# Google Chrome



## DonkeyOte (Sep 3, 2008)

Yowzers... anyone using Google Chrome as yet ?  Seems super fast compared to Firefox... would appear their (Google) multi threading approach does the trick -- the future me thinks...


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## Richard Schollar (Sep 3, 2008)

I'm going to give it a try as soon as I am able.  I am excited by the prospect of a very fast browser.  It will be interesting to see how it compares to IE8 when that is released.


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## SydneyGeek (Sep 3, 2008)

I'm going to give it a go too. I am currently finding that F3.01 is buggy, and crashes on my PC (running Vista Business). Also, it's a memory hog. I went behind the scenes and it was using about 100 MB! IE 7 was around 70 -- so much for lean, mean open source 

Update -- just installed it. Quick and snappy! I'm going to check out the feature set...

Denis


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## Andrew Fergus (Sep 3, 2008)

I'm trying Google Chrome right now for the first time.  It is pretty quick - probably because it hasn't been loaded up with excessive cookies by all the websites I visit.....

I'm not sure what is up with FireFox - I have been using it for a long time and the latest version seems to run really slowly (mine also uses about 100MB Denis, Chrome is 31MB) and a couple of things aren't working as they should or did.......it's a shame because FF has been so good for so long.

Chrome seems to have the occasional issue with going back a page (using the back button) and I can't import my favourites directly from FF (and it thinks favourites is spelled incorrectly despite downloading the UK English version).....I will give it a spin and see what happens.

Andrew

P.S.  Some things aren't intuitive - for instance, I have worked out how to add a bookmark/favourite, and I get a favourites bar when I open a new tab, but as soon as I navigate to a webpage, the toolbar disappears - must be an option somewhere, but that is a strange default behaviour.....


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## Stormseed (Sep 3, 2008)

> Seems super fast compared to Firefox... would appear their (Google) multi threading approach does the trick -- the future me thinks...





> I am excited by the prospect of a very fast browser



Guys, I am missing something here !! What do you mean by *FAST BROWSERS* ? It is the ISP bandwidth which is responsible for connection speeds, I reckon. 

How can browsers control the speed ? Sure, they can handle the surfing activity effectively and that is where we compare browsers for either ones which are *handy* but controlling connection speeds - sounds greek to me


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## SydneyGeek (Sep 3, 2008)

It comes down, among other things, to the speed of the rendering engine. Just did a comparison loading a large, data and graphics-heavy page in FF3 and Chrome; I used smh.com.au as a test. Chrome displays the page faster, not only on first load but when you return to the page from elsewhere on the site. 
I agree -- ISP and connection speed are crucial but if you have a fast connection, the performance of the browser is relevant (it may even be relevant on a slow connection but I can't test that).

Denis


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## pgc01 (Sep 3, 2008)

Hi

I'm testing Chrome and it seems faster. I'm using Vista.

I had, however, problems with the installation.

I did what I always do when installing an application. I logged on to the Manager area and installed Chrome. Everything seemed OK and so I logged off and logged on to my user area. No sign of Chrome!!! Not even in the Program Files folder.


I had to install the program again, this time directly from the user area (against my rules). Now it works fine, but must I install it from each user's area? Seems odd.

Maybe I missed some installation option?


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## kgkev (Sep 3, 2008)

I've been running IE8 for a few weeks and although thats still in Beta as well haven't noticed any real improvements.

Some site do screw up in IE8 though so I do have to occasionally "emulate IE7"

Gonna give Chrome a try now.




> I logged on to the Manager area and installed Chrome


 
does right click>run as administrator not have the same effect?


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## kgkev (Sep 3, 2008)

downloaded, installed and tested in 5 minutes - Easy and painless.

And your right it is quick.  I was thinking along the lines of stormseeds post - but it is quicker. and my connection at the moment is across a office network on a 2MB/s broadband line.

Gonna install this at home now and scrap IE.

Anyone know how secure it is though?  Am I ok to logon to my bank from this browser?

also didn't import my favourites from IE7


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## DonkeyOte (Sep 3, 2008)

I don't know much about security side of things... I've always preferred FF to IE on that basis though... 

