As I right this, I'm chilling at the Marshall Student Center at USF, enjoying tasty pizza from Sbarros. That's become pretty normal in the last couple of weeks, as I've become adjusted rather quickly to life up here in Tampa (so much so that I didn't even feel the need to post about it before today. It's just so natural). There is one strange thing about this blog post however, and unless you didn't read the title for some reason, you know it that I am posting it from Google's brand new Internet browser, Google Chrome.
Google has long denied that they were going to compete with FireFox and IE8, going so far as to work closely with Mozilla in making the search bar/address bar function for FireFox 3, which helps make it one of the best Internet browsers ever created. But the temptation for Google to control all aspects of the Internet experience was too great, and here we are with a very functional new contender in the browser wars.
As you first load up Chrome, the first thing you see is the minimalist design. Except for the tabs (which are positioned on the top of the window), and the address bar with built in Back, Stop, Reload, etc, the entire window is taken up by the website you are viewing. This makes it seem as if the browser isn't even there, which is perfect for visually heavy sites and long sites such as Myspaces. Where this approach fails is that there is no room for future addons like the ones for FireFox. The status bar pops up at the bottom of the page when a website is loading, and then disappears, leaving the bottom of the web page the bottom of the browser. I couldn't imagine doing heavy browsing without Adblock or Foxytunes, and there is no way to put in visual representation of addons in the browser without losing this minimalist idea.
Despite this shortcoming, I have been using Chrome for one express purpose, and that is the feature that allows you to create a link to web applications like e-mail or databases that stays on your desktop. When you double click on the shortcut, a version of chrome without even an address bar appears and loads up the application, as if it were installed on your hard drive. This feature alone could drive any poor soul still using Outlook and its ilk to flock to the browser. It is also very helpful for a college student like me, as USF has a couple of applications that are vital to look at every day, but buried in the webpage. With Chrome, I've been able to get one click access to my class schedules and messages from professors, which assures that Chrome will stay on my hard drive for the next four years.
Considering that Chrome is only a week old, and knowing how resourceful Google is, I wouldn't be surprised if Chrome jumps ahead of IE pretty quickly on all but the most unknowing of computer users. I can't see it replacing FireFox, but given a little time, add on support from Google like FireFox has, and a lot of Google loyalists porting the best addons over, I think it might just be close. I'd recommend Chrome to anyone that checks their e-mail often, or someone addicted to a website run game like Battlefield Heroes, but other than that, Firefox still reigns supreme.
-May Internet Explorer find its spot next to Netscape Navigator in the history books
Pudge
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