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Dec 14, 2008
I'm all for alternative browsers and programs. I'm all for faster loading times, more "real estate" and less clutter. I'm for attempts at innovation. But there's no way I can stand to deal with Chrome any longer. Here's a bit of backstory: like Cuil when it was first released, I jumped all over Google Chrome, reading the rather long comic explaining the features and how Chrome would work. I then downloaded Chrome the day it came out and gave it a spin, I applauded it, then quickly withdrew. I decided I'd try Google Chrome again (which has recently been taken out of beta without any additions, as far as I can tell, to allow it's inclusion as a preinstalled program on new computers). Sadly, though, Google Chrome is a bit of a pain, and I wouldn't be itching to get it on any computer in a hurry.
Let's start off with the things Chrome does well. It's the fastest browser and that's a rather important bit when talking about browsing the web. It places the emphasis on tabs and stability with each tab running as a separate process that can be shut down without closing out the entire browser- so that e-mail you've spent the last ten minutes writind need not be completely wiped because of the something that went wrong in another tab. It lacks a bar at the bottom of the page and generally has a layout that allows you to see more of the page and less of the user interface.
Now, onto those things that make me hate the browser. I mentioned the focus being on what you're viewing and not the UI. It seems rather contradictory, then, that the download bar is massive compared to the bars that are there by default in other browsers- easily at least twice the size. Having the Downloads tab pop up with a progress bar for your downloads across the tab would be less of an eye sore. The New Tab page's Most Visited functionality pales in comparison to Opera's Speed Dial, as hits will never be able to truly show which sites are important to a user. Most visited isn't synonymous with most used. It's also worth noting that the nine entries are placed in regard to how often you visit them and not inherently where you'd rank them, so you have to look for them- which defeats the purpose.
As for functionality: in most programs, you gain functionality by having a two-button mouse with scroll wheel. Goolge Chrome is one of the few progams that does the reverse. In most browsers, clicking the wheel down changes the pointer to a round icon with up and down arrows and you can slide the page up and down much faster- effective for things like moving around hi-res pictures or scrolling down a forum with many entries. The downloading experience in Chrome is horrible- it's horribly unintuitive and the first time I did so, I was actually surprised I'd done it- I'd expected the movie to have opened in Windows Media Player, as with Firefox, not download to my desktop. Viewing images on deviantART, where the ability to drag-and-drop an image onto your desktop is disabled, my normal course of action is right click->View Image, which opens the image itself in the same tab I'm currently in. In Chrome the only option is "Open Image in New Tab" which doesn't seem natural given all the minimalism.
The concept behind Chrome is great, but the shoddy implementation of some features and lack of familiar options make it rather annoying. Overall, what Chrome does well in the name of ease-of-use, minimalism and simplicity, it does without regards to basic functionality. And, really, what use is something that's easy to use, if things you use are taken away?
