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Google Chrome Is Out of Beta
BitZtream writes "This morning Google announced that Chrome is out of Beta, and showing improvements for plugin support, most notably video speed improvements. It also contains an updated javascript engine, claiming that it operates 1.4 times faster than the beta version, and work has begun on an extensions platform to allow easier integration with the browser by third parties."
I have to give the Chrome team credit. Chrome has been improving in stability and usability almost like magic. From day to day, it seems like problems I had previously just disappear. As it turns out, Chrome has an automatic updater that runs in the background. The browser is constantly and silently upgrading itself as the Chrome team push out new updates. The results are quite impressive.
If you'd reading this in chrome and want to force the most recent update, just go to the "About" screen. Chrome will tell you if an update is available and allow you to manually run the updater. There's a good chance that most users are already updated, but it doesn't hurt to check.
The killer feature that I still think is missing is the ability to exit and save tabs. Chrome can Restore after a crash (most of the time), but you can't manually restart the browser without loosing the history you have open. Another issue I wish they'd fix is remembering the last save directory when doing a "Save As...". I realize that keeping a single Downloads directory is userfriendly, but using it as the default location when the user is overriding the download location is annoying. If I need to download 10 files, I need to navigate to the same directory 10 times. That's just ridiculous.
Otherwise my gripes are mostly minor and have no real bearing on its use in day to day activities. (e.g. I hate that I can't view the properties of an image. Sometimes I need to verify that its under a certain size. Or that there's no easy method of tracking page errors.) Thankfully, most of my gripes are developer-related and are better served by keeping a copy of FireFox around.
Kudos to Google for working on another alternative to Internet Explorer! If Chrome and Firefox can each grab a significant marketshare, Internet Explorer's hold over the Internet will disappear. Firefox's popularity has already caused it to wane. I look forward to the day when using IE will net you nothing but pages telling you to upgrade your web browser. :-)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Am I the only one surprised just to hear that Google has taken something out of beta?
I'm surprised, Google never takes anything out of Beta.. I've been using Chrome since it was first available, haven't had many issues with it. Seems stable to me.
I am sorry, I can not conceive the internet any more without add-block...
I'd love to try it, but I'm still waiting for the Mac and Linux ports. But I guess if they take it out of beta before those are out, it's not on the top of their list.
I'm sure Google is trying to work out deals with OEM's to bundle Chrome on Windows PC's. Obviously, they can't do this while the browser still carries the "beta" tag, which is akin to a scarlet letter.
It's interesting they chose to drop out of "beta" before they implemented one of their supposed top features, namely, cross-platform compatibility.
This space left intentionally blank.
They should look into that advertising thing, I hear there's a market.
Call me when I can get it in .dmg format, or just
sudo apt-get install GoogleChrome
Informatus Technologicus
Meh, it'a all hype.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
All these speed boosts annoy me. I open it FF in Linux, it runs at roughly 1/2 the speed it does in Windows. Of course, I've been using the same profile for roughly 5 years, so that might have something to do with it (and I've only been a Linux user for 1.5 it's a miracle my profile still works.)
Still, when I reboot to Windows, Chrome vs. Firefox? Can't tell the difference, in terms of speed. Usability, Firefox wins hands down. Hotkeys, flashblock, Firebug (when flashblock isn't enough), reopen closed tab. ( I don't want that memory freed every time I close a tab, thank you very much. I'm just doing it to unclutter my workspace. I may need that tab back in a minute, and I'd rather it not vaporize to reclaim 1% of my memory, especially when I am doing nothing with it but browse the web. )
Call me when:
a) Chrome is available on Linux with similar benchmarks
b) I can easily correct my error if I accidentally close a tab.
c) They give me my menu bar back / provide analogous hotkeys for every option concealed behind the buttons.
...but does it run Linux?
If you quote this signature there'll be 72 copies of Windows ME waiting for you in Heaven.