From what I read I believe Chrome is designed such that it multi threads so can handle server side & client side scripting more efficiently than normal... they released a "comic book" of their plans (as only Google could) -- not a bad read... 

http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/index.html


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## kgkev (Sep 3, 2008)

If you browse on a few tabs and CTRL + ALT + DEL
check the process and there are a few running for Chrome.


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## DonkeyOte (Sep 3, 2008)

Yes, each page tab = own memory.... closing a tab should kill 1 process.


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## SydneyGeek (Sep 3, 2008)

Even with several processes running it still uses less memory than FF or IE

Denis


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## kgkev (Sep 4, 2008)

I tested it last night against IE8 and it used more memory.

Click the "control of current Page" > Developer > Task Manager
Then click Stats for Nerds.

Adding one tab at a time kept kept Chrome above IE8

I haven't done an extended usage test though Maybe IE8 doesn't clear memory well and stays high.


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## SydneyGeek (Sep 4, 2008)

That's one of Chrome's good points. Close a tab in Chrome and all the memory is released because each tab is a process. Close a tab in IE or FF and you may or may not get the memory back, depending on how it's fragmented. 

I haven't tried IE8 yet but if it uses less memory than IE7 I'd be interested in trying it out.

Denis


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## Richard Schollar (Sep 4, 2008)

I wanted to install Chrome last night but got sidetracked when my new hard drive turned up for my (dead) laptop and I had to try installing Vista on it.  3 fruitless hours later and I really didn't have the inclination to install Chrome on the desktop.  Another service call to Dell  is in the offing...


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## kgkev (Sep 4, 2008)

On my home pc it took less then 2 seconds to download and was running in under a minute.


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## SydneyGeek (Sep 4, 2008)

RichardSchollar said:


> I wanted to install Chrome last night but got sidetracked when my new hard drive turned up for my (dead) laptop and I had to try installing Vista on it.  3 fruitless hours later and I really didn't have the inclination to install Chrome on the desktop.  Another service call to Dell  is in the offing...


Ouch!

Hopefully you'll be up and running soon. 

Denis


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## Stormseed (Sep 4, 2008)

> Another service call to Dell is in the offing


 
Hi Mr. Richard ! 

I would like to keep you informed that more than 80% of DELL Technical Support calls are transferred to India, here in Bombay or Bangalore. I have worked for almost 4 years in STREAM (Asia Pacific Division), a technical BPO where I was working for DELL CCOD Intraday MIS. I quit the BPO industry around 3 years back. 

Believe me, the DELL Support techs are nothing but engineers in India who are struggling to get a break in the IT industry. STREAM hires them and makes them Support techs for DELL, MICROSOFT, Earthlink, RoadRunner, etc. 

The hard truth here is all these tech support people suck Hi-time.



> Anyone know how secure it is though? Am I ok to logon to my bank from this browser?
> also didn't import my favourites from IE7 <!-- / message --><!-- edit note -->


 
I have not used Chrome but I can only say *my thumbs up* Firefox is the best when it comes to *security* & when you want to surf the internet without having any sort of hassles. I don't think I am going to give up using Firefox for another 2 years minimum. 

Moreover, to add, Firefox has the option to import all your favorites from Internet Explorer in one go !! I had over 600 favorites and all were imported in a couple of seconds when I installed FF for the first time on my PC (around 1 year back).

Good luck


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## DonkeyOte (Sep 5, 2008)

Hey Richard... I hope it wasn't a new one ?! 

I just took ownership of a spanking new XPS 1530 with all the trimmings... thus far no problemos...


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## Richard Schollar (Sep 6, 2008)

Wowzer Chrome is quick!  

Re the laptop: it was only bought in January but Dell have swiftly replaced the HD and the new one now seems to be OK (once I had requested additional info to allow me to install Vista again).  The Dell helpdesk was very good in my opinion.  If I was to buy another laptop (and I didn't have the money for a Macbook ) I would definitely go with Dell.

Luke, the XPS are very nice, but a little outside of my price range.  I went for a Vostro with a 17" screen so my old eyes wouldn't have to squint to see the screen!


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## VoG (Sep 6, 2008)

Ye Gods that's fast 

I think I'll be dropping FF...

