// Yeah, Google has again impressed us with this new web browser known as Google Chrome. After having a quick look of what this new browser has to offer and i was not disappointed. I will try to make a review of our new exciting Google Chrome browser. By the way, I am writing this post on Google Chrome itself, its too good but there are some inconvenience which i am sure will be corrected in the future version of this browser. Please note that part of Google Chrome has been built on WebKit, the basis of Apple Safari browser and the browser in the the Android mobile platform.
First of all, lets talk about the user interface , wooow its cooool , this browser user interface clearly show that Google people don’t lack creativity, its a new and original interface. I love this nice, clean interface(with a nice blue color, which is my favorite color). Displaying the tabs at the top is very nice and the absence of the status bar at the bottom allowed Google Chrome to display more information as compared to the other browsers. All tabs are arrangeable just like in Firefox but Google Chrome offers a nice transparency effect when we the tab is moving.
The bookmark feature in Google Chrome is the same as in Firefox 3 with a star icon near the address bar. This is one of the most useful feature that i can’t live without but surely Google have copied this feature from Firefox 3.
The incognito mode in Google Chrome is good but not new, this feature will helps to protect your privacy while surfing in public areas. But if you want a good browser that can help you to stay “invisible” on the net, then i would suggest that you take a look at TorPark, Click here to have more information about Tor.
A new feature that i have never seen before and which i found very useful, a Task Manager especially design for your web browser. Yeah, you got that in Google Chrome, just press Shift+Esc and the task manager will pop up where you can easily monitor the browser activity. The “Stats for nerds” is cool, lol.
Google has not forget web developers with the Google Chrome Inspector, developers can now use this essential tool to debug their web application quickly and easily. To activate the Inspector, right click on the page then choose “Inspect Element“.
This beta version of Google Chrome does not offer too much options like Firefox does. Hope more options will be added in the final release.
Google Chrome provides the password saving option which is exactly the same as in Firefox 3.
Download feature, this is another cool feature which i really appreciate, when you are downloading something Google Chrome puts it in another nice bar which appears at the bottom of the browser, the problem is that the bar is a bit too big and takes too much space.
And last but not least, yeah .. search directly from the address bar.
Conclusion:
Google Chrome(beta) has a nice, neat user interface, it feels really fast and smooth. I think it takes more memory that Firefox 3, maybe they will fix this issue later on. Google Chrome contains lots of useful features but the main disadvantage is that we can’t find add-ons like Firefox. Please note that Google Chrome is not available for Linux and mac users(for the time being). Its features inspire lust and i am sure that one day Google Chrome will be on of the top browser. I have always been a fanboy of Google and Mozilla Firefox and i will always be one. I will keep updating this post with lots of Google Chrome tweaks, secrets and Easter eggs(if ever i found any) so keep in touch. Download Google Chrome Here.
Update Thursday 4 September 2008 @ 3:09pm (GMT+4):
As promised, here are some Google Chrome humorous and cool Easter eggs that I will share with you. By the way, read this post for Firefox 3 Easter Eggs.
Easter Egg # 1
Type about:internets in the address bar of Google Chrome and you will get this funny little animation (similar to the “3D Pipes” screensaver found in winblows) “Don’t Clog the Tubes!”
Easter Egg # More
Like the about:internets, Google Chrome got several tags like that which can be very useful. Here’s the list of about:<something> known till now:
- about:stats
- about:dns
- about:memory
- about:version
- about:histograms
- about:network
- about:plugins
- about:cache
- about:crash
- about:internets
This one is too crazy, type about:% in the address bar and boom, Chrome will crash automatically. This is not a simulation like the about:crash, give it a try.
Update Thursday 4 September 2008 @ 8:38pm (GMT+4):
Some of you are having problems to use the about:internets. That is you just saw the title of the page that said “The Tubes are Clogged!” with no animation in the browser.
The problem is that you machine does not have the screensaver 3D Pipes also know as “sspipes.scr”. This file is found in the system32 folder (C:\WINDOWS\system32). And if you have installed Google Chrome on Winblows Vista , then definitely about:internets won’t work as Winblows Vista doesn’t have the screensaver 3D Pipes(sspipes.scr). Credits flyz to Xerxes.
Hello
Just a comment about the google chrome. Well, i like it too. However let me add that it does not seem to work well with displaying pdf files. (annoyed) Apart from that, i am totally in love with Chrome and i did not open IE or mozilla since i downloaded it.
Keep it up
If you like Chrome’s stripped down Web Inspector, you will love the original, full featured version in the WebKit nightlies. Cheers!
