Google's Convenient, Clever Web Browser

GOOGLE TAKES direct aim at Microsoft with the release of its Chrome Web Browser. And Microsoft should be worried: Chrome work in clever and convenient ways.

Chrome has a remarkably minimalist interface. You'll see a row of tabs running along the top, a Web address bar, and a bookmarks bar that appears beneath the address bar. Chrome doesn't have a full-scale menu bar or a title bar, and it has few distractions in its interface.

At the touch of a button, Chrome lets you make a desktop, Start menu, or QuickLaunch shortcut to any Web page or Web application, blurring the disctinction between what's online and what's inside your PC.

Chrome strips all of the toolbars from the window, leaving you with something that feels more like a desktop application than like an online app or a Web page.

Search is an integral part of Chrome, and Google introduces some clever features (for example, you can search Google or other sites directly from the addres bar). Chrome surpasses its competition by searching your browser history's page titles as well as page content.

Chrome can be a little unstable, which is not surprising in a beta program. Flash did not work on my Vista-based system, for example.


Google has produced an excellent browser that manages to be friendly and uncomplicated, yet powerful enough to meet the needs of more-advanced users. -Nick Mediati

PC World November 2008