Richard - you have my sympathy. Last week one of the HDDs in our office server failed. That was replaced then the RAID controller failed. Nightmare


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## Richard Schollar (Sep 6, 2008)

Yeah Peter - I think Chrome will be my new browser of choice.  I miss Mouse Gestures and NoScript, but otherwise it is lightning quick.


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## DonkeyOte (Sep 6, 2008)

I downloaded it on Beta release out of curiosity... within about 5 minutes it was browser of choice !  It will be interesting to see how over time web apps adapt to the performance gains offered by Chrome when compared to other more common browsers and push end-users for Chrome compliance as opposed to IE as has always been the case previously...  will IE ever lose it dominant position ?  Google is as trusted as MS I would say, if not more so... (though they like to know a bit <i>too</i> much....)

Richard... I went for the XPS as I convinced the wife that it would be the catalyst for my new business venture ... it was quite easy to convince her that I did REALLY need 4GB of RAM and a screen resolution of 1920x1200... the screen is bonkers as by default I can see cols A:AC on a laptop at 100% !!


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## NateO (Sep 6, 2008)

lasw10 said:


> Google is as trusted as MS I would say, if not more so... (though they like to know a bit _too_ much....)


I happen to be of the opposite opinion... I'm a little cynical of these guys storing everything online. It's not to say I don't like some of their offerings, but I won't be uploading everything under the sun to their servers.

I haven't used Chrome yet, but I have heard it's very fast. We shall see. I think I'll wait for V2.


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## DonkeyOte (Sep 6, 2008)

But Nate everything is <i>relative</i> -- I wasn't implying MS was "trusted" per se....   ... just that I would trust Google as much as I would trust MS but that's still less than I'd trust a door to door salesman offering me a new Mercedes for £1000....


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## NateO (Sep 6, 2008)

Understandable, as you said, relative. I happen to know quite a few people at Microsoft, so, perhaps out of that, I trust them more. 

They trust me, I trust them. Although, they do make me sign a contract...


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## Richard Schollar (Sep 6, 2008)

Luke, I take it your wife isn't into IT?  Otherwise she'd know for sure you don't need 1920 for programming...


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## DonkeyOte (Sep 6, 2008)

Ha, no she isn't Richard... she's still in awe of the "finger print thing a me bob"!  She's savvy enough however to know that I'm a nerd (she found out a bit late for her liking).


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## mattrx731 (Sep 6, 2008)

lasw10 said:


> I downloaded it on Beta release out of curiosity... within about 5 minutes it was browser of choice !



Same here.  Mine had the option to import all of my links and bookmarks, and that worked great.

The only odd thing I've found is the "finger mouse pad" thingy (kinda like the roller ball on the mouse) on my laptop, it won't let me scroll up, but it does work for scrolling down...?  It works on other programs, just not Chrome... Oh well...


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## Aladin Akyurek (Sep 7, 2008)

You can't do with it a nice copy/paste into Excel from a sample like in http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=1677860


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## DreamAlchemist (Sep 9, 2008)

I was going to check out Chrome til I found out that Google reserves the rights to use all information you enter however they want. THis means that when you enter your name and address into a form to buy something from amazon Google can now sell your name and address to any company they want.  They redid their Agreement a few days ago because they were also attempting to take rights to do what they wanted with that. But they quickly changed that as many people had issues with it.

Not to mention Firefox has script blocker. The best protection out there just about.  Until the other browsers include the same options and gives me control as to which sites scripts get run and whichones stay block Firefox will be my browser of choice. I really don't see a slow performance from it though. But then I recall days when pages took 30 seconds to load fully with hal the graphics that sites use.


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## Stormseed (Sep 10, 2008)

DreamAlchemist

Thanks for the great news. 

Now, I have one more reason to kick the "Google Chrome" Butt  I still believe, there is nothing better than FIREFOX (in terms of security)


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## SydneyGeek (Sep 10, 2008)

I agree on the security. FF is good on that count, and I use several of the plug-ins. My problem is stability -- FF often crashes on me, or fails to respond. 
That's disappointing because the earlier versions were not prone to those problems, and it makes me wonder whether the new features are providing more bloat. 

Denis


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