Google Chrome: So Disappointing...

So I had downloaded Google Chrome, Google's web browser, about four or five months ago when the first Beta version was launched. I was too lazy to begin trying it (mainly due to importing all my bookmarks) up until three days ago. Well, I imported my bookmarks, saved my home page, got all my preferences set, made it my default browser, watched some of the little tutorial videos to see what little features they had slapped into it, and started using it as I normally use a web browser; e-mail, MySpace, Facebook, forums, Blogger, etc. It all seemed fine and dandy and I really liked it until it got further into using it. Not sure which list to start off with--the Hate List or the Like List... Let's kick off with the Hate List. People always love hearing negative things about people and things--tis human nature. Here we go!:


Hate List: Why Google Chrome Sucks


No Spell Check

• Supposedly, according to some people and what I have read on the Google Help Forums, this browser does have spell check. Well, whilst typing e-mails and homework on my online classes, I never had any red dotted line under "muhc" (much) or "waht" (what). Now, based off my knowledge learned in the first grade, I'm pretty sure those are not the correct spellings of those words. But hey, I could be wrong. After all, Google owns the internet so whatever they say goes, right? Like hacking half the videos off YouTube when they took over because they are anal retentive copyright nut cases unlike the founders... Who were not... Obviously...

No Auto-Complete

• Okay, so we all know Firefox has the cool feature where once you type in your username/email for some site like Facebook or MySpace it gets saved so the next time all you have to do it type the first letter of your username or just click in the empty white box and tada! Your username (and others if you share a computer) show up--no having to type out the whole thing. Every time you log in... Well, you guessed it! Google Chrome lacks this one! I was fed up on this one after my second log in. If anything you would think that Google would have at least popped this little helper in there. I mean, who wants to spend those 7 excruciatingly annoying seconds typing in their username every damn time! Fuck knows I don't!

No Smooth Scrolling

• I'm sure not many people know about this feature in Firefox, but for reference, Google Chrome lacks it. Basically, when you scroll down a web page on any browser that doesn't have this (and when it is disabled on Firefox), you notice the page kind of jumps bit by bit as you scroll. Like sections. With smooth scrolling, the page glides thus making where you decide to stop scrolling more precise and on the spot you want it to stop at. Not ten lines too far. For those of you who use Firefox and are curious about it now, follow these steps: Tools>Options>Advanced>Check Use smooth scrolling. You should notice the difference.

Pages Not Loading/Broken Links

• This one is just flat out ridiculous. 1 out of every 3 times that I either opened the browser or opened a new tab and clicked one of my bookmarks the page did not load. The result was either a blank page with the bottom corner saying "Resolving host" or a page would pop up saying "Oops! This link seems to be broken!" And no, my internet was not down or disconnected, it was ALL the browser. The only time I got a page not loading with Firefox was due to my internet being finnicky or the server of the site being down. Just to be sure, at the same time that Google Chrome was still attempting to load Yahoo (my home page), I decided to open up Firefox. Guess what. It loaded Yahoo immediately. Now back to Google Chrome. I click refresh and its a miracle! It loaded! I don't know about you, but I don't need extra, time-consuming steps in getting my damn home page to show up.

Glitch On Gmail

• This one is REALLY interesting! Okay, briefing. Gmail, created by Google. Google Chrome, created by Google. The "Desk" theme on Gmail has a glitch only present in Google Chrome, not in Firefox. That's like a program specifically made for the Windows operating system not being compatible! It is so contradictory! See the screen shot below.

Fails To Be Set As Default Browser

• To put it plain and simple, I downloaded and installed Google Chrome onto my dad's desktop in his office. I opened up the options and clicked the "Set Google Chrome as your default browser". Nothing. No matter how many times I clicked that damn button, it just would not set as the default browser. I finally decided to hell with it all and just left his computer as is--all happy and joyful with Firefox.

So now that we know all the negative things about Google Chrome, let's move on to the next list. By the way, at this point and on I am going to stop doing hyperlinks unless a new website is brought up. ;) :P


Like List: Some Positive Points of Google Chrome


Simplistic Design

• I don't know about you, but one of my pet peeves is a program that is too crowded and has too much crap all over it. I give this to Google Chrome--a simple design. Everything you need is there, but without a bunch of other crap.

Stability-Processes

• Okay, so to make this easy to understand. Each tab that is opened in Google Chrome is its own process. Like a whole different browser window, but its a tab. So if that tab were to have an error, instead of your whole browser crashing, just that one tab crashes and nothing else is affected.

Tab Design

• The tabs being at the tippy top of the window appeals to me. Less space is taken up, in turn leaving more space to show the web page. To see what I mean, refer to Google Chrome home page.
  

One Box For Everything

• The address bar not only is for you to type in a web address, but also Google search (which can be changed to AOL, Yahoo, etc. if you go to settings). For example, just click the address bar and type in your search, like "HP laptop", and the standard Google search results page will load. Refer to the Google Chrome Features to see a very short video on it.

New Tab Page

• The new tab page in Google Chrome was something I actually liked. It would have thumbnails and links to all your recently visited pages and recently closed tabs. It was quite useful for me, but too bad a lot of things about the browser itself sucked so I don't use it now. Again, for a very short vid on it (when I say very short, even for the previous one, I literally mean very short; they are like 15 seconds long) just refer to the page of Google Chrome's features.

And that, my friends, brings my splurge on Google Chrome to an end. Overall, I'm pretty disappointed in it and really expected a lot better from them. I mean come on! No spell check?! What the hell! If a browser can't spell better than I could in the first grade, I have no use for it. And their OWN e-mail client, Gmail, has a glitch!

Oh, and one last thing. Google Chrome's Incognito mode. Basically its a little feature that allows you to surf the web with no history logging. You can find info on it at the features page and click on the "Incognito Mode" tab there and watch the short video. While using this feature, none of the sites you visit are logged in your web history so what happens in Incognito mode, stays in Incognito mode. They advertise it a "Want to get your husband that perfect gift without him finding out? Use Incognito mode!" Translation: Perfect for surfing a lot of porn websites without leaving a trace! I can almost guarantee you that the male population of the engineering team came up with this little luxury... For their own good ;)

So, if you choose to use this browser (or you already do), happy surfing!