haslo.ch in Chrome

Google Chrome is what must be the most written-about browser, ever – it’s hard not to write about it in your blog, peer pressure and all. Announced just Monday, and in blogs and big media alike from the moment it started.

It is special though, admittedly, has several unique approaches that make checking it out definitely worthwhile:

• Each tab is a process, instead of each tab or even the whole browser being a thread – meaning, if one tab crashes, the browser doesn’t, and garbage collection when closing tabs is more thorough as well
• Popups are not intrusive, “contained” within the tab until the user actually drags them out
• The JavaScript VM is actually meant for web applications and not tiny scripts, with proper garbage collection and JIT compilation (getting JS closer to Java by the way, while still being distinctly a unique language)
• It’s developed with security in mind from the ground up, including sandboxes for browser tasks and built-in malware scans
• It’s open source! Meaning, anybody can extend it, anybody can use the research Google put into it, and anybody can look at what the browser does under the hood (except Microsoft that is, as they certainly won’t go OS with their IE any time soon)
• With WebKit, it’s powered by a proven, standards compliant and fast rendering engine
• It was introduced with a comic book!

But there are also a few things speaking against Chrome:

• It’s a great competitor not only to the IE, but to Firefox (although their CEO’s reaction was pretty positive, via Basic Thinking in German), Safari and Opera: Tech-savvy people care what browser they use, non-tech-savvy people just use “the internet”, and consequently many tech-savvy people don’t use IE and will try Chrome
• It’s yet another tool for Google to collect more data to turn into profit (link German); the anti-phishing feature sends all your URLs to Google (link German – just like the IE phishing filter by the way), and is opt-out instead of opt-in. Edit: This was actually wrong, not every URL is sent to Google, instead the browser regularly downloads hash lists and then locally compares URLs to those lists. However, for the smart search, everything you type is sent to your search engine, which is by default Google.
• Being new, the browser still lacks the plugin support Firefox has (more on this below)

So, does the positive outweigh the negative? And even more important: Is the browser easy to use, fast and as standards compliant as it was promised to be?

User Experience

The browser really is fast! JavaScript is fast. Page loading is fast. Loading the browser in the first place is fast. Switching tabs (even with processing-intensive tasks) is fast. Kicking tabs is fast.

The speed advantage really is objectively measurable too – in this JavaScript speed test here, my computer lets Chrome rattle through in 200 ms. My Firefox 3 takes around 350 ms (still very fast), while the IE is sitting at over 2500 ms.

The whole browser is very simple and easy to use, with little to no configuration required (or possible) – which has downsides for both users who aren’t happy with the defaults, and for people like me who like fiddling with settings to personalize stuff.

I’m less happy with the browser trying to fill stuff everywhere, whether he knows the site or not. It leads to all kinds of odd behaviour, like the first time I’m trying to log into MyDoodle, the user name shows as “1979″.

All this leads to an odd situation: The browser is a black box, more so than any other, despite being open source. I really have no clue what the browser is doing there when it tries to think for me. I don’t like that.

Anyway, the simplicity and ease of use do work towards making the browser also a competitor to the Internet Explorer, not only geek browsers: It’s easy to install, possible to install (and uninstall) per user without admin rights, doesn’t ask many questions and just works right out of the box. So many non-geek users will find this a viable alternative to the behemoth IE.

Plugins

The plugin thing is a big one for me: I’m using about 20 Firefox plugins right now. Most prominent and essential among them are NoScript and AdBlock Plus, surfing without them is horrible. Of course CustomizeGoogle is a favourite as well.

There’s way more: StumbleUpon and TwitterBar are used very often, too (although I try to cut down on StumbleUpon, it’s horrible – don’t install it if you value your sleep and free time). Developing web applications or even mere websites without the Web Developer Toolbar is unthinkable.

While I’m at it, I’ll also plug the great Download Statusbar, DradDropUpload for Gmail, and Pagerank Status. And of course there’s Gears, which is built into Chrome from the start.

While I’m sure that eventually, plugin support for Chrome will be great (the framework is in place and thought-through after all), right now due to being new the browser simply lacks features that I like and I’m used to.

Conclusion

Well … it’s another new browser. Not bad, very fast, and with several innovative approaches that will revolutionize browsers no matter if Chrome will be successful or not.

As for myself, I’ll keep using Firefox for now. The combination of little added value, no added geek value (Firefox is open source too), and actual missing features make it less than tempting to switch main browser.

(And I may be starting to get a tiny bit paranoid when it comes to Google’s data collection frenzy.)

Edit and post aftermath: The first public Chrome security hole, and I didn’t even realize Google doesn’t support RSS discovery (link German, a feature of Firefox that I love). Finally, Google’s answer to the conspiracy theorists (via tou.ch).

And gee that trackback to the Google blog brought traffic – hi folks