Google announced the Beta Release of the their latest tool.. a new web browser called Chrome. So Google the search giant enters the browser business. Being the Google power user that I am, I of course downloaded a copy and have been playing with it for several days. I haven’t messed with many settings.. pretty much been using it out of the box for a while. I also haven’t looked whether or not it is going to allow additional toolbar widgets and such.
Four Things I don’t like about Google Chrome..
1) No Page Title Bar at the top of the browser window.. the title is truncated in the tab. As a search marketer I look being able to see the full title tag without having to go look for.. like in the source code.
2) Can’t copy off a Chrome window and paste it into Dreamweaver WYSIWYG view.. you can only paste it into the source code. I use code view quite heavily so its really not that big a deal.. more of an hindrance for those designers who rely on WYSIWYG to do their work.
3) No Google Toolbar with Pagerank and no quick option for checking backwards links.
4) No Refresh/Reload Option on the right click menu.. you have to go all the way up to toolbar.
Cool Features I Do Like About Google Chrome…
Downloads… downloads file or attachment and drops it into a tool bar accessible at the bottom of the browser window.. from the downloaded file bar.. just one click and you are opening the attachment. No more having to save downloads to you computer before opening them.
Screenshots of Browse History
This is another cool feature I like.. when I open new browser window or browser tab.. I see screenshots of the 9 most viewed website in my history. I can click one and go rightback to the site I was on.
All-in-One Search Box & Address Bar
This is only one box to enter text and it does double duty.. type in URL or a search query all in the same box. This one messed with for about a day… I’m so used to have a separate Google search box on my Google Toolbar in Firefox. I found myself always looking for my Google Toolbar but I think I’m finally used to it.
Browse Incognito
This is the option most people want at work to hide their online shopping while working because some offices do monitor internet browsing so this is the ticket… Incognito does not keep any history or record what-so-ever. Upon close it does away with all temp internet files, history, cookies.. everything. Now you surf stealth.
Element Inspector
Now this one I really find useful. highlight and element on a page and right click… one of the option is element inspectory.
Once you click the Inspect Element you get a pop-up window zeros in on the code associated with the element you are trying to inspect. This saves time instead of having to sift through the source code trying to find the element. The inspector also displays the styled properties of the element.
All-in-all, Google is a fine browser.. I can’t really say it’s better or worse than Firefox but it’s definitely better than IE (then again, what isn’t?). One thing I can say is that it is a very fast browser.
So what do you think of the new Google Chrome Browser.. take a sec to leave your commments.
