What is Google Chrome?
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A Web browser from Google of course!
If you’re reading this review then you will almost certainly be using a Web browser to view it on this site. I would probably estimate that around 90% of users are using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer just because it comes shipped with Windows (and have never known anything different), but some of us prefer to use a Web browsing tool that is much more powerful and does exactly what we want it to and not have a mind of its own. This is where Google Chrome comes in.
I have to admit that I have been an avid user of Mozilla’s Firefox for the past few years because it is a much better Web browser than Internet Explorer. Google’s Web browser has been around for a while now but there was no real reason for me to start using it as I was quite happy with what I already had. However I changed to Google Chrome after I became frustrated with recent Firefox updates. Having just got Firefox working the way I wanted it to with a few handy add-ons (such as the video download tool), the software updates to the latest version fail to inform you if all your handy tools will actually work with the new version and it turns out the majority don’t. Add this onto the fact that Firefox takes a bit longer to load than Internet Explorer and you are presented with thoughts of looking at other options. I thought “why not?” and gave Google Chrome a try.
If you happen to have bought one of the latest Netbooks (miniature laptop primarily intended for Web browsing) then it may well have come with Google OS. This is Google’s new Operating System which is said to rival its competitors in the Netbook market and Google Chrome is pre-installed as the core of its system.
Installation & Configuration
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By going to www.google.co.uk/chrome you can download the latest version of Chrome which will run on Windows XP, Vista and 7 Operating Systems. If you want a version for Apple Mac or Linux then you can get a slightly different version called Crossover Chromium which you can get from http://www.codeweavers.com/services/ports/chromium/.
As I am using Windows XP, the focus of this review will be on the original Windows version.
Before you download Chrome you are asked if you would like to help Google by reporting usage statistics and crash errors automatically. The reports are said to contain information about your installation such as the version number and language and how often you use browser features like auto-suggestions. When a browser crash is experienced, information on files, applications and running services are sent to Google but they do make the point that personal information such as names and addresses are never sent. Regardless of this fact, I still prefer not to tick this option for my own security.
Once you click ‘Accept and Install’ to the terms and conditions the installation will start. The installation is done seamlessly over the Internet before you are presented with the option to start the application and whether you want to make it the default browser.
If you have a decent Internet connection then this process should only take about 2 minutes.
When you load Chrome for the first time it quickly configures all your browser settings from your existing browser such as your bookmarks so you don’t have to do it manually.
You are then presented with your all new flashy Google Chrome Web browser which you can access at any time using the multi-coloured disc icon.
The first thing you may want to do with regards to the configuration is to enable the bookmarks bar from the spanner icon in the top right corner of the browser. This will instate your drop down menu of bookmarks and also allow you to drag and drop your most used favourites onto the bookmark bar which appear as button icons under the address bar.
Configuring the browser options is probably the next thing you will want to do and this can again be accessed from the spanner tool by choosing ‘Options’. The ‘Basics’ and ‘Personal Stuff’ tabs are what the average user would want to look at with the ‘Under the bonnet’ section being used by more advanced users.The basics include setting the browser habits on launch for what you want it to do; whether this be to open the homepage that you specify, reopen pages that were last opened or open a list of specific websites. Under this section there is also the option to specify the search engine that Chrome uses as its default when you enter your search credentials in the address bar instead of a Web address (you can also highlight text on a site and choose to use that string for search criteria). I always use Google so I set it here instead of the default Bing.com. The only other option you have here is to set Chrome as your default browser if you haven’t done so already.
The personal stuff tab includes privacy settings where you can manage any passwords that may be saved from sites for future use. This is great if you don’t want to repeatedly enter passwords when logging into frequently used sites as it pre-populates the information but I chose to simply disable this feature so that passwords are never set. The default is always set to prompt you for what you would like to do. The default setting for the Auto-fill on forms are set to save text to make it easier to fill in when revisiting sites or similar forms (like car insurance quotes). There is also an option to import data from other browsers like Firefox or Opera etc.
The Under the bonnet section is where you can really go to town. Here you can change your proxy settings, customise privacy features, Web content and security. As most of these options are ‘features‘, I will discuss some of these in more detail later on.
