Browser Wars:Google Chrome Beta

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Google has already developed a wide range of its software products like Google Sketch Up!, Google Earth, Google Operating System, Google Talk! (Known as gtalk), and now, it unveils it ultimate browser... Google Chrome. It is still in it's development stage but they released the BETA version so people can test it and help them improve. I used this browser and was fascinated by the results to some extent. There are some minor drawbacks though, but I have reported them to Google Chrome development team and I hope they go through them soon. Okay, so before download it, I read the comic Google released explaining about all the added features in Chrome. Some of them were... -Task Manager helps you manager your network memory -It uses RAM efficiently -Closing tabs does not leaves any traces -Speed-dial function (better than Opera) -Killing Looks...Matches with Windows XP Default theme -Multi-thread Browser -ETC,ETC,ETC. So I downloaded the chrome setup (Beta), the file size was of about 500 KB, I just wondered how such a promised Browser could be packed into just 500 Kilo bytes. Later I found that upon running the setup, it downloads the latest files, which just takes a moment or so. You can even search at google by just typing any keyword at the address bar, ain't it cool. I ran the browser for the first time, and it opened blazingly fast. That's what I love, for the browser to open as soon as I click on the icon. So the first impression was perfect. Now I began to use it. I noticed that Google owned sites such as Orkut, Youtube and blogger opened up really fast even on my slow Internet connection. That was again an impression on me since I use them the most. myLot also worked great. The loading animation was cool and the tab open/close animation was also an eye-candy. It was a nice feeling getting free from the menu bar with cluttered items such as File, Tools, etc. as chrome has no menu bar and no toolbar, not even a status bar, which provides more area for the particular site to display itself. You can report bugs to the developers which gets reported in a jiffy. You can clear the browsing data with just two click, the same as Firefox. It does have an inbuilt dictionary and spell check, which helps at myLot, but it is not that updated as compared to Firefox since the related words it gives on a wrong spelled word is relatively less. Sites open very fast, and so does the browser, but it misses on a number of things. No Add-ons to download Youtube videos, block ads, etc. such as supported by Firefox, so users cannot customize it to their needs. This is a BIG problem. Another thing which it misses it is that no matter how often you save your settings, it gets reset to the default settings. Moreover, you cannot chose where to download files, as they get downloaded automatically (you can set the option to ask us where to download but as I said, the options get reset to default ones). Again, it does not remember where you saved your last file, so at times when I save images, I have to again and again relocate the destination to save the files. Another issue is that some sites like Hotmail does not recognize the browser and ask me to upgrade to a better browser. But I so far experienced this problem only in hotmail, so let it go. A very important feature is the Incognito Window, which I call as Private Browsing. As the name suggests, whatever you do in the incognito window will be private and no personal information of yours will be sent to the website servers. Moreover, the history, cookies and other traces will be deleted as soon as you close the incognito window. It will save the downloads and bookmarks, however. So if you would like to browse privately, without letting your parents/boss know about it, then it it the option. This feature will also be introduced in Internet Explorer 8 and Mozilla Firefox can do it simply if you select the option to delete private data upon browser closing. But so far Chrome is the easiest. Note:You can see the attached photo for a better and visual explanation of the Normal and Incognito browsing modes of Google Chrome. So I guess it is time for the ratings. I rate this product as 8/10. For: -Browser opens fast. -Sites load faster than Firefox 3. -An Eye candy. -More area for displaying sites. -Incognito Mode. -Task Manager. Against: -Beta Version, Buggy. -Settings do not get saved. -Doesn't remember the location of last file save, inconvenient. -Not Customizable. -No add-ons, themes, extensions, etc. -Some sites do not recognize it as a capable browser, eg. Hotmail. I hope the final version doesn't have all the features that I am against and makes Chrome a 10/10 browser. Cheers! AJ Rox.