Shiny, but not polished - bit-tech.net Forums

Tim S · 6th Sep 2008, 07:58

http://www.bit-tech.net/columns/2008...not-polished/1

Google surprised just about all of us in the bit-tech office when it announced Chrome - its first foray into the browser market. Tim Smalley has been playing around with the first beta for a few days and has some thoughts on the browser's direction.

jezmck · 6th Sep 2008, 08:14

I'm seeing Chrome as a replacement for IE, not Fx. IE users are less likely to find missing features (other than RSS), but Fx users are so used to being able to add features on a whim using extensions.

Quote:

Creating desktop shortcuts for web applications like GMail and GCal makes incredible sense to me and I'm surprised nobody has really done this before...

Actually, this has been done. I used something called Bubbles.

Spode · 6th Sep 2008, 09:58

Pretty much all software is in Beta, but the manufacturers just don't have the balls to admit it. Look at the amount of bugs we encounter, work arounds and updates we get. Finished product? Hmm..

I'm really enjoying Google Chrome - was using it all day yesterday while working on a Windows box in another office. Now that I'm back home on my Mint Linux (Ubuntu) system, I'm expecting FireFox to do things that it can't and feeling disappointed!!

Woodstock · 6th Sep 2008, 10:06

i breifly used it, and am already missing its raw speed. I also have a lot of tabs open so i love the idea of seperate process'es. And i dont see why everyone goes on about the lack of extenstions, its designed to have them, just waiting for devlopers to write them, the only firefox plugin i missed, is vimperator and itsalltext (but i cant even get that one to work)

ChaosDefinesOrder · 6th Sep 2008, 10:59

The financial information indexing could be solved quite easily, by Chrome automatically switching to Incognito mode when it sees "https" in the address bar...

I'm happy to stick with Opera for now, and will stay with opera for some time yet, due to the fact that it's a fully fledged email client as well as web browser. With my (new and oh so shiny) 27" monitor I can have emails constantly open in the left and web browsing on the rest of the screen, like a Vista Sidebar but on the left and containing a constantly up to date email and RSS reader!

Chrome is bloody fast though!

naokaji · 6th Sep 2008, 11:30

read what they admit doing with your data and chrome suddenly doesnt look good at all anymore.
opera cheesecake.

crompers · 6th Sep 2008, 12:00

I've found Chrome excellent for use with my eee 1000. Simply because of the amount of screen space it frees up.

I like the no nonsense interface and the speed, i have to say the privacy issues do worry me though, im doing all banking on FF for now.

ChaosDefinesOrder · 6th Sep 2008, 12:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by naokaji

read what they admit doing with your data and chrome suddenly doesnt look good at all anymore.
opera cheesecake.

Are you referring to the now infamous section 11 of the EULA? That's been changed to say that all user data belong to the user.

Tim S · 6th Sep 2008, 13:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaosDefinesOrder

Quote:

Originally Posted by naokaji

read what they admit doing with your data and chrome suddenly doesnt look good at all anymore.
opera cheesecake.

Are you referring to the now infamous section 11 of the EULA? That's been changed to say that all user data belong to the user.

Yep, that's why I didn't mention it

sotu1 · 6th Sep 2008, 14:44

i think the release of chrome is is good news us end users. I think mozilla have been getting a wee bit sloppy with firefox (FF2 was not stable, and 3 is better, but not by loads) and internet explorer....is and always was crap. opera i'm not a fan of but hey each to their own. competition is always good! when chrome gets past it's "beta" stage and fixes everything properly then i'll give it a go.

docodine · 6th Sep 2008, 18:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by crompers

I've found Chrome excellent for use with my eee 1000. Simply because of the amount of screen space it frees up.

I like the no nonsense interface and the speed, i have to say the privacy issues do worry me though, im doing all banking on FF for now.

Have you thought of using a web browser in full screen mode? Unless if I can't figure out how to do it in in Chrome, it can't do it. Firefox and IE are the most usable in full screen, and on my Eee PC 4G, it really helps.

legoman666 · 7th Sep 2008, 01:55

Once a few issues are worked out, Chrome will definitely become my default browser.