Browser Design
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In terms of the application design, less is more. Internet Explorer and Firefox as a default have a lot of toolbars and icons which appear to make the layout very bulky and you probably hardly ever use them apart from the basics. Chrome has only the things you need most at the click of a button (anything else can be added though extra configuration).
On first start-up you will see your regular back and forward buttons, refresh, home, bookmark, page control and tools.
The use of tabs for opening multiple Web sites appear to be very fluid. Situated at the very top of the browser (unlike other browsers) they look like tabs on a suspension file in a filing cabinet. Each time you click a tab it brings the focus of that tab to the front of your browser window and it changes the colour to white so that it stands out. To open a new tab you simply click the plus sign next to the current tab. When you enter a new web address on a new tab you get a nice funky turning circle appear on the tab to indicate the site is loading.
The dark blue application bar and the light blue tabs and browser bar make Chrome appear vibrant and fresh. No more boring greys as a default.
The address bar for the browser is a bit larger than the norm with a larger font when typing web addresses. Hopefully those with poor vision may find that beneficial but it’s not really anything special. Testing its start-up speed on my PC reveals that it only takes a split second to launch, unlike Firefox which takes about 10-20 seconds.
Features
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The feature I like most about Google Chrome is the ‘most visited’ thumbnail links that appear when you click a new tab. You get a very nice image preview of the sites you have visited the most during your browsing history which makes it very easy to click on something you want rather than re-type the Web address each time (this can be disabled if need be). If there’s a site that you recently visited that you want to access you can do so from the ‘recently closed’ list that appears under the most visited thumbnails. I’ve decide to include a picture to demonstrate this on my review. When you hover the mouse over the 1 Tab link for example, it will show a pop-up bubble about the site that was visited which you can click.
When downloading files they automatically appear at the bottom of the browser in a pop-up bar. If you are downloading an executable file then you are advised with a warning that it could harm your computer before you get the option to save it. Most other files such as Zip files are downloaded automatically. As files download they appear on the bar as a separate button with an indication of the download progress (e.g. 2.0MB of 4.0MB) whilst also showing the time remaining. To the right-hand-side of the bar you have the option to ‘show all downloads’ which will take you to a new tab to show all the files you have recently downloaded. You can also access this from the spanner icon by choosing Downloads. From this tab you can see a list of your files with date stamps. The filenames are shown as clickable links so that you can immediately access a requested file or alternatively you can use the ‘show in folder’ option to view the file in its stored location on your PC. You can choose the ‘remove from list’ option to get rid of the reference to the file download altogether if you wish. When you first start downloading files it can cause a bit of confusion if you are expecting the file download window to appear right in front of you as Chrome doesn’t behave this way.
As the files appear as a pop-up at the bottom you can easily fail to notice them before the penny drops and you may try to click to download again before you see them piling up at the bottom. Download locations can be altered from the ‘under the bonnet’ section in the options menu.
The most frustrating problem when using a Web browser is when you experience a crash. All those sites you had open which took you ages to find through numerous searches are seemingly gone. Firefox offered a great recovery option to restore any sites you had open and Chrome is no different. As you restart your browser you get a nice pop-up informing you that the application did not shut down properly with the option to restore the pages you had open. I haven’t used Internet Explorer 8 but I know that older versions of Microsoft’s browser did not have this feature and it was very annoying. It’s a must for any browser.
In an office environment I’ve had Chrome crash a few times but I’ve used it at home now for several weeks without a single problem.Similar to Firefox add-ons, Chrome Extensions allow you to add extra functionality to your browser. Some of these Extensions include Dictionary tools, video download tools and animated weather reports to name a few. I would recommend looking for extensions via the ‘Extensions’ option from the spanner icon and clicking ‘Get more extensions’ as this will take you to the official Google Chrome extension site. If you search for some manually on the Web then you do run the risk of installing an unofficial extension that could lead to unexpected problems with the browser. The majority are fine but if you do experience problems you can quite easily disable or uninstall any extensions from the extensions options as it will provide a list of all the ones that you have installed.
