Chromium (III) Picolinate (Google Chrome)

Member Name: obscuredbykep

Product:	Google Chrome
Date:	13/02/09 (130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast, Rarely Crashes,

Disadvantages: Some minor problems

For many people, the default windows browser, Internet Explorer will be the sole web browser they will use, some unaware of alternatives, some just content with using IE, however there are a number of other web browsers available to use, perhaps the next most well known is Mozilla Firefox, and more recently, Google Chrome.
I had always used IE, although I chose not to upgrade my IE6 to IE7, since I don?t like the look of it, and don?t really like their tabbed browsing. The main problem I found with IE was the times it would crash, or become unresponsive, this really annoyed me, so I branched out and downloaded Firefox, which then became my primary browser for quite a while. That was until Google Chrome was launched?

Google Chrome, as the name would suggest was made by Google, and was launched sometime in 2008, something I noticed immediately as it had a little link on the Google homepage, and unafraid of trying something new I gave it a go.
===Advantages of Chrome over other browsers===

Look
Google Chrome is a rather plain web-browser, it doesn?t have a load of rubbish at the top, just your tabs and search bar, this is the first thing I find appealing, since I hate all the silly things you get with IE and Firefox. This gives maximum screen size.

Search
Chrome also is great for searching Google (obviously), since you can just enter your criteria into the browsing bar, and upon hitting enter, you have searched ? no more www.google.co.uk.

Tabs
While I didn?t like tabs in IE, they are great in Chrome, to open a new tab, just press the little + icon at the top, and it really quickly loads a new page, much much faster than Firefox and IE. The main advantage with Tabs, is that instead of having 12 pages open, on separate screens, they are all on one, and your taskbar is much clearer.

The tabs are also ?Dynamic Tabs?, which means they offer great flexibility. You can move them around the top, putting them in the order you want, and you can pull one out, to make it into a new window and vice-versa.
The tabs are also ran independently, so if one crashes, the other are unaffected, you can even load a task manager for the tabs, and see what memory usage they use. Very practical stuff.

Homepage
The homepage for Chrome is brilliant, it creates 9 thumbnails of your most visited sites, which you can then navigate to, I find this a huge advantage over the other browsers. As soon as I open chrome up, I can load my important websites (eBay, Ciao, Facebook, Myspace) with four single clicks of the mouse, whilst holding down CTRL to ensure they open in their own tab.

You can also search your recent history, and it has a list of your most recently added bookmarks (the same as favourites in Internet Explorer). And best of all it has recently closed tabs, which comes in very handy for the times you accidentally close a page you still need, no longer do you have to go back to the websites homepage and navigate your way through ? its saved for the click of the button.
Speed

Chrome responds much faster than other browsers, and crashes very rarely. The speed of loading new tabs, and loading the program in general is something which I never complain about.
Bookmarks

The speed of adding a bookmark is great, there is a little star button next to the search bar, which means you can just add a bookmark at the press of a single button, no need to mess around with going through menus.
Incognito Mode

Press CTRL ? SHIFT ? N and load a new Incognito window. This handy little tool leaves no browsing history on your computer. No Cookies, temporary files at all. To achieve this in IE you have to delete your whole lot of Cookies, Temporary Internet Files and History, so this is much better. This is mainly handy for shared computers, since no-one will know what you have been on, if you don?t want them to, so shopping for presents, or just generally visiting websites that someone else wouldn?t approve of is easy. The obvious downside to this is the fact that children can access things without parents being able to check up on it.
Downloads

In IE, all you can download is two things at a time, this used to really annoy me, especially if I was downloaded zip-folders or programmes etc from websites. In Chrome, you can have as many simultaneous downloads as you want, and they don?t load a silly extra window which IE and Firefox do. It is all kept at the bottom of a window, showing the progress, and can be opened when complete by just clicking on it!
Username and Password Memory

The password, and username memory of Chrome is much better than other browsers, and it always remembers my details. This is useful for your own computer, but not recommended for shared computers. It takes a second to load the bits, such as when your load the eBay log on page, 1 second later, your username and password are there, waiting for you to click log on.
IE makes you type your username, then will remember your password ? and that sometimes takes time.

Spellchecker
One thing I find very useful is the built in spell checker. Like in Microsoft Word, you can add new words and ignore suggestions. You do need to change it to the United Kingdom version of English though, which I only just realised you can do, it was rather annoying telling me that ?colour? was spelt wrong.

===The Problems===
There are not many problems which I have encountered with Chrome, certainly not to the extent of other browsers, but there are a few.

The Old IE problem
Unfortunately, with the powers of Microsoft dominating the market, many websites are designed to work with IE. Whilst there are many that work on all browsers, such as YouTube, Google, Ciao etc, there are a few which will not. Websites created in Microsoft FrontPage, for example have problems displaying in Chrome (same with Firefox), and the layers go all over the place.

So you can never get rid of Internet Explorer completely!
Cache problem

I have noticed, and so have other users of Chrome, that sometimes, Chrome will not load a page, and has the ?waiting on cache? message in the bottom left corner. I first actually noticed this on ancestry.co.uk, when it wouldn?t load the page for my great-great-great-granddad, Robert Keppel. So had to switch over to IE for that. However, it is not a constant problem, and I have since had no problems with that website, but from reading about the problem, other users have experienced it on other websites, so it seems Chrome can be a bit temperamental.
The Slipping Tab

Sometimes, when I have clicked on a tab, it has jumped out into its own window. This can be a bit frustrating, although it is easy to just drag back into its place (like I mentioned in Dynamic Tabbing).
No Stopping

Both IE and Firefox have a STOP button, to get the browser to stop loading a page, unfortunately Chrome doesn?t have this, and would benefit from it. The times I have accidentally clicked a link, and needed to stop.
Close the Tabs

Another problem I have, is when I close a tab. Having used IE for the past 10 or something years, I still have the habit of closing the window for a page. Do that in Firefox and it shouts ?ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO CLOSE ALL THE TABS? and you soon realise what you were about to do, but nope not with Chrome.
===Little Tips===

As with all browsers, there are a few nifty little shortcuts that make browsing easy:
CTRL + N

Creates a new window. Similar to in IE but creates a blank window, not another copy of the page you are currently viewing.
CTRL + T

Opens a new tab, or you can use the + button at the top.
CTRL + D

Adds the page as a bookmark.
CTRL + F

Loads the search tab, for finding words / phrases on the page. A very useful tool which even tells you how many times it finds it. IE opens a silly little window to do this, but Chrome keeps it all incorporated, and nice and smooth.
Summary

OK, so Chrome has a few teething problems, and the unfortunate situation where it probably will never be able to display all pages unlike IE. However the speed of the browser, in loading pages and tabs is unbeatable by the other browsers I have used. The simple design makes it very easy to use, and way it handles your browsing history is excellent.

Chrome has become my favourite browser, and will not be dislodged for a long time. It is simple to use, it beats IE and Firefox with its tabs tied behind its back, and I thoroughly recommend you download and try it.
To Download Google Chrome:

http://www.google.com/chrome

Summary: Great little browser

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