Comments on: Review: Google Chrome beta released for Windows

By: Zlatko

Zlatko — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 08:25:38 +0000

The browser is great but there is one little glitch, I use a notebook and on my mouse pad I have the simple scroller for websites or any type of document and it will scroll down but it will not go back up.

By: Dennis Akpenyi

Dennis Akpenyi — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:22:20 +0000

I agree with you, geeks can sexy and ‘crazy’, too! I have all Beta Browsers and that a least qualifies me to make some input…I am not going to pretend that I know it all but I am going to report from my experience with three browsers- Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), Firefox 3.0.1 and Google Chromes. I have been using IE7 before I upgraded to IE8 when Microsoft launched recently. Mozilla Firefox has also been with me before I downloaded the 3.0.1 version a week or two ago from Yahoo! I installed all three of them and I have test driving all three of them. In fact, I have all three pinned to my quick launch pad.
I use a Dell Inspiron 1520 Core 2 Duo (Intel) and I reside in an area (West Africa) where we still have the challenges of small bandwidth. From my experience I would openly assert Google Chrome browser does some ‘automagic’. Where Firefox 3.0.1 and IE8 crawl to a halt unable to ‘cope’ with the signals coming in trickles, Chrome chugs painstakingly on until my page is completely loaded. The only issue I have with Chrome is its difficulty in downloading PDF files. When I want to download PDF file I usually opt for IE8 because it allows my internet downloader do the job. I made Chrome my default browser and I tell you sometimes it could be a ‘jealous bride’, it wants to monitor and manage every extensions and protocols. In all, Chrome browser is really a ‘man Friday’ when browsing speed gets so slow. IE8 and firefox3.0.1 will usually back off.
If you don’t believe me, maybe you should bring your PC to any average cybercafé in Nigeria and get a feel of what I am talking about. The creator of both IE8 and Firefox 3.0.1 did a fantastic job but it seems to me that they released their browsers into circulation so as to maintain their esteemed places in the hearts of surfers. It feels safe to conclude that Google Chrome creators had concerns for the plights of surfers who reside in small bandwidth areas.
-7nobles

By: David

David — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:10:51 +0000

I’ve been using Chrome for a couple of days and it’s already my ‘default’ browser as it’s just so quick to start up and surf. The only thing I really miss (as an Opera user) is an RSS feed. That’s a major absence for me as I keep tabs on feeds throughout the day. Maybe it’s just cool to use an uncluttered and quick program for a change - I particularly like the fact it dumps the Windows frame and maximizes space for the web page. Makes sense as that’s what you want to see. For me a very good start. Just not sure if I like one company providing me with everything…

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:57:23 +0000

One thing that Chrome does better than IE7 is Zoom. This is important to me because I surf on my TV. Chrome calls it “Text Zoom”…and the text tends to resize only and formats it so only vertical scrolling is required . IE7 treats the entire web page as one image. The zoom requires scrolling horizontal and vertical. The omnibox is s cool feature.

By: Chip

Chip — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:31:36 +0000

Hmm… I haven’t seen that. For me, it comes right up. But I’m running a Core Duo 2 Ghz with 2GB of memory. Maybe it has challenges with more restricted environments.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:41:30 +0000

Your review is exactly the first impression that i got. But the only thing that is killing the experience is that oh-so-often cpu 100% spike that froze my computer for 10 seconds everytime i visit a webpage with flash video, like YouTube.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:26:56 +0000

The one feature I liked (call me strange) is that when you have a pop-up that isn’t blocked it gets minimized to the bottom of the screen. Not having a box pop up over the page I’m trying to read is a great thing.

I echo the settements of those here saying that this is a nice basic browser that is fast. It definately needs some improving in the plug-ins and toolbars. While I find that other browsers are too busy in this area, I believe that Chrome could use a few more icons. But that’s just my .02!

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:21:34 +0000

I’m giving it a try as my default browser for a while at least, just to see where the pain points are. I definitely already miss my extensions, but most things are just so much faster that it makes up for the loss. So far.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:05:30 +0000

After playing around with Chrome for a little while, I have to say I am fairly impressed with it. It is clearly much faster, and it seems to be a very user-friendly browser. As a geek however, I will probably be sticking with Firefox at this point because when I use the internet, I expect to be able to use all of the useful Firefox add-ons I have installed.

For a generic browser for merely surfing the web, however, I can easily see why someone would want to choose Chrome.

By: Chip

Chip — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:04:38 +0000

You bring up an interesting point. Do you think Chrome will eat into the IE market, or take more of a bite out of FF? GigaOm seems to think the latter (it may appeal to geeks for performance reasons, and they’re more likely to try out new technology), but perhaps it will have more followers among the web’s herd animals — especially if it starts making apps like GMail work better than in they do in IE (that’s a tough task, eh?)

By: Minok

Minok — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:21:52 +0000

Sleek and small, its a great browser to use on some thin client computers that boot from flash memory where you just need to check your email or surf to a basic website and don’t want to boot up the whole system. (Think back to the ROM booted days of Apple, Atari, and Commodore) Yes, Chrome will fit in there very well.

For an every day browser, I just don’t see how Chrome has a place. But then 70% of the browsers are IE so that shows what the average user finds is good doesn’t agree with what most of the readers here would find is good.

By: Chip

Chip — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:19:03 +0000

What site?