Google Chrome for Mac

I'm not wild about the name, but I'm in love with the product.

In addition to the speed and reliability, I really like the tab isolation, which prevents one bad web site from crashing your entire web browser and every currently open tab. In these days of multitasking, this is very important. And I increasingly run into web sites with CPU-hogging, rogue advertisements on the site (c'mon webmasters, know what you are putting on your site).

The web page isolation is actually not a new innovation; it is just an abandoned idea thankfully brought back to life. I recall an early (pre-tabs) version of Internet Explorer that offered isolation of each web page, and this was a big deal to me. As a Windows user back then, I frequently experienced web browser crashes caused by some quirky web site, and it was very frustrating to have every single browser window crashed. This happened in both IE and Firefox.

I can't remember what version of Internet Explorer it was (2.0? 3.0?) that had this process isolation (which I really liked), but I remember it was not the default behavior. Whenever I helped someone set up a new computer, one of the first things I always did was enable this process isolation in Internet Explorer. I remember having a feeling of surrender when tabs became popular, and I resorted back to a one-site-can-crash-all vulnerability once I embraced tabs. Indeed, on my Mac, I have frequently had one site bring down dozens of active windows in both Firefox and Safari.

I have been playing around with Google Chrome since its first beta launch, but I haven't been able to use it regularly until the Mac version finally came out. So it is just now that I am finally able to make it a part of my daily life as my default browser.

Let me for a moment just go on a rant about how foolish it was for Google to initially release Chrome as Windows-only and not have usable Mac and Linux versions until just recently.

Technology early adopters don't do Windows. They run Linux or OS X. Period. I work with technology professionals all across North America, and I see Ubuntu, OS X, or some other flavor of Linux running on early adopter laptops and desktops. It is typically only management that is running Windows laptops, and (sigh) they frequently just use Internet Explorer.

If Google wanted to get early adopter traction with Chrome, then it would have been better to release it first for Linux and Mac and later for Windows. Get the buzz generated first among early adopters, and then build the Windows version for the masses later. Typically, a Windows version is built first for revenue (due to platform market share), but revenue was not a factor here.

End of rant.

Now that Google Chrome is finally available for early adopters, I expect it will now do well and steal market share. Sadly, I suspect it will primarily steal market share from Firefox first. On OS X Snow Leopard, for example, Firefox has been performing horribly for me the last few versions, so I am now using Google Chrome (default) and Safari as my primary browsers (both are very fast), and Firefox is relegated just to the Applications folder (not even on my dock anymore).

For Mac users considering switching from Firefox or Safari, I like that Google Chrome takes advantage of the Keychain (unlike Firefox), but I wish it could integrate with MobileMe (like Safari) for synchronizing bookmarks with my iPhone. The iPhone bookmark integration seems to be perhaps the last advantage of Safari over Google Chrome.

If you are using Safari, one of the biggest reasons to switch is that you can force new windows to open as new tabs instead of new windows. This is one of my biggest pet peeves with Safari that it still tends to open new browser windows (instead of tabs) too frequently.  One has to remember to ctrl-click everything in Safari, in order to control the target, but in Google Chrome (or Firefox), you can just click and rest assured that it will be a new tab, not a new window.

I have so far found Google Chrome to be overall more compatible than both Safari and Firefox with quirky web sites, such as banks and utility sites, that don't do good cross-browser testing. I don't think I've encountered a site yet that didn't work well with Google Chrome. The main reason I use Safari in addition to Chrome is to allow me to easily switch between two different Google accounts (one active in Chrome; one active in Safari). If Google ever makes it quick and easy to flip back and forth between different Google accounts (and between different Google Apps accounts), then I may no longer need Safari.

I also really appreciate all the minor details that are in Chrome. For example, if you have a bunch of tabs open, and you open a new tab from within the third tab, Chrome places that new tab as the fourth tab, right next to where you are, rather than at the end of say 20 or 30 tabs. I also really like the tab animations, even no they serve no practical purpose other than to make you smile.  Hmm, maybe the tab animations actually improve productivity via visual stimulation that cheers you up?

My only negative cosmetic feedback would be that animated favicon.ico graphics aren't currently animated (my favicon.ico on www.brianguy.com is an animated coffee cup - no animation in Chrome), and the close tab X on Chrome for Mac is on the wrong side (as is the case for Firefox). On the Mac, the close tab X is supposed to be on the left (like in Safari), but Chrome has it on the right (like in Windows and Linux). This is a minor detail, but it is an issue for those of us that use both Safari and Chrome (or both Safari and Firefox), since they are not consistent.

I haven't yet tried the Linux version of Chrome (since I only run Linux servers with command prompt only, no GUI), but I highly recommend the Mac version. Even though it is beta, it seems ready for prime time to me.