Eventually got round to downloading and installing the Google Chrome browser today. I'm working on my blog theme and wanted to have a look at it in Chrome to make sure everything was ok. Lucky I did as there was a few problems with the php, that I had to iron out. I normally just check in Firefox, IE and Netscape but Chrome is becomming more and more popular in the browser market and cannot be ignored. I have used Browser Shots to see how a website looks in multiple browsers before, but it nice/essential to just do a quick check with your own eyes when your editing your site layout (at least with the most popular browsers).

photo credit: Randy Zhang

First impressions are that it's almost too clean! That should be a good thing but it just seems a bit bare. I have to say though that I'd probably get used to that if I'm only surfing for fun. One thing I really like is, when you load the browser, screenshots of your most visited sites are displayed. Another is the integated search in the address bar. My default homepage when I use Firefox is normally set to Google.ie so it's great how you dont have to tab to another window and open up google. I know Firefox does this too (as do most browsers) but it just seems better within chrome due to the fact that it's a Google product, it feels more natural to search from the address bar. I also like how you can easily pop open new tabs at the top and each one opens up with your most visited page displayed.

That's just my initial thoughts on it. I haven't used it for more than an hour and I wondering will I start using it more often or stick with Firefox. Time will tell...

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 2:30 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.