61 replies to this topic

[Jill]

Ok I did broke down...

Using it this min. I am impressed that it preserved all my toolbar bookmarks...those are what I use the most in FF. Of course, I can't keep twitter open via the FF extension twitkit so that's no good (I can just use twirl I suppose.)

[harpsound]

First thing I noticed was that the first 3-4 words in your <title> need to be explicitly what the page is about otherwise the Chrome shows confusing text on the 9 most used pages

[Randy]

Well, if it's any consolation it appears to function okay on a 'doze XP x64 bit system, since I just downloaded it and am running it now. Which is a little surprising for a Beta product, but not terribly surprising knowing who built it.

FWIW, it reminds me a lot of Safari at first glance --there is a windows version of that too if anyone wants to try it-- though I know Win Safari doesn't have expectations nearly as large on any front. That it sort of looks like and acts like Safari makes sense considering it's built off of Apple Webkit. And the browser even reports itself as a KHTML like Gecko, with a Safari version number.

The few of my sites I checked out didn't look too bad. There were a couple where I might need to force a bit more spacing on the horizontal boxes I've got built into each side. But it's nothing critical. I can see everything, I'd just like a few pixels of white space out there on each side. This issue doesn't come as a surprise either, seeing as how Safari does the same thing even though no other browser seems to. I'll get around to trying to fix those some day. Maybe.

[mcanerin]

Un. Fricken. Believable.

I did two things today. First I downloaded IE8 Beta. Nice Browser. Real nice. But it broke the Google Toolbar. I use the Google toolbar for spellchecking. This is a BIG issue for me. Stupid Microsoft. Or maybe stupid Google. Not sure yet.

So, upon reading this thread, I figure I'll download Google Chrome. That'll teach Microsoft. Stupid Microsoft and their stupid browser...

Actually, it taught me. The short version is that the GOOGLE TOOLBAR is incompatible with the GOOGLE BROWSER too. It doesn't even recognise it as a real browser! The download page suggested I get Firefox!

I take it back, Microsoft...

Stupid Google.

Ian

[lisety]

I noticed that my Google toolbar wasn't there but I figured tomorrow I'd just download it. Ian, thanks for sparing me the time tomorrow now that I know the toolbar doesn't work. Don't you think Google will fix that pretty quickly?

[mcanerin]

They don't even list it as a "known issue" - so it's anyone's guess.

Oh, and I tried to let them know by clicking on the "report a bug" link, and got a 404.

To say I'm unimpressed would be an understatement...

Ian

[mcanerin]

Hey - I just noticed that Chrome HAS a spell checker built in. I get red squiggly underlining on misspelled words. Well, some of them. It's not a good spell checker, but it's a start. For now.

I still want my toolbar!

Ian

[nethy]

Reason for edit: I don't have a SPELL CHECKER anymore...

Brilliant.

Funny that Google doesn't recognise the Google browser & that it suggested firefox. But I guess it's to do with the secrecy around it.

[rolf]

I have to say, I Like it. It's not an entirely different universe from FF, but that's no bad thing.

I like the clean layout and the ability to move tabs about in the same window, pull them from window to window and generally arrange them as needed - I can see that being a killer feature when working on several aspects of a site at once.

It's missing a FF extension I use all the time (mouse gestures) but it's their first day, so I'll forgive that for now, I'm sure someone will make one of those before too long.

I also miss the search box. Chrome allows you to set the default search to use in the address bar, but I'd like to be able to search eBay, Amazon, PHP.net, Dictionary.com and all those others too. Again, I think an extension to solve that may not be far away.

Over all, for a first day beta I'm impressed, can't wait to see how it changes over the coming months.

My big hope is that it scares MS into being more standards compliant, but who knows how all that will pan out?

[Randy]

I just noticed that Chrome HAS a spell checker built in.

I noticed this too. But I haven't yet found a way to add words to my dictionary. You know, little acronyms like SERPs, which it says is misspelled. Yup, there's some work to do on that front, among others.

and got a 404

There seem to be lots of those with the first launch. In fact, if you end up in the Help pages for Chrome you'll see that a lot of links inside the help docs (go ahead, try some of those Learn More links) also result in 404's.

Has anybody else noticed how the way it displays urls in the address bar subconsciously puts more emphasis on the Domain and less on the Page? Interesting how they do this, but I have to wonder why...

[CTPhil]

If it's Safari based, it could be a useful aid when designing on a PC for those that don't have a Mac.

I go right to the source for testing how web pages will look on a Mac, Safari For Windows.

[Jill]

While only using it for a few hours last night, I have to say I was unimpressed. That said, it's an initial launch, so I guess if you take that into consideration it was fine. If you're an IE user it might even be great...I dunno as I haven't used IE in years.

I can't imagine it stealing many FF users at this point, however. Perhaps in another year or so if/when they allow extensions to be added it would be useful.

I'm gonna keep trying it out for a week or so, just so I don't dismiss it out of hand, but at this point, the pros far outweigh the cons. Will prolly write more about this elsewhere next week.

[Bri]

Jill, i'm with you on the whole FF extension thing. I got a bunch that i use regularly and will not think about going to any other web browser full time. Interestingly though, Google seems to be marketing it as a "part time browser" to be used in specific instances. That's a sly way of convincing people to give it a try with out asking them to commit. Also, i heard they will be also releasing a developers kit for add ons! Well, i'm still solidly routed in FF, But i'm not wearing a ring.

[nethy]

Has anybody else noticed how the way it displays urls in the address bar subconsciously puts more emphasis on the Domain and less on the Page? Interesting how they do this, but I have to wonder why...

Haven't used it so i can't say. But my guess is that to help avoid phishing attacks, it'd be useful to distinguish domain from subdomain.

[Randy]

re: Nethy. Could be. Though from my understanding of what I read the phishing and malware stuff will be more deeply embedded. Google is maintaining a database --one that is open source and available to others who want to use it-- that will actively block such attempts as soon as they're discovered and entered into the database.

I just found it interesting, that's all. Greying out the http bit and the path bit is just different than any other browser, so it caught my eye.

Jill: From what I read about Chrome yesterday I think you can safely assume plug-ins will be available. They do want plug-in developers to build their browser apps so that they're more secure, but this sounds like a trivial matter from what I understand.