The WebKit team and anyone who ever contributed to it should also get praise. Without it Chrome would never have seen the light of day. Google Chrome is essentially Google's chrome around the rendering engine and any tweaks they provided to WebKit.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Sorry Google, but if you're looking to finish what Netscape started -- namely, making the Internet an application delivery platform that does an end-run around Microsoft's monopoly -- you had damn well better make Linux, Macintosh, and appliance-embeddable versions available before you remove the "beta" label.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
"We absolutely promise that we only want to completely screw over Microsoft with this, and certainly not Mozilla Firefox," said Google's Sundar Pichai. "That we put a pile of our sponsored Mozilla developers on the project is completely irrelevant. We're not evil, remember."
"We are so, so happy with Google Chrome," mumbled Mozilla CEO John Lilly through gritted teeth. "That most of our income is from Google has no bearing on me making this statement."
Microsoft was unfazed. "Browsers don't need to be integrated with online apps," said marketing developer Ian Moulster. "Certainly not like the operating system ... I'll just get back to you."
Google's new browser will give you their web and email services, photo processing, mapping, office applications that will run in said browser and will make you a cup of tea. This is all paid for by personally-directed text ads in your tea leaves, based on analysing a DNA sample taken when you sip the tea and sending your genetic code back to Google for future targeting.
Pichai stressed that Google would maintain complete confidentiality within the marketing department of whatever the browser accessed concerning your confidential business data, bank account details, medical information and personal preferences in pornography. "We're Google. We know where you live. In a completely not evil way. Sponsored link: Get Chrome Browsers on google.com. Or we'll make you use Windows Live."
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I still don't understand why Google and Sun are offering the same software under different names. Google is backing the Mozilla Foundation while supporting their own Chrome (read: they didn't write Firefox, just back it), and Sun is distributing both OpenOffice and StarOffice. Can somebody please tell me why and how companies can do this?
I would have expected somebody to stand up at a meeting and go "Hey, lets merge the products and save money!" at some point, especially in this growing economic hole (didn't Sun just do a huge layoff, too?)
Someone had to say it.
"FF for Linux does suck quite a lot." "Will it run on Linux" is the question, not "how well does it run on Linux."
But... Have they removed that "Big Brotherly" unique ID "feature", that each of the Chrome Beta installations came with, that loudly identified you on the web?
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I'm sure that someone will make a plug-in to block the advertising, but considering that Google is an advertising company that sells web ads as their life blood, I can't see them offering ad-blocking in their own product out of the box. Unless it blocks all ads save for the ones from Google.
It isn't going to replace Opera on my desktop anytime soon, but then again, they'd have to release versions for Mac, Linux, and FreeBSD for it even to run on any of my desktops.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
If your security policy relies on users not being able to install software but the users can install software, you have a problem; not Google.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
I would try an explain it with a car industry analogy, but there isn't one.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
(Please note, I say this as the IT guy who locks stuff down)
Chrome's behavior is shared with many other newer programs(usually if you install them with the "just for me" rather than "for all users" option) and is a good thing. Programs that break unnecessarily because of lack of permissions they don't need are a bad thing. This is all part of the move away from legacy single-user design crap, where virtually everything requires arbitrary rights, programs die if they aren't in C:/Program Files, and there is poor or no separation between immutable system files and commonly modified user files.
If tightly controlling installed applications is necessary, you can use signature or hash based execution restrictions, and solve the problem the right way, rather than relying on the behavior of third parties.
Then let me explain: GM is one company, but releases two virtually identical yet differently-branded trucks with similar names. For example, the Chevy Silverado 1500 and the GMC Sierra 1500.
But, as your parent stated, that is very redundant and dosen't make much sense, especially as the companies are clearly suffering(Sun's layoffs vs. GM's bailout).
Followed the link, went to Google page, actually READ the announcement.. got all excited... had a quick argument with myself why it was time to ditch Firefox and won it.... looked ant whether I have a system backup just in case... sighted... pressed the Download link...
*drums* ... only to discover that it is Windows-only! So we people with Macs and Linuxes can have a bit more time before we get totally googelized.
