So, just in case you’re not following the latest and greatest from our Internet Lords and Masters, Google have released their own browser. There’s a little comic available that explains what’s so awesome about it. Have a read, it’s quite interesting for those who get tickled by browser technology. Since every man and his blog is reviewing it, I figured I’d chuck my random thoughts out there.
I’ve had it up and running for a while, and it seems pretty nifty. The New Tab Page is the best use of that space I’ve seen yet. It compiles everything I would most likely be doing with the browser into one neat little place. I could definitely get used to it.
Overall, it definitely feels zippier than Firefox 3, and definitely better than any version of IE or Safari I’ve encountered. Some of the new features are definitely cool. The syntax hilighting in the “view source” window, as well as the “inspect element” will definitely help me with the little bits of web design and programming that I do. Also, the Task Manager will be a boon to anybody trying to figure out why the browser isn’t responding (though it’s a little difficult to find).
I’ve had some intermittent issues with some pages not being able to render and getting the “Sad Tab”. But then that stopped. I’m not sure what happened there, particularly as the site I was visiting was a very popular Australian newspaper. Also, it looks like there’s some issues with YouTube. I can’t get it to play more than 2 seconds of any clip.
Still, for a beta, it’s very well-polished, and I’ll keep using it. It may even replace FF3 on my Mac once it’s released for my favourite platform.