Over the last six months or so, I’ve become extremely frustrated with Internet browsers. Slow, clunky, and prone to memory leaks, they become increasingly unreliable the more you use them, and that’s not right. Increasing problems with Firefox 3 led me to adopt the faster Safari on my Windows machine– ridiculous-sounding, I know, but istill the best option. Of course, working with a primarily Mac-based browser within Windows leads to a variety of other issues, none of which are pleasant. I’ve been tired of compromising on user experience when it comes to the Internet.
Today, though, my compromising comes to an end with the release of Google’s new web browser, Chrome. Advertised as fast, simple, and safe, the release of this phenomenal application two years in the making sends Safari to the Recycle Bin for me.
If you haven’t heard of Chrome yet, check up on the leading tech blogs, or better yet, read through the fantastic Chrome comic by clicking here. It puts a bunch of complicated words into much more readily-digestible pictures.
Fast and reliable
Google Chrome really takes the best attributes of the fabled tortoise and hare: both speedy and steady, there’s really no reason not to switch over immediately. I’m writing this post in Chrome and have already noticed dozens of speed improvements and optimizations that have made the process a joy, and I haven’t even been using the browser for twenty minutes yet.
I’m writing this post in Chrome and have already noticed dozens of speed improvements and optimizations.
The Google Chrome developers have worked out behind-the-scenes hocus pocus that maintains each individual tab as a unique process, meaning each site you visit or application you interact with is in its own little world, all to itself. This means that when one tab crashes, you don’t lose everything in your browser, and so forth.
A Googley concern
As with most things Google, adopting one of the company’s services normally means one thing: you’re obtaining access to a fantastic service at the price of a huge amount of personal data being made available to the company. Although an overwhelming majority of Google users are comfortable with this trade-off, it’s still something to be kept in the back of users’ minds. Google has been taking some aggressive steps in unusual directions lately, and it’s important we keep these advancements in reasonable check.
When Google released its project Knol a few weeks ago, Silicon Valley sage and Google competitor Jason Calacanis sent out an insightful article over his private listserv called, “Is Google a Content Company?” In it, he wisely suggested:
First, I think startups need to be honest with Google when they feel Google is going over the line. Most folks in the Valley are terrified of Google and they don’t want to publicly criticize them for fear that their Google rankings might drop, or for fear that when it comes time to sell their company Google might blacklist them.
Although these comments were directed at Knol, we can consider them within the framework of Chrome as well.
The best service wins
Regardless of what Google’s doing with its terabytes of personal data, I still recommend that you download Chrome immediately, if you haven’t yet. It’s clearly going to be an enormous winner in the browser space and is only going to save time and effort for its users. In one fell swoop, the reign of Internet Explorer, Safari, and up-and-coming Firefox might soon be put to an end.
The bottom line: as I use Chrome, I realize that the speed at which I access the Internet is now limited to my own processing speed, not that of my browser.
You can download Chrome by clicking here.
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