Amen
http://www.automatiq.se
So, you mean, it was written properly and doesn't require admin rights. So assuming you've properly configured your PC and network this software is not a major threat since it never needs to elevate itself to admin status. It can still damage files and network resources your user has access to, but thats generally far less damaging than taking over the entire PC and effective any user that logs into it or any network resource it has access to.
Your comment is extremely ignorant and indicates that you have no clue about being a network or systems admin. You can run firefox on any windows machine that has a writable directory on it, same for almost all properly written software. Good luck running a windows PC without a writable directory some where, you'll break to many legitimate apps.
So if your idea of 'security' is because the 'installer' doesnt write to any other directory than the 'program files' directory, then you have no security at all. What do you do about the people who install software on their own PC at home then just copy the files to a USB drive, bring it to your network and copy those files to the %TEMP% directory, or their %USERPROFILE% or %APPDATA% directories, all of which you will typically have write access to?
Google isn't going to 'fix' this 'issue' because the 'issue' is with the person who thinks a flaw, no amount of complaining to anyone is going to help you, all the people you would be complaining to have about a billtion times more of a clue than you do about the 'issue'.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
I only used Chrome for a day before going back to Adblock Plus and Firefox, but I swore there was an option to turn this off.
Then again Google already has tons of my private data via email and I'm not overtly paranoid. If you want a version of Chrome that doesn't phone home at all, check out Iron.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
God dammit there IS always a car analogy! You're a genius!
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
Vauxhall Astra
Opel Astra
Chevy Astra
Saturn Astra
Holden Astra
QED
He's pointing out a bug in the installer.
The default for executable code is in program files. If a user wants to move it and they have permissions to do so then there's nothing stopping them.. but defaulting to the user profile is just plain wrong. Home users will have write access to the program files directory anyway. Business users (if they have permission to install things) will probably have quotas on their roaming profiles and this could send them over, using up valuable IT support time.
Actually, it makes a lot of sense. They add some trim to the product and make a much bigger profit margin by selling the same vehicle under a high-end brand name. Basically, it all boils down to hoping people won't notice that they are paying a huge premium for trivial enhancements to the same basic vehicle. I'm not saying it is a good practice, but as a business practice, it does pay off, at least so long as the market for luxury goods doesn't dry up. When it does, of course, if you aren't making enough money off your low-end products, you're screwed.
It makes far less sense if the two products aren't build using the same parts, of course, which is why the car analogy falls flat when talking about Google. (It does work for Sun's StarOffice/OpenOffice somewhat.) To explain the Google bifurcation, you have to go back a little farther to an ancient proverb: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Guess which browser is the enemy. :-)
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
They never planned to make money directly from the browser, or to dominate the browser market.
They use it as a vehicle to implement web standards, under a license that allows any other browsers to adopt the improvements. Thus the web improves, which directly benefits Google (as well as others)
Dangerous, sexy, turing complete: Femme Bots
A car industry or an analogy?
If we were talking about something being sold, product differentiation would be one means of attempting to achieve some form of price discrimination.(1)
That part of the equation doesn't apply here (though it will to any of the car-analogies cropping up), but product differentiation is still a recognised way to build brand loyalty by creating (perceived) differences and thereby value.
People don't use Firefox and think "Gee, isn't Google great?" – that's the (a) reason for Chrome.
A further reason is that having R&D in your own company can have positive synergies (apologies for the buzzword, but it applies here) with other projects, which don't occur from simply supporting external development.
Those are mid-to-long-term strategic considerations, while combining the projects simply to save money would be rather more a short-term oriented decision. Which isn't necessarily a criticism.
(1) Price discrimination is the concept of charging each buyer the full extent of what he is willing to pay for a good, rather than the same price as everyone else. For example, school-children don't have much money to pay for cinema tickets, and wouldn't come if they had to pay adult prices. They're still willing to pay more than the costs they incur, though, so the cinema operators increase their profits by charging them less. You'll see it all around if you pay attention.
Antiquis temporibus, nati tibi similes in rupibus ventosissimis exponebantur ad necem.
I would suggest to the original poster to use chromium instead of chrome. Chromium doesn't send what's typed in the address bar till enter is hit.
I would suggest that anyone that's wanting to protect things being sent to Google should totally disable any search from the search bar. In any browser.
