Another day, another browser

Bloke · 2008-09-02 10:16:46

It appears the Google marketing machine has been hard at work “accidentally” (yeah, right) posting plans for their own browser Chrome on the interweb in the guise of a very pro-looking comic.

From tomorrow it’s officially an unofficially official beta product, so who fancies their chances at being able to develop cross-browser sites for this one as well as the rest of the browsersphere?

Destry · 2008-09-02 10:56:58

Bloke wrote:

so who fancies their chances at being able to develop cross-browser sites for this one as well as the rest of the browsersphere?

Still, I find it to be intriguing and will certainly give it a try. You can’t argue with their engineering approach, which that comic so aptly presents (nice piece of tech comm, that). I never had the same feelings/interest for Flock, but then I’m not a socialware fanatic.

Last edited by Destry (2008-09-02 10:58:37)

Bloke · 2008-09-02 11:04:28

Yeah, I’m looking forward to trying it out. Sounds very cool on the surface. I hope developers embrace it.

The only bit I don’t agree with is the built-in phishing and malware protection (like Google’s “this page might harm your computer” crap; at least the stupid built-in feature in FF3 can be turned off). As long as Chrome can be configured so it never bothers me and I can choose what I want to see without some third party pretending to be my mum, I’m happy.

Destry · 2008-09-02 11:26:39

I guess you can argue, and that’s a good point. I was thinking of other aspects of the engineering. I would think Google would listen to concerns like that (they’re smart folk), otherwise no serious FF/Opera/Safari user would bother wasting too much time with it, theoretically speaking.

Gocom · 2008-09-02 14:46:21

Damn, this can cause more work to frontend developers. Hopefully not, but we will have to wait – it can be good, bad or even worst.

~~Burns all web stannard code books and goes searching some C++ docs :D~~

MattD · 2008-09-02 17:27:47

To bad it’s Windows Only so far.

Neko · 2008-09-02 19:16:21

Can I say it? I don’t give a shit about Chrome. Last thing I need is another browser to check CSS against it.

I’d rather prefer they would try to fix abandon-ware such as Google Groups, employ a coherent interface among all of their properties (too bad Jeff Veen, the only real designer Google had left the boat), and be transparent, for real this time, about algorithms, penalizations, and what matters on the search engine side.

eggnog · 2008-09-03 04:22:51

I’m with Neko. I have enough trouble getting my sites to behave uniformly as is. How many browsers do we need?

dreamer · 2008-09-03 06:25:15

i was looking forward to the day when i wouldn’t spend half my debugging time on IE browsers. and now chrome? blah.

Destry · 2008-09-03 10:19:48

I’m not defending Google here, Chrome is irrelevant to my viewpoint. I also don’t mean to sound like a dick because God knows I’m about 50-50 in the boards as it is <g>, but cries about presentation challenges (especially IE) is a pretty tiring thing to see on the web anymore, so using the words of Neko, can I say it?

If you look at Chrome (which I’m using right now and have to say is pretty sweet in function and stands up to designs I’ve visited so far), or any other new browser that is certain to come down the pipe sooner or later, and bemoan the additional work, then I have to ask: are you making money from your design work? If so, then web design is perhaps your trade and you have nothing to complain about. You should be glad that something as relatively simple as front-end development is moderately challenging enough (when done right) that people even want to pay you at all.

If your still wasting too much time with IE6 or 7 (likely the only relevant versions), then maybe you haven’t spent enough time reading Position is Everything.

I’m just saying.

And Neko, let’s be fair. Google is a very big company with a very big UCD program. I’m sure there’s at least a few talented people there besides Veen (like Doug Bowman for instance), even if you don’t know who they are.

eggnog wrote:

How many browsers do we need?

Now this is a good question. I honestly think variety is the spice of life. If there’s dozens of browsers and each does something uniquely worthwhile, then who’s to argue against it, that’s what a competitive market is about. However, redundancy is NOT the spice of life, but we don’t have to worry about that too much either because the market deals with that too (buy-outs and fade-aways). The only reason IE has not faded away is because of the clever force-feeding MS did early on. MS is paying the price, though, and IE, despite 7 or anything else choked up in the future, is failing (in my opinion) to catch up with the innovations of new stars like FF and Opera. For example, look what Aza has rummaged up, Ubuiquity. Incredible! How many browsers indeed.

Last edited by Destry (2008-09-03 10:52:30)

Bloke · 2008-09-03 11:04:17

Initial impressions are, as Destry says, it is very cool as browsers go. Takes about 30 seconds to get used to, then you’re away. The address bar/search box (probably honed to perfection via Google Suggest which I’ve been using for aeons) is better than the one in FF3. And, as expected, the whole experience leaves IE (all versions to date, don’t know about 8) for dead.

So far I’ve only spotted one single CSS blooper on one of my sites (probably my fault anyway) so as far as standards compliance and rendering goes, I’m pretty happy. I’ll give it a few days before I pass final judgement, but if something equivalent to Firebug surfaces for it, my guess is it’ll be a serious contender for “make Chrome your default browser” on my machine. Would love to see a Mac/Linux version soon.

P.S. I don’t make money from design work; I’m not that good :-)

Last edited by Bloke (2008-09-03 21:10:31)

Neko · 2008-09-03 13:03:26

Destry wrote:

I’m not defending Google here, Chrome is irrelevant to my viewpoint. I also don’t mean to sound like a dick because God knows I’m about 50-50 in the boards as it is <g>, but cries about presentation challenges (especially IE) is a pretty tiring thing to see on the web anymore, so using the words of Neko, can I say it?

If your still wasting too much time with IE6 or 7 (likely the only relevant versions), then maybe you haven’t spent enough time reading Position is Everything.

I’m just saying.

And Neko, let’s be fair. Google is a very big company with a very big UCD program. I’m sure there’s at least a few talented people there besides Veen (like Doug Bowman for instance), even if you don’t know who they are.

I’m sorry but this is a clear case of “smug alert”. You should save this kind of attitude for someone you know better than me. Besides, blindly praising a browser that contains spyware active by default… Not exactly my cup of cake. You find it “intriguing”? Good for you.

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#1 2008-09-02 10:16:46

Another day, another browser

#2 2008-09-02 10:56:58

Re: Another day, another browser

#3 2008-09-02 11:04:28

Re: Another day, another browser

#4 2008-09-02 11:26:39

Re: Another day, another browser

#5 2008-09-02 14:46:21

Re: Another day, another browser

#6 2008-09-02 17:27:47

Re: Another day, another browser

#7 2008-09-02 19:16:21

Re: Another day, another browser

#8 2008-09-03 04:22:51

Re: Another day, another browser

#9 2008-09-03 06:25:15

Re: Another day, another browser

#10 2008-09-03 10:19:48

Re: Another day, another browser

#11 2008-09-03 11:04:17

Re: Another day, another browser

#12 2008-09-03 13:03:26

Re: Another day, another browser

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