Problems:
1. Right clicking in an unactive textbox doesn't allow you to paste into it. You have to select the box (click in it), then right click to be able to cut, copy or paste.
2. Dragging a tab out of the main "browser" and putting it onto a secondary monitor then maximizing the tab makes the tab maximize to the resolution of the main monitor, not the secondary monitor. IE, My main monitor has a 1680x1050 resolution and when I drag a tab to my secondary 19" 1280x1024 monitor and maximize it, it maximizes to 1680x1050.
3. AdBlock, where art thou?
4. Clicking in the address bar doesn't select all of the text in it.
5. Minimal preferences.

Things I like:
1. The history. I've been waiting for something like this forever. I always remember when I visited the site I'm trying to get back to, I just never remember the name.
2. Speed. Very zippy.
3. Small footprint.

jezmck · 7th Sep 2008, 08:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by legoman666

...
Problems:
1. Right clicking in an unactive textbox doesn't allow you to paste into it. You have to select the box (click in it), then right click to be able to cut, copy or paste.
...
3. AdBlock, where art thou?
4. Clicking in the address bar doesn't select all of the text in it.
...

1. I would always left-click an input before trying to do anything, to give it focus, seems odd that you're so desperate to save a single mouse click.
PS - Works for me.

3. I hate you. Blocking Ads makes them less profitable, making me see more of them. I hate you for this.

4. Does for me! Do you have some funky mouse driver?

DeX · 7th Sep 2008, 10:41

People are keen to note the awesome speed and the distinct lack of features but the interesting thing about this beta release is that this will all change as the browser is developed. As more features are added it will get slower and by the time it actually becomes useful we'll just have good old regular FF3.

Hamish · 7th Sep 2008, 13:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by jezmck

3. I hate you. Blocking Ads makes them less profitable, making me see more of them. I hate you for this.

lol flawless logic!
why dont you just install adblock like everyone else and see no ads you dont want to

leexgx · 7th Sep 2008, 13:55

been useing opera for quite some time now and i still prefer it
its nice that if an web site crashs an tab out does not take out crome fully, i not had opera crash on me for quite some time now and even if it did crash or the pc BSOD on me it allways rembers last tabs that was open and even the content that was on the page (loads the web sites from hard disk not the web untill you press refresh or if the web site is coded to self refresh),
mallware is not realy an problem with opera unlike firefox (no adblock)or IE (no IE7pro works on ie6), as you have to download and run it and if you ignore that the file that you are downloading is an exe your fault if you run it (tbo in IE and Firefox more so IE you get plenty of warnings in Vista IE7 you get 3 warnings if you do not press crtl 2 if you do)

the ad stuff i block all hardocp ads as thay stop the back button from working every one els i just leave on unless thay used the same ad service as hardocp, and thay banned my account as well as well so blocking all there adds for that resone as well
thay have an rule about blocking ads talking about it users would not ask if thay was not so anoying (thay need to fix the ads so does not brake the pages)

i do however block all In text ads (thay bring an box up when you hover over them) as thay are Very anoying as you do not know if its an link an user has posted or not some off them mess fourm threads up as well as thay Inset them into users posts and makes reading them unreadable as thay popup when useing wheel and mouse ponter hits on and then blocks what you are trying to read
one other type makes an in thread ad box makeing it hard to read the users post or mestaking it for the thread to be an full ad when its an user post with an ad in it

do not mind ads as long as thay are not anoying

legoman666 · 7th Sep 2008, 19:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by jezmck

1. I would always left-click an input before trying to do anything, to give it focus, seems odd that you're so desperate to save a single mouse click.
PS - Works for me.

3. I hate you. Blocking Ads makes them less profitable, making me see more of them. I hate you for this.

4. Does for me! Do you have some funky mouse driver?

1. I'm not desperate to save clicks, but it works in IE 6, 7, FF 1, 2, 3 and Opera. It'll just take time to get used to it.

3.

4. Nope, no funky mouse drivers. And now that I just tried it again, it seems to be working fine.

yakyb · 8th Sep 2008, 11:06

im not moving to chrome until it supports mouse gestures

but i do like the interface / speed

opera is still number 1 as far as i'm concerend

Cupboard · 8th Sep 2008, 16:10

Just downloaded it to try it out though I won't be swapping to it permanently until it has all the extensions I use regularly.