Google also offers a variety of other web services besides search. and most Google Apps services have complex enough interfaces to make cross-browser compatibility a major hassle, i imagine.
as for StarOffice/OpenOffice, i think it's important to first understand why Sun purchased StarOffice:
offering StarOffice as a free download (for personal use) was a great way to promote their office suite and did not conflict with their original goal. then perhaps following in the footsteps of Netscape with Mozilla, Sun opened the source code for StarOffice, creating OpenOffice. this further boosted the popularity of StarOffice/OpenOffice (which /. no doubt had a hand in) and also accelerated the development of the StarOffice code base by enlisting the help of the open source community.
Sun then adds proprietary components to snapshots of the OpenOffice code base to develop StarOffice. these proprietary components include:
so by contributing to OpenOffice, Sun is still just contributing to StarOffice. funding both projects allows them to have the best of both worlds, and doesn't really cost them anything extra. they gain the benefits of an active open source development community, and they also get to keep a proprietary office suite to sell, in which they can include components they're unable to include in OO.org.
Google supports both because regardless of Chrome or Firefox, as long as either 'wins' it is Google's gain for their search business.
This is along the same lines as Best Buy and Futureshop in Canada. They're both owned by Best Buy in the back end, but allowing the guise of choice makes customers comfortable with buying from each of them.
OpenOffice and StarOffice are more along the lines of MyProductBasic and MyProductAdvanced. By getting people into the free version, one can encourage buyers to upgrade to star when there's enough productivity/feature advantage to do so.
Bye!
So what you're saying is
1) Release two virtually indentical products under different names for twice the development cost.
2) ???
3) Bailout!
How much longer until Sun gets a bailout?
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Rlz.dll, the closed-source file that pings Google on certain actions, is still there.
It appears in the latest zipped Chromium builds too (v.6830), which wasn't there in the October builds (v.3979). Chromium only uses it if it's there, and likely the same for Chrome, so you can delete it and be happy.
I still don't understand why Google and Sun are offering the same software under different names. Google is backing the Mozilla Foundation while supporting their own Chrome (read: they didn't write Firefox, just back it), and Sun is distributing both OpenOffice and StarOffice.
What are you saying here? That Chrome and Firefox are the same software?!? What you're saying about Sun seems right, but Chrome and Firefox aren't close at all...
That ID is only ever sent if you opt in to sending usage stats and crash reports. And if you were dumb enough to opt in when you're paranoid about these sorts of things, you can opt out with the "Under the Hood" menu.
With a prominent site like Slashdot with a guaranteed amount of traffic, yes. Advertisers do keep track of who and how many people loaded their advertisements and from where. It's not pay per click all the time you know.
I don't understand. I set the mousewheel(er, touchpad scroll speed) in Windows, and Chrome insists on going at its own speed for scrolling. I scroll x lines with the zone, and it does page up/page down increments. What the hell?
No Mac version == Lame.
Think about the Monty Hall paradox. It's a loose comparison, but work with me. If your customers are just comparing between Ford and Chevy, and your products are equal, you get 50% of the market, all things equal. If you introduce a new brand, let's call it GMC, some of the customers who might have chosen Ford might choose GMC. Since all you have to change is the 1 dollar name plate, it's a good deal.
This is how GM has run their business for 75 years.
I was taught to respect my elders. The trouble is, it's getting harder and harder to find some.
It makes far less sense if the two products aren't build using the same parts, of course, which is why the car analogy falls flat when talking about Google.
If you believe that the car industry analogy falls flat, you know nothing about the car market. I can go out today and buy a Ford Mondeo, or a Volvo V70, or a Saab 93, or a Jaguar XF - all competing directly against one another, all with significantly different engineering and tooling, all made by Ford. Google only supports two browsers (and only makes one). Ford has about six entirely different executive saloon cars.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
It seems that the advertisment network has noticed that this page is talking about chrome a lot -- all the ads I see are "Download chrome for XP / Vista". Smart, but considering my user-agent is Opera/Linux, not smart enough...
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment