Here’s some bittersweet news for those of you eagerly awaiting Google’s Chrome browser for Mac or Linux: tonight Google is publicly releasing developer versions of the Chrome browser for both operating systems, and anyone will be able to download them. Unfortunately you won’t be able to ditch Safari or Firefox just yet — these builds are not close to stable, and you won’t be able to use them on a day to day basis. But you’ll still be able to put something in your Dock that says Chrome, so that’s something, right?
For those who haven’t been paying close attention to the progress of Google’s browser on platforms other than Windows, you’ve actually been able to download builds of the open-source project behind Chrome, which is called Chromium, for quite a while. In our testing these builds have proven to be quite speedy, somewhat stable, but nowhere near ready for prime time — they don’t yet support plugins (including Flash), and there are a number of options that you’d expect out of a browser that simply aren’t there yet.
This developer version of Chrome is essentially a rebranded version of the Chromium project, and doesn’t represent a much-improved new branch that Google has quietly been working on. It still doesn’t support plugins, and there are still some other missing key features, like printing.
My initial impression to tonight’s news was that, while the stable version of Chrome might be a little ways away, tonight’s release might indicate that we’re at least getting close. Unfortunately, it still sounds like we have a while to wait (or at least, Google doesn’t want to get our hopes up early). This is the first part of Google’s three step release channel, which begins with the Developer version, continues to Beta, and finishes up with a build the company is comfortable deeming ‘Stable’. We’re at step one.
Google’s spokesman went as far as to say that the company doesn’t want us to download this version of Chrome unless we’re ready for frequent crashes and a generally not-so-great experience. But if you’re looking to start testing the evolving browser under the name ‘Chrome’ rather than ‘Chromium’, then have at it.
Baby steps, I can live with that knowing the end result will be nice.
You should rather stop using Google products:
“Google Analytics, a free product that allows online publishers to gather statistics about visitors to their sites, was used on 81 of the top 100 sites. Cookies from the advertising company DoubleClick, which is owned by Google, were present on 70 of those sites. When combining trackers from those two services, Google had a presence on 92 of the top 100 sites.”
“in a sample of nearly 400,000 Web domains, Google’s presence remained high, at 88 percent”
( http://bits.blo...rfers-in-study/ )
Still waiting for your point. Holding my breath in suspense!
Lol
Ha ha!
Hey maybe we’ll get it at stage 2 (beta)
Gmail beta anyone?
Ummmm… the “release channel” link is not active…
Here’s the download page for anyone interested:
http://www.goog...dev.html?dl=mac
Once the Google Squared didn’t go over so well, they decided to allow anyone to download a buggy browser? Google is flodding the channels with useless news in a lame attempt to thwart the bevy of media attention on Bing!
There is no media attention on Bing. That’s over now. And what an otherwise uselessly stupid comment anyway.
Bing died on October 14, 1977. Great guy. Is one of his songs being used as a theme tune or something?
Speaking of Chrome not living up to it’s reputation, you might want to check out our review of Chrome 2: http://www.paci...com/blog/?p=104.
-Mike
Hm, I hope they release a full version soon. There can’t be enough pressure to get old and obsolete browser technology out of the market. In that areas Goog is doing a great job (see Google developer conference).
I still don’t get what is the big hype about the Chrome browser? In its current state (even on Windows), it does not provide any advantages over Safari (even on Windows) or any of the other browsers. It is extremely limited, still has issues displaying some sites, and provides a very limited user experience as far as toolbar customization and overall usability.
I guess it is the fact that it is a Google product that is giving it the hype. It will never provide exclusive features for Google’s own services since Google is still smart and will not shut out the 97% of the users using other browsers.
As someone who uses browsers almost all day long for business apps, I would wait for Chrome to be released out of beta (which for Google means a couple of years) before actually using it.
Spot on. Until Chrome gets extensions/plugins, it’s as good as IE.
I personally like chrome simply because it’s fast to open & quick to do a search query.
Safari nice, but the fact that I can’t middle-click to close tabs is just too much for me. Also, i’m used to firefox’s quicksearch feature (via bookmarks), so a separate textbox won’t cut it for me. Being able to drag tabs out is something I do a lot more common than moving the entire window (mostly b/c I have an application that allows me to move windows with alt + click).
Firefox/IE are too slow, although I do miss some firefox extensions, I prefer a faster browser.
