that Chrome was community-based, and there was no need for an add-ons migration, if ppl like Chrome they will develop its own add-ons. I think every open-source is community-based, if not, why the hell is it open-source? Agree that if people like Chrome, they will develop Chrome’s own add-ons. But if you ask me why I like Firefox, one of my reasons will be that it already has thousands of add-ons. Oh, now I’m stuck in a circle. I know that Chrome and Firefox are based on different rendering enginges, it’s not easy for some compatiblity, but my life will be much easier if I had right now some indispensable add-ons for Chrome ‘cos my FF3 crashes too often. I heard a good news (or bad) that Google and Mozilla’s contract was extended until 2011. What is going to happen?

***FYI, Firefox was based on Gecko (yep, FF was developed from Netscape) while Chrome is based on Webkit, just like Safari and IE was based on Trident for Windows versions and Tasma for Mac versions. I once wondered why I always feel something familiar between Apple and Google, now my feelings become real, it’s the unlimited innovation. And can anyone please tell me which rendering engine is the best? I’m not a developer, but I’m sure Webkit is much better than Trident =.= In speed tests, IE performed at 15.5 round trips per hour (RPH) and Chrome performed at 584 RPH.

Google boasts of Chrome’s speed and how Chrome saves our RAM these days. Yep, they have right to do so, what they explain in their comic about multiple processes, tab task manager and Danish guys is really impressive. It did well on some first tabs but when I opened my 26th one, it pissed me off.

Here is the first benchmark from Zdnet. Yeah, it rocks, it’s the fastest, but not strong enough to get me away from my miticulously-customized Firefox, I still need my add-ons ^^

Google OS

Hey TaiTran and AnhHung, I agree with you guys that Chrome is very likely to become a Google OS. IBM failed to see the future of software and Microsoft took place, it’s possible that Microsoft fails to see the future of web-based OS and Google will take place. Không có công ty nào thống trị cả 2 thời đại được. (No King can rule through 2 dynasties!?? Help me :(( ) Now Google has everything for us: Google Search for search; iGoogle, Google Reader for reading; Picasa to store your pics; Gmail for your email; Youtube for entertainment; Google Calender, Google Knols, Google Docs,.. Phew, what will be next on the list? An OS is reasonable. But it can no way kill Microsoft OS, at least in my opinion. Today when ppl talk about virtualization all day, I need something real. I don’t have gut to store all of my private information, secret data on some place in the Internet that I don’t have control over.

Something undesired my friends found on the first day launching Chrome:

1. There is no master password for saved passwords. Who says Chrome is safer?

2. It failed to import Bookmarks from Firefox, and no way to import from Safari.

3. It is not compatible with every sites. It crashes on some video sites, Socialthing and when I reblog Tumblr, I just see <HTML> tags.

This shot is from Khanhlnq when he tried to browse Socialthing

4. Vietnamese versions made me laugh, and sometimes it looks like pictography.

This shot is from Khanhlnq, too. Thanks for sharing

5. It doesn’t display XML correctly (does it, TaiTran?)

6. AdBlock doesn’t work really well.

7. To be continued.

Tags: Browser, Chrome, Google