The latest fever in the Internet and Web-browsing space is the launch of Chrome - a web browser by Google. I coudn't resist the temptation and immediately downloaded it. Afterall, as every other Google Application, its free to use :) and just as any other Google App, you would fall in love with it at first sight.
Chrome is every bit a Google App. Its so simple, that at first you would think there is an error - the title bar is not loading. But actually there IS NO title bar. Even the word "Google" is stowed away on the top right corner in a very small font. I bet you didn't notice that the first time. And it loads so fast as compared to Firefox, you instantly fall in love with Chrome. Google actually distributed a comic-book as to why they decided to make a browser and how it is different from the rest. You can read a scanned copy of that
here.
Browse for a little time on Chrome, and you would realise the differences (and similarities) from other browsers. In any tabbed browser, you would have noticed that as you shift between tabs, the URL shown above also changes. What Google did in Chrome was to put it below the tabbing, which is to signify that each tab is a separate browser. They have also copied (that's right, literally copied) IE 7 design. So now you have a clean browser, which offers maximum space for the webpage. The drag-drop tabs feature offer you so much flexibility that you feel the tabs are no longer dependent on the browser. Which is true too. What Google has done is that they have built a box (virtual) in which multiple instances of the browser can run independently. So the tabs we see are not tabs within a browser, but tabbed browsers themselves. Open the Chrome Task Manager (the web-browser also has a Task Manager), and you can see how many instances of Chrome are running. So, next time some application hangs your browser, just close that tab and the rest of the tabs are still working fine.
Visit a few websites, and you would feel just as if you were working on Firefox. Some of the sites which load differently on Firefox and IE, load in Chrome just the same way as, you guessed it, Firefox. The Google guys claim they started from scratch, but I have a feeling they simply lifted Firefox, removed a few features (such as the tabs), made a few minor tweaks and then repackaged it into Chrome. Afterall, Google has been "financing" Mozilla all the while. Apparently, they gave close to $57million for a deal to make Google search the default in Firefox, and this makes up about 85% of Mozilla's revenues. No wonder, the two browsers feel the same - they share the same genes.
One thing that really strikes (strangely) about Chrome is its IE 7 looks. I could think of two reasons for copying IE 7 design in Chrome. First reason, which is obvious, Chrome is targeted to snatch away IE customers. Even if you have been using IE all your life, you wouldn't feel an ocean of difference while making the shift to Chrome. Its like the wolf dressing up as a sheep, but in this case the wolf is the Fox. The second reason is that, the sheep looks and feels better than the Fox.
So did Google make Chrome just to dig into IE's market share? No, its to make browsing faster and for allowing more advanced applications to run. According to Google, the rules of the game have changed since the development of first generation web-browsers began. So, they made a bold statement, "Even if other browsers become faster because of our work, we would consider that a success" and took it upon themselves to make the next generation browser. And to help those "other browsers" they have made Chrome open-source too.
Overall, Google seems to have started from scratch, lifted the best of both worlds and moulded them to make the best browser. There are some more features that you can explore if you are interested, like the Task Manager for Chrome, Incognito tabs, etc. There are also some features which are missing from Firefox, like "search as you type", "go directly to the top result site when you search through the URL", etc.
Lets also say, if Chrome can provide more features as do IE and Firefox, or if IE and Firefox can be as light and fast as Chrome, we can say "Chrome was a success."
I had earlier left this blog at this point, but now feel there is more to tell. Chrome WAS a success, even before it was launched. That is because Microsoft almost every feature "different" about Chrome in their IE8. You can download the IE8 Beta available now and check it for yourself. And why I said, Chrome was a success even before it was launched is because IE8 Beta 2 was launched somewhere in early March 2008, much before the launch of Chrome on Sep 2nd. Incognito tabs, the same design and tabbed browsers are all there in IE8 as well. Even the style of writing the URL in grey with only the domain name hightlighted in black is a feature of IE8. And both IE8 and Chrome have copied Opera's "speed dial" feature of showing most visited websites when you open a new tab. One look at IE 8 will tell you who has copied how much from whom. This was all just how the end-user perceives the differences, but to read an in-depth review, read
Google Chrome Vs IE 8 Vs Firefox 3.1
