One word. Disappointing.
Yesterday when I read about the launch of the
Google Chrome browser, I was excited. I am quite a fan of Google products and I anticipated good stuff. Especially when it claims to use memory more efficiently, I thought I would be hooked.
To put things into perspective, I am currently using
Mozilla Firefox 3 as my primary browser and keep
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 for certain obstinate websites. And so, let's proceed though I scarcely know where to begin. As the points come to me then.
As it turned out, the promise regarding more efficient memory usage did not materialize to my satisfaction. I observe significant discrepancies between the memory usages reported by Windows Task Manager and Google Chrome's own task manager. The former reported more.
Chrome's task manager in nerd mode also does not allow us to sort in order of ascending/descending memory usage. Apparently, it is not nerdy enough. No sorting is available for the simple mode too. When listing the activated plugins, it also does not show which particular tabs activated them. Like right now, I have active-x and shockwave initiated and I don't understand why they are being used.
Contrary to Google Chrome's claim that it would be faster, I find the speed only as good as Mozilla Firefox's. Of course, if it is trying to beat Microsoft Internet Explorer, well, practically all popular browsers beat it.
I find Chrome's options panel to be ridiculously simplistic to the extent that only a few things can be customized. For instance, it is currently opening all new tabs to the right of the active one. I hate this. My current Firefox setting is such that new tabs are spawned towards the end. This makes more sense to me since we can then intuitively know where the new tabs are. With Chrome, you need to first find where your active tab is in the hierarchy of tabs then click the tab on its right.
You also cannot choose to automatically delete browsing data upon browser closing. You also cannot choose to be warned when you close with multiple tabs on (multiple tabs on tend to imply you have exited accidentally).
There is another disturbing thing. In Chrome's options panel, under "Change proxy settings", this actually links to the settings for Microsoft Internet Explorer! I am not sure if this is a bug but it certainly rocked my assumption that Google Chrome is a standalone browser. It also feels that Google is ripping Microsoft and being so clumsy at that.
To clear my browsing data In Firefox, I can simply press Ctrl-Shift-Del. This shortcut is so neat and makes things efficient. I do not know if there is a similar one for Chrome - I tried the same command and it didn't work. And so, we have to rely on the "Clear browsing data..." link accessible from the spanner icon. Even in this "Clear browsing data..." panel, I find issue. The "Clear saved password" box is not checked by default. No "last setting" is remembered either since I checked it once and the next time round, the box is unchecked again. Granted that I have opted to never save passwords in the options panel but a more reassuring way is to gray out that box with a default check.
There is also no about:config or similar for Chrome, unlike Firefox. You can customize so few things that Chrome is beginning to feel as stifling as Internet Explorer. For instance, I can't choose to open my internet radio tab as a tab in the same browsing window. By default, it "pops up" as a separate stand-alone window on Windows Taskbar. It does allow me to "Show as tab" but that just endows the additional window with browsing capability. No sane person would enjoy cluttering his Windows Taskbar; I am no different. I prefer to keep everything within one browser window which Google Chrome fails at this point.
With my internet radio playing, I notice that while I am doing things in other tabs such as inspecting element or even when I am just closing a tab, the radio window will hang. I will then have the music repeated in an irritating fashion till the hang passes. Occasionally, it hangs too when I initiate or switch to other Windows applications. In case anyone asks, I still have loads of free memory.
Currently, double-clicking on the empty space on the right of tabs gives a new tab in both Firefox and Internet Explorer. In Google Chrome, it shrinks the browser window which is so meaningless. To open a new tab, you have to click on the small "+" icon which is dangerous near to the "x" of the last tab. Right clicking on the empty space does not provide any shortcut to open a new tab too.
Unlike both Firefox and Internet Explorer, we also cannot choose which icons we hope to include on the toolbar. Other than the addition or exclusion of the home button, you have to take the default icons as they come. I find the "New tab" shortcut icon I added to my Firefox toolbar to be extremely useful. Chrome does not allow me to add that.
Firefox has its star on the right of the address bar - the one that allows you to quickly add bookmarks (Internet Explorer does not have this). Please make up your mind, Google. If you want to convert Firefox users as well, moving the star to the other end is not gonna win you points.
