Google recently dropped a free and open source web browser for all of us to play with. Chrome was a built from the ground up by Google to incorporate all the best attributes of everyone’s favorite Internet activities. Even though its still in Beta, its a smooth and well refined tool for browsing the Internet. Since I am a complete Firefox freak, I found myself comparing Chrome to Firefox and I must say that I liked it very much.
The Chrome browser itself was designed similar to the Google Homepage in that its very simple to use and extremely fast and responsive. Here’s a list of what I really dig about the Chrome browser:
- One box for everything
- In Google Chrome, you can get anywhere on the Web with one box. The address bar that sits at the top of the normal GoogleChrome window simplifies your Internet experience by doubling as a search box. You can also use it to bookmark websites and stay aware about the security of a website.
- New Tab page
- Every time you open a new tab, you’ll see a visual sampling of your most visited sites, most used search engines, and recently bookmarked pages and closed tabs
- Application shortcuts
- Use web apps without opening your browser. Application shortcuts can directly load your favorite online apps.
- Dynamic tabs
- You can drag tabs out of the browser to create new windows, gather multiple tabs into one window or arrange your tabs however you wish — quickly and easily.
- Crash control
- Every tab you’re using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won’t take anything else down.
- Incognito mode
- Don’t want pages you visit to show up in your web history? Choose incognito mode for private browsing.
- Safe browsing
- Google Chrome displays this warning if the web address listed in the certificate doesn’t match the address of the website Google Chrome is attempting to access.
- Instant bookmarks
- Want to bookmark a web page? Just click the star icon at the left edge of the address bar and you’re done.
- Importing Settings
- When you switch to Google Chrome, you can pick up where you left off with all the bookmarks and passwords from your existing browser.
- Simpler downloads
- When you download a file from a website, the downloads bar appears at the bottom of the tab where you can monitor the progress of your downloading file. The file button indicates the size of the download and the amount of time remaining until the completion of the download. An arrow appears in the tab to signify a download in progress.