As for opera, it doesn’t feel right for me. Andno incremental search? Why do they have the two back & foward buttons? (I’ll admit, I haven’t really used opera much though).
Although chrome does provide the sandboxed environment which is something safari doesn’t do. But it’s saved me only a couple times.
I’ll agree though, it’s probably still over hyped. It just happened to scratch my itch.
Chrome came out of beta six months ago.
As for why to use it over Safari on Windows… it’s faster and its UI doesn’t suck. Obviously the latter point is subjective.
Chrome’s out of beta on Windows. (I don’t know what’s taking so long for the other platforms, I thought they were sooooo easy to develop for.)
I’ve never shied from bashing TechCrunch for overhyping crap from Google (see any Erin Schlockfeld post about the joke known as Google Squared), but Chrome deserves any hype it gets.
It’s much nicer — faster, more stable, “clean” — than the bloated Firefox. Safari, well, you couldn’t pay me to use it for browsing, no matter how many times Apple tries to force it upon me via iTunes.
The only area where Chrome falls short for me compared to Firefox 3.x and IE8 is its inability to handle RSS feeds. I really don’t like its bad behavior of installing itself in a user’s data directory and forcing automatic updates upon you, but as far as the user experience when browsing goes, it’s aces.
No wonder it is faster! It is a bare-bone browser that does not support any extensions and, therefore, does nothing more than display a web page and run javascript.
What slows down browsers generally are the extensions, phishing site checks, security checks, enabling/disabling toolbar buttons based on site contents, etc. These are all things that Chrome simply does not do. The moment those are added to the browser, it will become the new Firefox (lets not forget that Firefox was the “fastest, nicest, best” browser that, in my opinion, is worse than IE these days (IE8).
The real question is whether or not there is a need for a browser that supports extensions in the first place. Safari does not, for example, and I find it to be one of the fastest browsers I have ever used (on a Mac). The majority of what I need to do (from a personal perspective) is online in the first place (from a business end, I still have to use IE since majority of business financial apps are still ActiveX based).
The big issue with it is still that it is a version 1 product. I had our controller try to use it and his first issue was that the majority of bank sites (not BOA) did not fully support it and certain functionalities of the apps did not work properly. He went back to using IE.
UI is something that is very subjective so there is no point in arguing over that.
I guess I’ll still wonder about the hype…
Um… Chrome _does_ do “phishing site checks, security checks, enabling [capabilities] based on site contents”, and the extensions system is also partly running (enough to install various extensions). And none of these slow it down.
Also, Chrome is not a “version 1 product”, though I question what that even means; the stable version number is 2.0.172.30 and the trunk is at 3.0.184.0. But who cares about version numbers? The issue of sites only working with IE has long been a pain point of all non-IE browsers and is mostly caused by web authors writing their sites to only work in IE. That isn’t Chrome’s fault.
Would be nice to see Opera and Google’s usage of WebKit get as much media coverage.
Opera’s had a well-built, high performing, cross platform browser for a long time. They had HTML5 support first, and are doing that better than anyone else even now.
Chrome introduces yet another javascript engine (”V8″) which hopefully people will standardize on as they have WebCore. I like having options but when you have a lot of competing open-source options, that is not necessarily a good thing. V8 rightfully exists for good reasons but wish Google could have somehow gotten that done in cooperation with the WebKit team… not that they didn’t necessarily try.
Have you used it?
The speed differences between Chrome / Safari / Firefox are huge.
Chrome for speed
Safari for look
Firefox for extension
IE for nothing
Opera for test
Chrome is king in speed imo!
Actually it is very very fast on Linux and I use it almost all the time now, despite the lack of flash.
It will be complete, give it some time.
I loved chrome on PC. Blazing fast with each thread sandboxed so you could kill one thread if it hanged without killing your whole browser. I liked the interface too.
Counting the days until it’s released on Mac and then I can say goodbye to Firefox (which is good browser too).
Hasn’t anyone stopped and thought about the possible CONFLICT OF INTEREST issues a search engine has if it has its own browser? What’s preventing it from using actual search behavior based on its browser to profile user behavior. Technically, this might lead to more refined and productive searches… It might also lead to some ethical gray areas.
What do you guys think?
Google have been pretty open about this – besides, anyone can get at the code and see exactly what’s going on under the hood. I can’t see any clandestine behaviour going on without someone finding out about it within days.
