Yes. For the first time here on LifeSpy, I’m making a bold prediction. Google’s browser, Google Chrome has made so much buzz over the web and the blogosphere that some even though that it’d smother Firefox and give IE a stifling kick in the nuts. For a minute there, I thought so too.

However, not even a couple of days into using Google Chrome, I found myself launching again. I thought it was simply a force of habit but for the subsequent days, I knew what was wrong with Chrome. I am a power user and my Firefox has been fully customized to my use. Aside from about:config tweaks, my Firefox is loaded with just about all the add-ons I need to quicken my web work. These things Chrome just doesn’t have.

Anyway, Chromium (from which was made) developers posted this web document on Chrome User Experience. It contains a lot of information regarding the reasons behind the UI but let me direct you to this quote in the Options section – “Over time, we hope to reduce the number of options further.”

they make valid points here. Not everyone’s a power user anyway. However, as is, Chrome just doesn’t provide the full control that Firefox allows. I have to admit that the speed and stability of Chrome blew me away. But speed and stability is variable depending on the things that you do on your browser. Not having my Greasemonkey scripts running made me feel crippled.

With Chrome headed to be a dumbed-down browser for the rest of the web surfing population (casual users), I’m sure power users will be content using Firefox. Unless some dude hacks into Chrome and gives it full customization, I’m sticking to my favorite browser. Now, wouldn’t it be nice to have Firefox’s tabs running as separate processes like Chrome?

For those of you (at least the Windows users) who have been living under a huge rock and still don’t know what Google Chrome is, it’s just Google’s own web browser. Go download and install it if you haven’t yet.

And for those of you living under a smaller rock and don’t know what the heck is the Incognito Mode in Google Chrome, basically it’s pr0n mode for browsers. What that means is that Chrome will manage pages loaded in Incognito mode separately (including separate cookie management) and clears cookie, and download and browser history upon exit.

Since it handles cookies separately, that also means that you can load two sessions of the same service and log in via separate accounts for each window. Well, this isn’t too different from launching a Firefox window and an IE window but at least you’re just running the same application.

Hey, it’s not only Firefox that has “hidden” pages. Google Chrome has them too. While FF has seven of these lovely giblets, Chrome has more – 14 (and counting?). Most of them provide some helpful information about things regarding your browser.

• about:
• about:network
• about:stats
• about:cache
• about:objects
• about:plugins
• about:dns
• about:version
• about:memory
• about:crash
• about:ipc
• about:histograms
• about:histograms/Loop
• about:internets

These ones are supposed to be there but I can’t quite figure out what they do. Some warnings say this might crash whatever web app you’re running.

• about:hang
• about:shorthang

I have yet to encounter the crash page so accessing about:crash allowed me to see it with my own eyes. Since the other pages are for geeks and uber power users, Too bad there ain’t no cryptic messages like a passage from the “Book of Google” or something and it doesn’t have an in-depth configuration page like Firefox’s about:config. I want one for Chrome!

Yesterday was crazy with the launch of Google Chrome. Almost every acquaintance I knew had jumped into the “let’s try it out” bandwagon and were soon raving about Google’s new browser. As for me, I promised that I would be using Chrome at least for a couple of days but I find myself ditching it after a few hours.

Well, not that Chrome is a bad browser. The browser’s pretty straightforward and streamlined. The interface isn’t distracting at all. It displays web standard pages quite well. In fact, in terms of speed and reliability, Chrome does seem to trump Firefox and IE. I tried to open around 10+ tabs and most of them streaming videos and the damn thing just kept on. Do that with Firefox and you’re sure to crawl, crash even. Since Google claims that this is because Chrome treats each tab as a separate process, then we might just attribute that to my machine.

It’s got the famous “incognito window” or “p0rn mode” (supposedly to kick IE in the nuts) where you can surf without having to store cookies and history breadcrumbs locally. Though the paranoid in me refuses to believe that Google did this to uphold server-side privacy.

However, with it being in Beta, you can’t quite expect a fully-functional browser. As a web browsing tool for daily routine, sure it’s fast, it’s reliable, it’s great. A few quirks that I noticed were no ability to Shift + Enter in the address bar to create a .net suffix (and not even an option for .org too). There’s no RSS feed button for in-browser feed reading. While it imports pretty much all your browsing information from Firefox/IE, it doesn’t have a refined options list yet. I can’t even sort out the imported bookmarks! The address bar behaves like the not-so Awesome bar of Firefox 3 and worst of all, no add-ons (yet).

As a web power user, Chrome can’t still replace the functionalities that I get using Mozilla Firefox and my 20+ add-ons. Chrome looks really promising and probably if Google starts its own plug-in library to match Firefox’s I might make the jump. But for now, I am a creature of habit and am writing this within Firefox. Like all the entries that you read on this blog.

Oh my God! It’s here and it’s out to get us all! Run for your lives!

Uhm, okay. I’m exaggerating. But Google’s latest move, is it really a bad thing? Well, if you have been living under the Internet rock for the past couple of days, then you might have missed the big announcement – Google will be launching Chrome. And Chrome, ladies and gentlegeeks, is Google’s very own web browser. Yup, that’s Google’s way of kicking Mozilla in the nuts then saying FU to Internet Explorer. Safari and Opera are there to watch too.

To help us understand what’s the big deal with Chrome, Google was kind enough to make this comic that explains all the goodies Google engineers have packed into this thing.

A sort of run-down – a streamlined look that wouldn’t distract you from the page, an isolated “sandbox” (meaning each tab is its own app) to prevent one tab from crashing the other just in case something f-ed up happens, and a more powerful JavaScript engine for next generation web apps. This will also mean that the offline feature for many of Google’s services might just be a corner away. Imagine Google Docs running offline. Oooh, Microsoft will definitely feel that.

My take on it? Well, I have to update my take over a couple of days using it. It is streamlined and is quite a bit faster than my Firefox (probably because this doesn’t have any plug-ins load) and my Firefox has a lot running.

Too bad this baby is only available on Beta for Windows XP and Vista only.

Download Google Chrome here.