Here at Geeky Blithering we pride ourselves on being full range geeks, not just limiting ourselves to the juvenile pursuits of comic books, video games, and action figures, but also being propeller heads of the first order. With that in mind I'd like to do my first tech related review, Googles addition to the browser world, Chrome.
Now at first I thought this was going to be a lame attempt to further Googles world dominating pursuits, just another piece of software drivel that would pollute most peoples desktops with no real use, but after 4 months of use I'm a firm believer in this unit; last month it even got migrated to my default browser, leaving Firefox in 2nd place, just ahead of IE.
Below is a screenshot of what I see when I open Chrome on my laptop, and yes it does look different on my desktop.
This is exactly what I see on my laptop every time I open a new browser or tab. Lets run down the list, shall we:1. Tabbed Browsing: Yes I know you're saying "So what, I expect that of my browser, even IE is delivering tabbed browsing these days!" I agree except for one fact; each time you open a new browser and/or tab in Chrome you're starting a new thread in the process list, meaning that if you find one tab is eating your resources or has crashed you can close that tab and the drain leaves. Neither Firefox or IE have delivered this as yet. Techy!
2. Recent bookmarks: This list of the 9 latest sites you book marked is always there when you open a new tab. Maybe not the most exciting thing ever but it is nice to have it at your fingertips. Neat!
3. Recently closed tabs: How many times have you opened a new tab, checked something out, then closed it only to wish you hadn't closed it yet? Well it happens to me and this mini history is always here when you open a new tab, plus the list gets flushed when you close Chrome, starting a new list the next time you open it. Handy!
4. History: Yes this is available in all browsers, but again it is nice to have it at your fingertips whenever you open a tab, one click and the entire history is displayed on the page. Nifty!
5. Thumbnail Links: My personal favorite, I love this. Chrome keeps constant track of the 9 sites you visit the most and keeps a thumbnail of it on each new tab; click the thumbnail and the page opens. Plus, since its dynamic, if your tastes change and you stop visiting one site and start visiting another the old link will eventually disappear and the new one will put itself up. Cool!
Having said that, I do have to admit a couple of issues. First I wish you could use plug ins, I miss my Adblock for Firefox along with a few others. Second, I wish they would let you customize the links on your desktop or even lock them; I like the dynamic nature but sometimes I'd like to erase some links that pop up, you know what I mean ;). Finally it needs some advances in the tools, like interfacing properly with Flash and even Java sometimes, and it often fails completely with active x controls.
That's it in a nutshell, I really like the browser, mainly becuase it gives some nice functionality at your fingertips. There isn't much groundbreaking but they managed to put the features into a decent layout that does enhance your online experience in a smooth and dynamic fashion. I'd urge everyone to at least try it out, you don't need to get rid of Firefox or IE, I still use all three browsers for different purposes on any given day, so what have you got to lose? Unless maybe you'd rather wait for Steve Jobs to tell you what to do.
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