Google Chrome stirs talk and tech on the web
I missed the opportunity to blog about Google’s new web browser when it released yesterday. Not really a big deal, because it won’t change much on the web overnight, anyway. It does some cool stuff, but I’m going to wait to see the long-term impact.
Chrome pushes Javascript technology forward
A lot of people see Chrome as a reason for the Mozilla Foundation to start worrying. We’ll see. I think Adobe stands to lose a little more: Flash. There’s been a trend lately to use AJAX frameworks like Scriptaculous to do a lot of the things that, ten years ago, made Flash a huge success. The only problem is, Flash performs better than Javascript.
However, a handful of Javascript technologies are pushing the language forward, and Flash is becoming more complicated. When Flash loses the advantage of simplicity, the cost advantage of open-source Javascript frameworks will win out. Sure, Flash will still play a role in online multimedia, like videos and music, but even in that space, Adobe is facing a lot of competition from newer technologies, and not reacting to that competition fast enough.
Chome’s UI is not original, but borrows from the best
I’ve also read plenty of blogs criticizing Google for their rhetoric about how innovative Chrome is, despite lacking a single original idea in its user interface. Those criticisms are valid. However, Chrome does seem to be the first browser to have every good idea all in one browser.
As it is on a Mac, I love using Firefox for its smart URL bar (which I hear was done elsewhere first, for those who care to nitpick), but its input form widgets horrible on OS X. Safari’s input form handling, however, is sublime. And that’s just a shortened example, the list really does go on.
What Chrome seems to offer is all the best UI ideas from several different browsers, rolled into one package, and that’s great – except for one major flaw.
UI layout suffocates tab freaks
If you’re one of those people who always has at least six different tabs open in your browser at any given moment, Chrome will punish you. Because the tabs are at the top of the window, they take up the space normally occupied by the title bar. Which is fine, in a way, because the tabs display the title, too, right?
The problem is, the title bar is how the window manager allows users to drag the window around their desktop. If you have enough tabs open, all that space will be occupied by tabs, leaving you with a very, very small target at the top for you to click on and drag the window. Ouch.
All in all, I don’t know what to think of Chrome. I have a hard time imagining it posing a serious threat to Firefox – especially without Firefox’s community-driven browser extensions. At the same time, if Mozilla hasn’t already implemented Chrome’s ideas about memory management and security into Mozilla 2.0 (which I doubt… anyone else know?), it’ll be a long time before the next engine they release ships in a browser release — possibly too long.
derek h
Dan Hiester