Googling Google

Christopher Dawson

Google Chrome grows up: Out of beta on Mac/Linux

By Christopher Dawson | May 26, 2010, 9:00pm PDT

Summary: No more Mac/Linux beta, even more speed, and solid Flash integration soon to follow…what’s not to dig about the latest release of Chrome?

I’m a huge fan of the Chrome browser. It’s fast, it’s a quick install, it integrates well with Google Voice, it lets me sync my bookmarks across computers, etc. However, on my Mac and Linux machines, I’ve been running the open source brother of Chrome, Chromium, since the beta versions of Chrome for both platforms just haven’t been stable enough for my tastes, especially with Flash content (shut up, Steve - no one asked you). Now, though, Chrome is out of beta and faster than ever on all 3 major platforms.

Not surprisingly, Google devoted considerable attention to JavaScript with its latest release. Since the recent rewrite of Google Docs focused not on HTML 5 as many might have expected but on a new JavaScript engine to improve speed and functionality, Google has a clear interest in ensuring that JavaScript performance on Chrome (and, presumably, the Chrome OS) is top notch. According to Google’s Chrome blog,

In our most recent beta release, we fired up all engines to bring to life our fastest version of Chrome to date.

Today, we’re bringing all this beta goodness to the stable channel so that it’s available to all Chrome users. We’re particularly excited to bring Chrome for Mac and Linux out of beta, and introduce Chrome’s first stable release for Mac and Linux users.

Improved Flash integration is coming soon as well:

While Flash Player integration in the browser is not included by default in today’s stable release, we’re excited to enable this feature with the full release of Flash Player (version 10.1) soon.

I don’t care what anyone says - Flash isn’t dead and there is still plenty of fun, useful, or otherwise valuable content that employs Flash. I, for one, am more than happy to see Google get cozy with Adobe if it means a more seamless, faster web experience for me.

That’s not to say that Google has turned its back on HTML 5, and those who spend a lot of time in HTML 5-heavy sites (like Gmail and Google Drawings) will see improvements in these releases as well. According to InformationWeek,

Google also has rolled out more HTML5 features, such as geo-location application programming interfaces, app cache, Web sockets and drag-and-drop. The latter, for example, makes it possible to drag a file from a computer and turn it into an attachment by dropping it in an email being composed in Gmail.

Although I’m perfectly happy clicking away in Opera, Firefox, or Chrome/Chromium, the speed/stability improvements in this cross-platform release make for a pretty compelling argument to stick with Chrome, especially for those of us who spend a lot of time in Google Apps and AJAX-heavy sites.

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Google Inc., Beta, Google Chrome, Christopher Dawson

Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.

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Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.). He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change. He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have). Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others. Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair. Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards. Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap. Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff. Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable. Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.

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Screen Room

radleym 24th Nov 2010

The greatest feature of the new browsers to me is the use of screen real estate. I'm tired of browsers (and email programs) that use so much screen for toolbars etc. that there's little left for data - especially on those horrible 1024x600 netbook screens.

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RE: Google Chrome grows up: Out of beta on Mac/Linux

solidary121@... 27th May 2010

Chrome is definitely my browser of choice on any older PC - its speed advantage isn't quite as noticeable on a newer higher-end PC.

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I love chrome

shadfurman 27th May 2010

I don't notice the speed as much, but I've been impressed with the stability and layout since the first version. I really enjoy the "Incredible StartPage" and Evernote plugins.

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My only complaint

shadfurman 27th May 2010

is a weird issue with not being able to select more than one checkbox in hotmail... only after scroll down. I've reported it with every new version since it's release and it's yet to be fixed. I haven't verified it on another machine, but it's hard to imagine it somehow being specific to my box.

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Chrome is Liquid Smooth on Top End Machines!

i2fun@... 27th May 2010

Rarely crashes the whole browser, while all the others overload quickly as I'm a mulit-tab and multi-windowed browser lover. I tax my system as close as I can to the max. No puny browser getting sand kicked in their face need apply!

Chrome is designed faster, safer and simpler for good reasons. I mean why have a search bar taking up space when you can search in the address bar with the search bar space used for addons instead? Chrome is just so much more efficient at keeping you safe!

Notice at PWN2OWN Contest this year, Chrome was the only browser not hacked:
http://www.browserland.com/google-chrome/pwn2own-chrome-is-the-most-secure-browser/

Safe, Secure, Simple Web Browsing never looked so good and ran so fast as in CHROME!!! wink

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Annoying fault

rahbm 27th May 2010

I am impressed with Chrome generally and would be happy to make it my default browser - except for one very annoying fault. When I open a link in a new tab I then have to manually switch to that new tab to view the content. Apparently this is the default behaviour and cannot be changed. Why on earth would I bother to open a new tab if I didnt want to read it?

Sadly. Chrome will remain in my "look again later" pile until this silly omission is rectified and an option to change the default behaviour is added (as in Firefox).

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Don't Right Click Menu!

i2fun@... Updated - 27th May 2010

@rahbm All you do is left/click directly on the link. Then the link will open up in a new tab. You only right/click for other options. That's all you're doing wrong.

Remember, Chrome is an intuitive browser meant to minimize confusion by making common tasks much easier. I mean like Search bar? Why have it? It takes up space and when you get used to Chrome, you never go back! ....besides it being the most secure browser in existence!

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Thanks, but that doesn't work

rahbm 31st May 2010

@i2fun@...
"All you do is left/click directly on the link. Then the link will open up in a new tab."
HUH?
If I (left) click on a link, it opens in the current tab, not a new one....

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Great speed, but

wkulecz 28th May 2010

Without a popup blocker, Chrome is DOA for me. If one exists I can figure out where it is or how to enable it. Its not possible to be fast enough to overcome this annoyance.

Figures really, because at the end of the day, Google is an advertising company.

It'll be hard to get me off Firefox as with these few plug ins makes for a web experience I won't give up!

Firefox combined with: NoScript, Flashblock, Ad Block Plus, Video Download Helper, & Foxmarks. I'll add FireFTP to systems when they need actual FTP.