Google’s much awaited web-browser, Google Chrome is out… finally… after so many speculations & antinomies, here I am posting at my blog through Chrome. So what’s spectacular about this browser? Frankly nothing! But any product need not be spectacular to be good. But one can imagine, Chrome needed to be spectacular to lure in loyal user-base of the great- Firefox! This is just beginning, one must remind himself. We shouldn’t expect miracles from the first release, should we? May be we should for it comes from Google!

    Even though I am not a techie, here are my layman’s observations on Chrome…

1. It has got tabbed browsing, now a standard feature in all browsers including good old IE. But Chrome has sandboxed the tabs, which means if one tab behaves weirdly or hangs, only that tab crashes and not the entire browser. The interface is minimalistic… no menu bar, no status bar (Who needs them anyway?). There’s a toolbar for bookmarks. But bookmark organizing screen is still missing. Few themes & plugins are available for download. Of course, there are going to be plenty of them soon. Chrome borrows Opera’s highly acclaimed Speed-dial feature to give you easy access to sites you use most.
2. The best feature, however, is Google’s omnibar… an address-bar cum search bar cum favorite bar! Of course the address bar has evolved in all browsers (except IE I believe). Address bar of Firefox is smart enough to track your use & display relevant history right beneath the bar as you start typing. Chrome goes a step ahead… it shows the info not only from your browser history or bookmarks but also from search suggestions & top sites that you haven’t yet visited. That’s cool!
3. For Bloggers or users like Gmail or GDoc, another interesting feature is shortcut to an application where clicking a shortcut on the desktop will open the site with no address bar… means it will function like a desktop application, blurring the line between online & offline applications.
4. It is said to be a speed-demon especially when it comes to java-script rendering. Many modern websites use Java and Chrome clearly beats all browsers (including Firefox) in loading them. However with Firefox 3.1 coming up with some new java related technology, Firefox may again overtake Chrome.
5. What are the things we are gonna miss? Lots of them, especially if you are an ardent Firefox follower. At present there are no add-ons (that Firefox users cannot live without) or widgets (that Opera users adore). But Since Google has kept the code open, we should expect them soon. At present you cannot directly email a webpage from within the browser. You cannot zoom in or view page in full screen mode. But Google’s blog says that these features are on their priority list. There are some privacy issues too (which do not matter to me anyway). What I really miss as an old Opera user, are mouse gestures & password manager.

So, at present we should not hurry to compare Chrome with likes of Firefox. Firefox has taken years to evolve to a stage where it finds itself today. Let us give Chrome some time. If you cannot live without many Firefox addons, there is no reason for you to switch to Chrome. But if you prefer minimalistic web-browsing or are languishing in Internet Explore age, get a life and get yourself the Google Chrome. At the moment, it may not be a browser God, but who knows what future holds?