Also, your point might equally apply to MS… a company which unarguably has a far more dubious ethical history.
Thanks for this update. I zeroed in on this nugget:
“they don’t yet support plugins (including Flash)”
Some would call this the greatest stability feature of all. After seeing what HTML 5 will be about, I’m inclined to agree.
The funniest conversation I’ve had recently with web developers is how they’ve come to find Firefox welling up the complaints of the earlier days of MSIE — crash prone moments, etc…
Even if/when Chrome is fully baked, the less they go after plugin support, the more we can put down those approaches in favor of something new.
To the person saying no better than MSIE until there -are- plugins… what?? I tried to load a simple Java applet today in MSIE and some deep conflict within solar rays or tidal tables made if barf up and shut down… hmm… worked last week. Users see this and freak, give up, or pound their heads into a wall. So, between ActiveX, Java, and “plugins” I’m inclined to say no thanks to the proliferation.
Clean slate.
Ask yourself how many plug-ins you simply cannot live without in your Firefox. Count them. Seriously.
How many? 1? 2? 3? If it is over 4 — then that’s an indication that your browser use or use of the browser is anything remotely resembling a mainstream use cases.
The fact that many stylish websites don’t even have alternate navigation outside of their Flash splash is regrettable. I question how plugged in they truly think they are.
Has anyone found a “This site looks best when viewed in Chrome” as a play on those anti-MSIE memes?
Agreed on the Flash overuse (I hate it when sites integrate their menus into Flash). I’ve been using Safari 4 for a while now, but when I do use FIrefox I have 2 extensions max (typically something to help download media files and Google Gears).
Right, overuse.
I’m not trying to say Flash isn’t useful but there is that fine line between a MySpace like designed page causing your browser to bomb out and a purpose built application that makes judicious use of Flash.
I had forgotten about Safari 4 beta… good tip.
i’m commenting from chrome on my mac.
as someone who spends 10 hours a day in the browser, i can say clearly – chrome provides me with the best internet experience.
everything seem kosher from this version so far.
I still think Google chrome it over hyped and just because Google made it that is why it gets so much coverage. If a no name company made it, the product itself would have become vaporware
Exactly. People would jump on whatever google offer them no matter what and how it is.
These MAC + Linux builds have been available to the public for a while. I was downloading the nightly builds starting two weeks ago.
Desperately needed more browsers for linux!
Google will be watching you 24/7.
Hmm I suppose it is better than nothing.
Not for me yet… When the version will be stable I will consider it…
Opera just released 10 beta this week, a major event, but no coverage here. Chrome released a version for mac and linux that they dont even want people to test on, and you have it on techncrunch…
Are you guys biased against Opera?
HOLY. F’N. FAST.
I love it. Im a HUGE fan of Fox but the first few pages I loaded didn’t even get a chance to start at white.
Hilarious to see that you guys are huge Chrome fans now after bashing it and it’s market share months ago. What gives?
Why is Google ignoring their Mac and Linux userbases? This could have been finished months ago. Check out the Stainless browser which was developed in a fraction of the time it took Google to release this buggy developer version of Chrome.
quite simple. i will use any browser that allows me to simply block ads (i.e. adblock plus) if it doesn’t have that option, i will not use it. if you want speed, block the ads, then no problems.
Chrome with the Adobe Flash plugin on GNU/Linux is great!
I’ve been using Chrome with Adobe’s Flash plugin enabled on Ubuntu GNU/Linux 9.04 for nearly a month now via the Ubuntu “Personal Packages Archive”(PPA) for “chromium-daily” and it works fine. The great thing about using this method is that you get the near-daily build of chrome included with your daily updates so you will always have the newest and “most refined” development version.
Note: you will want to have the Flash plugin already installed (e.g., for Firefox) to be able to use it with Chrome. If you don’t have the flashplugin yet, you can easily install it by running this terminal command while connected to the Internet: sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
To setup the Chromium Web Browser with Flash plugin enabled, see this awesome article: http://linuxolo...inux-with-flash
Finally, if you also want to have the latest Firefox 3.5 on your Ubuntu 9.04 – checkout this article:
http://digg.com...repid_Hardy_etc
Congratulations on your GNU/Linux Freedom!
Shannon VanWagner
humans-enabled.com