Great review! I can’t get the tubes screen saver on my install with about:internets but the title of the page does say “The Tubes are Clogged!”. Thanks for the pic so I know how it “should” look like.
-Joe
Yeah , you are not the only one to have this problem. Some of my friends are having the same problem, maybe its a bug.
The open gl tubes screen saver ‘IS’ the one on your xp box, [Vista doesn't come with OPEN GL or the pipes screen saver on the system], it’s just being run inside of the browser tab. Wake up people! Remove the sspipes.scr file from your Windows XP ‘system32′ folder and it will not run anymore. As far as I’m concerned this is a massive vulnerability and should be closed. next they’ll be allowing you or whomever to run cmd prompts at your logged on privileged level to smash your system. Oopsie, were sorry, but remember they own your seat because it’s says so in the EULA, read it and weep!
Hey Google, Don’t be Evil! [but they are and you don't see it.]
Too many secrets!
[...] Thanks for the tip hostintruder. [...]
Great review thanks for sharing about the Easter eggs,
You might be interested the wordpress, 2.6 Easter egg…
Link->Hidden Easter Egg In WordPress 2.6
P.s. the video is made by me.
Teck
I was trying to get page rank to show with google chrome, but i guess for now there is no way to do that. just a little icon on top would be nice.
I do hope google will come up with a plugin for that.
I like the huge zone of visibility. they’ve done that great. saving up all the space, fantastic.
one question hostintruder, what is the little smiling face on the bottom left of the grey screen?
Hello Rafa,
Which smiling face are you talking about ? I tried to find it but in vain, give me more details about this smiling face, are you talking about Google Chrome or something else, if it is in GC, where in Google Chrome ?
@ rafa,
The very small plain smiley face in the left bottom corner
of the gray part of the screen is for the wordpress.com stats
every time someone views a page on this blog or any blog on
wordpress.com there browser request a smiley face it’s
like a cookie for stats purposes…
So inclusion it’s so the blog admin can see how many visitors,
referrals, & posts & pages were viewed for that day…
Teck
@hostintruder
Here is a Screen shot of the smiley face.
P.s. I put a Red arrow pointing at the smiley face because it’s
so small…
Teck
Thanks for the Screen shot Teck, I have never noticed this small smiley, its so small
.
You’re welcome Host Intruder,
Nice post… I highly appreciated it..
Thanks for the the comment & info… 
visit http://infinitenforever.wordpress.com
But for the multithreaded design, i feel chrome is no better than firefox:
My take on chrome:.
Very nice if there is a (extended) status bar and could be minimizing to tray
[...] – More Chroming from the Mauritian Blogosphere – [link], [link] & [link]. [...]
I loved chrome until I had to do a restore;thanks to your post I could check which plugins were installed.
The java plugins disappeared, I reinstalled all the java Runtime stuff but I am still missing these plugins and the neuron plugin too.
My question is
Where are the plugins dll on my computer.
How Chrome got these plugins in the first place (neuron plugin from Firefox?)
Blast Vista.
> To Walterg
Hello Walterg,
First of all, I would like to point out that according to Google Official Blog, Google Chrome should automatically gives you the option to download the Java Runtime Files which was not the case for me. I think you got the same problem. Google Chrome requires the plug in Java 6, Update 10 which is a beta release and still quite unstable.
You can download the Java Plug in from here:
http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/ea.jsp
Just download the required JRE file, install it. Restart Google Chrome and everything should work fine.
Now you will see the Java plug ins files when using the about:plugins tag.
Concerning the “Where the plugins are ??” question.
Google Chrome does not install itself in the program files, like other software but instead in the directory shown below:
For Xp Users:
\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome
For Vista Users:
\Users\\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\
Browse the Google Chrome directory and you will find a folder named “Plugins”, this is the folder you were searching for.
Hope this helps.
Great post. I highly admire your blog
Keep up the good job, my Geek pal !
I agree, this is a vulnerability!! If some malicious person could somehow replace your %WINDIR%\sspipes.scr and then redirect the user to the about:internets URL, *pow!* instant remote code execution.
Not very nice, Google! You lazy folks should code your own browser-rendered version and close this security hole!!
Just my $0.02,
Weasel5i2
When i try about:internets, I just see a blank page….
I checked and I have the screensaver at the right place..(I use XP)
thanks. useful post
Thanks for the great info.
Your site is pretty interesting to me and your topics are very relevant. I was browsing around and came across something you might find interesting. I was guilty of 3 of them with my sites. “99% of site managers are doing these five errors”. http://is.gd/FDoL2T You will be suprised how fast they are to fix.