Does this remind anyone else of GladOS?

impar · 8th Sep 2008, 16:35

Greetings!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cupboard

Does this remind anyone else of GladOS?

6th Sep 2008, 07:58	#1
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	Shiny, but not polished http://www.bit-tech.net/columns/2008...not-polished/1 Google surprised just about all of us in the bit-tech office when it announced Chrome - its first foray into the browser market. Tim Smalley has been playing around with the first beta for a few days and has some thoughts on the browser's direction. __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

6th Sep 2008, 09:58	#3
Spode What's a Spode? Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: UK Posts: 21	Pretty much all software is in Beta, but the manufacturers just don't have the balls to admit it. Look at the amount of bugs we encounter, work arounds and updates we get. Finished product? Hmm.. I'm really enjoying Google Chrome - was using it all day yesterday while working on a Windows box in another office. Now that I'm back home on my Mint Linux (Ubuntu) system, I'm expecting FireFox to do things that it can't and feeling disappointed!! __________________ http://www.thinkbikes.com

6th Sep 2008, 10:06	#4
Woodstock So Say We All Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New Zealand Posts: 1,657	i breifly used it, and am already missing its raw speed. I also have a lot of tabs open so i love the idea of seperate process'es. And i dont see why everyone goes on about the lack of extenstions, its designed to have them, just waiting for devlopers to write them, the only firefox plugin i missed, is vimperator and itsalltext (but i cant even get that one to work) __________________ Hell hath no fury like a hippo with a machine gun.

6th Sep 2008, 10:59	#5
ChaosDefinesOrder Vapourmodder Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Cambridge, UK Posts: 363	The financial information indexing could be solved quite easily, by Chrome automatically switching to Incognito mode when it sees "https" in the address bar... I'm happy to stick with Opera for now, and will stay with opera for some time yet, due to the fact that it's a fully fledged email client as well as web browser. With my (new and oh so shiny) 27" monitor I can have emails constantly open in the left and web browsing on the rest of the screen, like a Vista Sidebar but on the left and containing a constantly up to date email and RSS reader! Chrome is bloody fast though! __________________ Current setup: Hiper Osiris \| Core i7 920 (Cooled by Noctua NH-U12P) \| Foxconn Renaissance \| 2x GTX280 \| Cooler Master UCP \| Corsair Dominator 3GB (soon to be 9GB) \| Creative X-Fi Titanium \| Vista Home Premium x64 \| OS Drive: WD Velociraptor 300GB. Storage: 1x 160GB, 1x 250GB, 1x 300GB, 1x500GB (incremental additions over the years! All Maxtor) \| Monitor: Dell 2709W

6th Sep 2008, 14:44	#10
sotu1 Mini Love Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: England, South of. Posts: 1,167	i think the release of chrome is is good news us end users. I think mozilla have been getting a wee bit sloppy with firefox (FF2 was not stable, and 3 is better, but not by loads) and internet explorer....is and always was crap. opera i'm not a fan of but hey each to their own. competition is always good! when chrome gets past it's "beta" stage and fixes everything properly then i'll give it a go. __________________ Death to consolification !!! [size=1]Give me my Windforce! I'm coming back!

6th Sep 2008, 12:00	#7
crompers Dremedial Join Date: May 2008 Location: Leeds, UK Posts: 1,216	I've found Chrome excellent for use with my eee 1000. Simply because of the amount of screen space it frees up. I like the no nonsense interface and the speed, i have to say the privacy issues do worry me though, im doing all banking on FF for now.

7th Sep 2008, 01:55	#12
legoman666 Beat to fit, paint to match. Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Ohio, USA Posts: 786	Once a few issues are worked out, Chrome will definitely become my default browser. Problems: 1. Right clicking in an unactive textbox doesn't allow you to paste into it. You have to select the box (click in it), then right click to be able to cut, copy or paste. 2. Dragging a tab out of the main "browser" and putting it onto a secondary monitor then maximizing the tab makes the tab maximize to the resolution of the main monitor, not the secondary monitor. IE, My main monitor has a 1680x1050 resolution and when I drag a tab to my secondary 19" 1280x1024 monitor and maximize it, it maximizes to 1680x1050. 3. AdBlock, where art thou? 4. Clicking in the address bar doesn't select all of the text in it. 5. Minimal preferences. Things I like: 1. The history. I've been waiting for something like this forever. I always remember when I visited the site I'm trying to get back to, I just never remember the name. 2. Speed. Very zippy. 3. Small footprint.