A useful feature that has come in handy is the real-time spell check which automatically checks your spelling when filling out anything online such as forms etc. Any incorrect spelt words are underlined in red just like Microsoft Word does with your word documents. This also means that if you are writing a review online then it can check the spelling on that as well. If you do find this annoying then you can turn it off in the ‘under the bonnet’ section of the options menu hidden inside the font and language settings. I find this very useful so I leave it turned on.
If you’ve built up a list of favourites that you actively use on your Web browser then you will love the Sync Bookmarks tool. If you hold a Google Mail account then you can use this option to synchronise your current bookmarks and save them to your Google account. You can then go to any other PC that has Chrome installed and use the same tool to sync them back to that PC so you get to keep your bookmarks wherever you go. It works by bringing up a window which prompts you for your Google account details which you login to and the rest is done for you automatically. If you don’t have a Google account then this tool is going to be useless for you.
I guess it could be a sign of Google trying to expand their market into every avenue possible by getting you to create a mail account to use this tool. Having said that I’ve used Google Mail for a few years and it is great so it was ideal for me.
A standard feature that you expect from a Web browser these days is a good pop-up blocker. Chrome has one built in which is activated as soon as a pop-up tries to appear. This will be shown in the bottom right corner of the browser window which will display the number of pop-ups that have been blocked and provide you with the option to Go to the site that is blocked or allow that site in future.
Referring back to the ‘Under the bonnet’ section, there are some great additions to the browser in the form of Phishing and Malware protection and DNS pre-fetching which is aimed at improving browser page load performance. It’s great to know that even though you may have some Anti-Virus software installed, you have the added protection of your browser running extra security for you.
I’ve only mentioned here what I deem to be most relevant to the average user. There are many more features that Chrome has to offer and these will become apparent as you start using the browser.
Problems
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This bit may sound rather technical for some non computer literate people so I apologise in advance. If you are not IT savvy then you will not be affected by this problem I am going to discuss because it will only exist in an office environment. If you happen to use an Internet proxy server at work (or multiple ones for that matter) then Google Chrome is a big let down. It seems that the browser fails to pass on user credentials to the proxy server automatically when you first try to access a web site. As a result every user will be prompted to enter their domain username and password each time to access a site. Usually if you keep the application open then you won’t get prompted again but if you happen to close the browser and re-launch it then you will have to input your details once more. This is more of a problem if you use multiple proxy servers and need to use your Switch proxy extension as each time you pass to a new proxy you will be once again prompted to confirm your user credentials. This is a very annoying problem and probably one of the main reasons why businesses will not use this browser in the workplace. Google need to sort out this problem as it is a major headache for those wanting to implement it. Having read some articles on possible fixes for this problem there appears to be some kind of solution from comments others have made but I am yet to resolve it. Apparently this issue did not exist in very early versions of Chrome.
The only other fault I found was that I had clicked to download an executable file and was requested to either save or discard the file but left the prompt on the bottom toolbar when the browser crashed. Once I re-loaded the browser and when into the Downloads it kept crashing the browser because the last download was not verified.
However, deleting the temp file from its potential save location and rebooting sorted the problem. I’ve not been able to replicate this issue so I don’t see it as a major problem as it was possibly a one off.
Everything else seems to work peachy!
Recommended?
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For someone looking at an alternative to Internet Explorer then I would highly recommend Google Chrome for its fast speeds and overall reliability. It is not good for someone wanting to use this in an office environment due to the proxy issue and it probably wouldn’t turn much heads for those who are happy running Firefox. However I think it is a great browser and Google have done well to design something so simple and effective. Installation is quick and easy and the range of customisable features and useful extensions are endless.
Chrome also has no problems displaying sites using Java or Flash video files assuming you have the relevant plug-ins installed. On a bad note some sites may not function as expected if their lazy Web designer decided to base the entire functionality on Internet Explorer. Some survey sites are a prime example!
What’s more is that you can run Chrome simultaneously alongside any other browser so you won’t have to uninstall anything in order to try it out. For those sitting on the fence and still debating on whether to try it, you should install it now and give it a go. You will never look back.
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