being a web developer, i try to keep up with what’s going on in the browser realm of the interwebs. today saw the release of the new Google browser: Chrome. a new browser release is nothing new, but the fact that Google has, for quite some time, been the main ‘internet’ company, providing everything from search engine and page cache, to email, web documents, and calendar, all online, makes this browser release something to look at.
i downloaded my copy, started it up, and was immediately impressed, and being somewhat of a Firefox fanatic, that’s saying a lot.
it takes no time at all to load, and after reviewing the comic that was released (by accident) a few days ago, it’s easy to see why: every page is it’s own process. for those of you who don’t know what a ‘process’ is, it’s basically it’s own running copy of the program. each page is it’s own entity on the computer, so if one page crashes, you don’t have to take down the whole browser to fix it, just close that one tab. but Google being Google, took it one step further, and made every portion of the webpage rendering it’s own process. so basically, if you have javascript running on the page you are viewing–it’s in it’s own process; flash running? it’s it’s own process; quicktime? own process; any other plugin? own process. so if at any time, any of these pieces crashes or slows way down while working on something, it doesn’t freeze the whole system.
this way of doing things also makes it really easy to block malware from infecting your computer.
Google Chrome was basically built for the internet as it stands today, in all it’s multi-media, web 2.0, watch-your-back-for-malware goodness.
the only thing missing from Google Chrome is a Firefox-esque plugin architecture…
because in order for me to switch from Firefox, I’m gonna need to take my Web Developer toolbar and mouse gestures with me.
but if you spend any decent amount of time on the internet, and do most of your browsing in the more modern web 2.0 sites: give Google Chrome a try.
the only thing that sucks about it is that it’s yet another browser that web developers have to code workarounds for.