Hello once again,

I agree that I am a very lousy and lazy writer. My boss is all hyped up to fire me due to the (in)consistency with which I write (add, copy, steal…..) new blogs and add them to our official blog. I was given this responsibility and was told that we need to have at least one article a week at the minimum. How many actually I wrote you are more aware.

So as I was searching the internet to look up a topic on what to write and opened Google I saw a small line of text under the search box saying “New! Download Chrome (BETA)- the new browser from Google”…. I stopped for a second, my first thoughts lingered to the previous articles discussing Google developing a new OS and I thought maybe this is their first step to getting together a new OS. And there I was thinking of the words “Oh Lord….what is they gonna do…”. I mean let’s look at this simply: There are a few OS’s in the market. Microsoft has been doing this for a long time but have they been able to get “Windows” to work the way it should? And man they charge for their copy of each license….then we can check the open source market and let’s put all of them under Linux: the best OS in the world blah blah blah….I can’t make head or tails there with all the commands and stuff…I can’t even open my computer in the graphical version (I confess I am a lamer)…had a chance to put my hands on the Apple Mac Book…beautiful…but again even they have not perfected everything. So I hope you understand what was my mindset when I thought of Google developing an OS….boys my best wishes are with you…if you have too much money give me some instead wasting it on the new OS….just kidding but if you consider that eventually and decide I will be only happy and of course grateful .

But we are going to talk of the new browser here and not of OS’s and all that advanced high tech stuff. So I clicked on that link and downloaded the exe file and installed it to my laptop. The browser installs without any problems and on the first launch asked me if I wanted to import my stuff from Mozilla (not from IE), I clicked on yes in the anticipation that I might get addicted to it and might want to stick to Chrome and will need all my bookmarks and saved passwords etc. And there we go and the Google search page came up on first load.

Interface: The user interface is very simple. I loved the navigation….there is nothing except the basics…the back button, the reload button and the favorites button after which we have the search bar, a control tab and the settings icon. The open pages are displayed as tabs and that is all. I loved it at first site and then pressed the alt key…….the outcome was….nothing….once twice…nothing. I was expecting the file/ edit menus as usual there but nothing came up. So what I can presume from here is that either they went in for a primitive browser with minimal functionality or they made this one for the dummies…no offense. It is still a beta version so that might be the reason. But overall I liked the minimal interface because I do not see any toolbars that clutter the space up there and the browser gives ample space to view the internet page.

Settings Panel: As there was nothing else to click on I opened the settings panel. Again I was intimated by the minimalism and the basic functionality that has been placed there. There are three tabs: Basics, Minor Tweaks and Under The Hood. Here is a brief overview of what is included:

1. Basics: As commonly in all browsers the first page gives you the option to customize your home page, set default page and browser. It also has the option to open several pages in one go when the browser is opened.

2. Minor Tweaks: Very basic tweaks included with default download folder, password saving options and changing fonts and languages and that’s all.

3. Under the Hood: This section has some advanced options like choosing proxy, SSL, certificate management and cookie settings. The pop up blocker options are also present so is a new thing by the name of Google Gears. The button says change Google Gear options which is only a list of sites which have been permitted to use Gear.

Well that was as far as the functionality provided at the first glance. Now let’s put this thing into action and see what it is capable of. My personal opinion is that websites do open up faster than in Mozilla. The auto complete function in the address bar is just cool especially when you have used the browser for some time. It is more like the auto text feature in cell phones and is really helpful. The most accessed bookmarks are shown in the browser body when you first open it and so are the sites that you visit often. Much like in the new version of Opera where you can set the speed dial here it is done automatically which again is a very useful thing as per my opinion.

So overall that is it to the new browser from Google. It is a really nice and simple to work with and will find a lot of followers especially with the newbie’s who will like the simplicity. As for the advanced users I cannot say what they will specially like but what I liked is the amount of viewable space is good and that gives me a very nice look at the website without having to close toolbars or pressing any keys.

I hope you will like this article and will welcome your comments and feedback.

Hope to write back soon if I don’t get fired or transferred…