7th Sep 2008, 10:41	#14
DeX Mube Codder Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,103	People are keen to note the awesome speed and the distinct lack of features but the interesting thing about this beta release is that this will all change as the browser is developed. As more features are added it will get slower and by the time it actually becomes useful we'll just have good old regular FF3. __________________ Play my game: Shyguy's Cave of Death! If you dont have the time to check your spelling and grammar, you dont have the time to post! -Liquid K9

7th Sep 2008, 13:55	#16
leexgx CPC hang out zone (i Fix pcs i do ) Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: uk Posts: 568	been useing opera for quite some time now and i still prefer it its nice that if an web site crashs an tab out does not take out crome fully, i not had opera crash on me for quite some time now and even if it did crash or the pc BSOD on me it allways rembers last tabs that was open and even the content that was on the page (loads the web sites from hard disk not the web untill you press refresh or if the web site is coded to self refresh), mallware is not realy an problem with opera unlike firefox (no adblock)or IE (no IE7pro works on ie6), as you have to download and run it and if you ignore that the file that you are downloading is an exe your fault if you run it (tbo in IE and Firefox more so IE you get plenty of warnings in Vista IE7 you get 3 warnings if you do not press crtl 2 if you do) the ad stuff i block all hardocp ads as thay stop the back button from working every one els i just leave on unless thay used the same ad service as hardocp, and thay banned my account as well as well so blocking all there adds for that resone as well thay have an rule about blocking ads talking about it users would not ask if thay was not so anoying (thay need to fix the ads so does not brake the pages) i do however block all In text ads (thay bring an box up when you hover over them) as thay are Very anoying as you do not know if its an link an user has posted or not some off them mess fourm threads up as well as thay Inset them into users posts and makes reading them unreadable as thay popup when useing wheel and mouse ponter hits on and then blocks what you are trying to read one other type makes an in thread ad box makeing it hard to read the users post or mestaking it for the thread to be an full ad when its an user post with an ad in it do not mind ads as long as thay are not anoying __________________ Qx6850 (OC 3.3Ghz) <> 120 extreme<> rampage forumla <> 9800GX2 <> 8gb 4x2gb (2x gell / 2x adata)<> SSD powered Corsair S128 / WD Black 1TB <> Crative X-fi FalTy FPS <> TK 1000w Toughpower <win7 x64> Click me for folding stats greenfrog.biz / 35947 Last edited by leexgx; 7th Sep 2008 at 14:00.

8th Sep 2008, 11:06	#18
yakyb CK is God!!! Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 1,061	im not moving to chrome until it supports mouse gestures but i do like the interface / speed opera is still number 1 as far as i'm concerend __________________ Gaming Box:: q6600 @3.0 :: 9800gtx :: Abit IP35 :: 4gb :: 1.4TB :: akasa eclipse :: Win7 Development:: PhenomII 955BE @3.2 :: 4200 :: asus M4A785 M Evo :: 1.25TB ::Win7 Media Centre :: q6600 @3.0 :: x1950pro :: asus p35 epu :: 8gb :: 320 GB :: Lc17B :: Win7 server:: I7 860 :: p55 gd65 :: 3450 :: 8 TB :: 8gb :: Rebel 12 :: server 2008 R2

8th Sep 2008, 16:10	#19
Cupboard I'm not a modder. Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Bury St Edmunds/Durham Uni Posts: 1,840	Just downloaded it to try it out though I won't be swapping to it permanently until it has all the extensions I use regularly. Does this remind anyone else of GladOS? __________________ i7 920, 8800GTS 512, 6GB Corsair all in an Intel DX58SO; 3*320GB RAID5; CM Stacker Samsung Q45.