Amit Agarwal has a terrific post about
what Chrome has but your browser is missing. You know what, most of those look like the things you'd see in, say, application management. Shortcuts to apps, er, sites right in your launch bar or desktop (yes, I realize you can do this with any browser, but Chrome makes it more intuitive). The big deal: memory management. Pretty quickly folks caught on to the
"about:memory" trick in Chrome, and Amit points out you can see all processes, er, sites and what resources they are consuming. Yep, Google took great pains to say this wasn't an OS (and it isn't, really, which is besides the point) but stuff like memory management and fast web-based application load times are exactly the sort of portable computing we're all getting comfortable with. Once Chrome goes multi-platform and portable, the idea of an OS may seem a bit antiquated anyway.
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dukeman said 11:32AM on 9-03-2008
Another feature Chrome has is resizable text boxes natively.
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koolio said 5:23PM on 9-03-2008
I opened Chrome and FF3, FF3 used 25K kb and Chrome used 19K kb of memory. CPU usage, Chrome used only 0-1 and FF3 used 1-6. If you right click on anything on a web page and choose Inspect Element, it will the source code and high light the element that you clicked on. Nice feature for web developer.
I have Google calendar on my igoogle. One thing I noticed that Chrome showed all agenda on the bottom but not in FF3.
It's a great web browser but we need more add-ons like ad block. I have about 20 add-on in my FF3 and it's nice to have those in Chrome.
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kingkool68 said 12:26PM on 9-03-2008
Making your favorite apps as standalone desktop apps is a deal sealer for me.
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frd75 said 1:03PM on 9-03-2008
Chrome has some other things that for me are deal breakers.Like forced updates and a world-wide eternal free license to use anything you post in advertizing or any other purpose.
Read the fine print!!!
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Rocketboy said 1:04PM on 9-03-2008
I'll repost here, but the linked article is quite rubbish.
...
"2. Visual Browser History
This is a feature Chrome borrowed from Google Desktop / Google Web History. Type Ctrl+H to open your browser history and search for a term."
Opera can do this unless I’m mistaken. I’ve just never cared about it, so I can’t confirm.
"4. Search Your Favorite Websites from the Address Bar"
Opera can do this, but there’s a little bit of setup involved.
"6. Reopen Website tabs that you closed by mistake"
You’ve already stated that Opera can do that, and IE can do it with IE7Pro. Hey, everyone includes Add-ons with Firefox, so why not IE7 as well?
"7. Launch Websites from the Start Menu / Quick Launch Bar"
Yes, Google Chrome does it a little fancier, by having a specific layout for web applications, and making it easy to tie it in directly to Chrome, but any other browser can do this.
Here’s some things that Chrome cannot do, and as much as I like Chrome over IE7 (I use Opera at home, and IE7 at work. The wife likes IE7 as well), are mouse gestures and Google Toolbar (yes, Opera cannot do this either, but I use it to keep my work bookmarks). Without mouse gestures, closing tabs is god-awful. In Opera, not only do I have mouse gestures, I also have a single location to close tabs/windows. Oh, and Chrome will not only close with tabs open happily, but it does not have a ‘clean slate’ page with no tabs like Opera.
So of your 7 things, 2 of them Opera can do, and 2 Opera and IE7 can do (with addons).
It looks to me like a 'Look at me, I'm blogging about Chrome, visit my website' type of post that's all the rage today.
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JohnnyL said 1:55PM on 9-03-2008
Sounds great but how good a job does Chrome do if you happen to not have internet access? Can I still use those great web apps inside the browser but with no access to the internet? Can I bet by without an OS then? How does my computer bootup with no OS? What about when I don't even have those neat Linux quick boots on the motherboard? What happens when my bandwidth gets constricted for whatever reason? How is my computing experience then?
Cloud computing will probably be fine when everyone has access 24/7 to great heaping gobs of bandwidth. Until then its nice to contemplate and makes great blogging fodder.
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michas_pi said 2:59PM on 9-03-2008
I whole-heartedly concur.
James said 5:02PM on 9-03-2008
Wow, it must suck to be you -- what you're describing is already here for pretty much every single middle-class first-world person, unless you're stuck in a really, really rural area. I for one can get a reasonably fast connection from absolutely anywhere (that I actually bother traveling) with my cell phone, and at home I'm always on with FttH.
dukeman said 2:05PM on 9-03-2008
Another cool Chrome feature is the Password save. It asks you AFTER the password worked, not before. I've saved so many bad passwords with IE and FireFox.
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Cile said 4:52PM on 9-03-2008
Try Opera!
essjay said 3:07PM on 9-03-2008
Can someone explain why a task manager is a good thing? Windows Mobile is constantly sneered at because having a task manager over complicates something that should be invisible to the user - Google does the same thing and it's suddenly a "great feature".
Why can't my browser just manager memory and resources itself, and let me get on with browsing without interruption? Why model a browser after one of the most hated OSes on the market?
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James said 5:05PM on 9-03-2008
I don't see how Windows Mobile plays into this at all. The point is, now instead of seeing in your OS's memory manager (whether that's top, TaskMan, or whatever Apple gives you these days) "Firefox is taking 330MB of RAM", you can see how much memory is allocated to each page you have open, so you can kill the ones that are the worst offenders when trying to free up extra memory. You don't *have* to use the feature, it's just there if you run into problems.
Victor Agreda, Jr. said 4:27PM on 9-03-2008
Some of you guys are missing the point. Average users don't use add-ons, they don't use gestures, they don't care about all the power user crap everyone who reads DLS adds! They just want something that is fast and reliable. Just as most people simply want a car to get them from point A to B, not one with neon and hydraulics.
As for cloud computing... Gears would enable offline use (I do this all the time with RememberTheMilk). Plus, this is merely the opening salvo. When Android matures you WILL have network access 24/7! The point was to make a solid, small browser and elevate the network/cloud as a platform.
Again,
1. People want a proper out-of-the-box experience without a lot of fuss (this is where Macs are trouncing Windows, with iLife and no OEM crapware installs)
2. Cloud computing can be asynchronous with gears, but the long view is mobile.
Oh, and forced updates? That's true, but using any web-based application would do the same thing. Not like you can roll back the clock on dynamic web services, is it? As for owning whatever you post... not so sure about that.
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Rocketboy said 4:40PM on 9-03-2008
I totally agree with you on many points. Hell, add-ins is why I avoid FireFox, and the only reason I like IE7Pro is it helps to make IE mimic Opera. But yes, as far as an out of the box experience, Chrome is great. It's loads fast, and easy to use/understand. It is still a glaring omission that it does not integrate with the Google toolbar though. It should be able to bring in your toolbar bookmarks automatically. As far as gestures go, yes, it would not enhance the user experience at this point, but for people who are users of gesture based browsing, or even having a central location for a 'close tab' button, would increase usability greatly. I hate having to play 'Where's the close button' as it changes constantly.
Aaron said 9:56AM on 9-05-2008
I'm guessing we won't be seeing any blocked ads in Chrome huh? :)
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