One reason why Firefox is so successful among power users is its accommodation of extensions. Given Google's support of Firefox, I don't understand how it can miss this point. I would hope to see all the Firefox extensions ported over to Chrome. For instance, one of the extensions I rely heavily on is one that gives me mouse gesture capability. For those who make more efficient use of their mice, this definitely breaks Google Chrome. This is also one of the main reasons why I would not want to make Chrome my main browser. I may still keep it around for occasional variety sake or when I feel like having simultaneous browsing sessions (e.g. Firefox + Internet Explorer + Chrome).
I love the awesome bar that comes with Firefox 3. To fully utilize it, I added sites I want to keep to my bookmarks. However, I deliberately leave them "unsorted" as I do not relish having an overflowing bookmarks list. When Chrome imported all my bookmarks from Firefox, all the unsorted ones got added to the bottom of the list. The result? A hideous mess.
At the bookmarks bar (this is the one on top which is enabled by default), it permanently shows "For quick access, place your bookmarks here in the bookmarks bar". I don't practice favoritism for certain sites. All my favorites are on my bookmarks list. What now? I can't choose not to have favorite favorites? That permanent line, even if in gray, only serves to irritate.
The only reason I enabled the bookmarks bar is because there is no other way to get to my bookmarks! Google took away that important icon/link and placed it on the bookmarks bar. In case you have not noticed, this bar eats into the real estate it freed by omitting the Title bar which I do find useful for showing complete page description. The navigation toolbar which provides quick access is also gone. If you open Internet Explorer and Chrome side by side, you will see that this design is obviously an attempt to clone Internet Explorer in a better way.
I also don't understand why the Google Installer process is running. Further to that, it repeatedly asked my firewall permission to access the internet. As far as I can see, it did nothing before I gave it permission and it still did nothing after I consented. I wonder what the jiggery pokery is. When I accessed "About Chrome", the installer asked permission again and it checked the Chrome version - this at least is understandable.
The incognito mode may seem like a nice touch at first glance but is it really useful? As it is, we can always clear the data after use. Like I mentioned, a simple Ctrl-Shift-Del in Firefox would do the trick. It might be useful only if I choose to surf sensitive and mass sites in the same session. Normally I don't do that anyway. If say, I need to log on to Internet Banking, I rather play it safe by doing it in a standalone session. If you are sure you will always remember to go incognito when need be, then fine, this feature of Chrome might suit you. But hang on, most banking sites do not support non-IE browsers. Ever since I switch to Firefox 3, I can no longer do banking with it (Firefox 2 can). My testing shows that Chrome is also not supported by my banks.
I also don't like the way Google Chrome displays the downloaded files. Chrome keeps the files on the download bar on the tab they were downloaded from. The history is not synchronized across all tabs which is kinda counter-intuitive. For instance, I am downloading something from one of the many sites I am surfing - I can't see it immediately. I need to find the tab I downloaded from or go to the download manager which breaks the "flow" of things. There is also no option for me to clear the history of a particular downloaded file. I am pleased though that Ctrl-J is still the shortcut to call up download manager.
Alright, I have said so many bad points so let's be fair and touch on the good.
I like Chrome's clean overall design. When you press Ctrl-f, a cute find box would appear but it is really no biggie and I much prefer Firefox's find as I type. The status "bar" is also dynamic and this frees up space at the bottom which increases page real estate. I also like that we can search directly in the address bar. This is neat and Firefox should incorporate it in the next build.
I like to touch on the incognito mode again here. Previously, if you want to log on to multiple Gmail accounts at the same time, you have to use different browsers (after Gmail changed things). So you can log in to account A using Firefox and account B using Internet Explorer. With the incognito mode, you can initiate two separate sessions (one using normal mode and the other using incognito). Unfortunately, only one incognito window can be opened. When you try to open a second one, it just opens a new tab in your current incognito window. Perhaps, Chrome may want to introduce an always-incognito mode to compensate for its lack of auto-clear history upon exit.
Final thought
Quite disappointed. I had considered switching from Firefox to Google Chrome but now that I have finally accessed the ware, I think it still has quite a way to go. It might possibly steal away Internet Explorer users (which I think is Google's main aim anyway) but for those who are Firefox fans, Google still has to try harder. If I give Firefox 5 stars, I would give Google Chrome 3 stars at most.
If you are using Internet Explorer and thinking whether to switch to Chrome, I would say go ahead. But if you are on Firefox, hold tight for your ship is still the studier one.
