Google Chrome: New Web Browser from Google

• Posted by Badi Jones on September 2nd, 2008 - Comment on this Post »

There’s been buzz all day about Google’s new web browser, “Google Chrome“, so I just headed over Google and downloaded it from here.

As you might guess, the browser looks and feels extremely simple. No file menu. Just 2 icons on top-right side of the window that pretty much include most functions that you might need (copy, paste, save, options, etc…). As I said, it’s pretty simple. Here are a couple of screen captures:

I’ve only tested this Google Chrome for a couple of minutes, but I was able to find a couple of neat features. Under the “file icon” menu, there’s a section of tools called “Developer”. It has some neat tools, including a nice Javascript/ css debugger, which seems to work a lot like FireBug for Firefox.

There’s also a “Task Manager”, which allows you to manage each tab or window.

Under the “file icon” menu, there’s also something called “incognito window”. This is basically just like the “Private browsing” feature from the Apple Safari browser. It allows you to browse without history, cookies, etc…

All in all, not bad, but for the average Internet user, it doesn’t really bring anything attractive to the table either. Unless Google is planning to take over the PC market, I don’t see that Chrome has any chance of making any significant dents in the browser market. I mean, Just look how many people are still using IE. For someone like myself, I think the “Javascript Console” might be a nice tool, since Firebug tends to cause problems in Firefox, and I usually have to restart Firefox after each use.

Update:
Google actually put together a comic (here) to explain how Chrome works, and exactly why it is better. I’m very impressed.

Update 2: Sergey Brin on Why Google’s Launching a Browser

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