So as I’m sure everyone knows, Google Chrome is out. Whoop dee doo. I tried it. It does appear to live up to the hype presented in the announcement comic. However, there’s some hilarious things about Google Chrome and its release which are baffling:
HKCU:Run — Page 27 in the Googlebooks Chrome cartoon states, “…no telling Windows to run an executable on startup”, implying that malware/adware has the capability to do so. However, upon installing Chrome, you’ll find a new memory-resident process that runs at all times called GoogleUpdate.exe. What does it do? I don’t know. Does GoogleUpdate.exe stop when Chrome exits? Nope. Because of this, I decided to look at the HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Run portion of my registry. And what did I find?
"C:\Documents and Settings\jdc\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Update\GoogleUpdate.exe" /c
Upon uninstalling Chrome, you’ll find that the above HKCU:Run registry key *is not* deleted… because C:\Documents and Settings\jdc\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Update is never removed or emptied either. Ultimately what this means is that despite Google Chrome being removed from your system, you still have some creepy Google program lingering around in memory, and will continue to load even if you reboot the system.
Google, this is downright rude, and contradictory to what you’re presenting in Chrome itself. Knock it off.
Youtube — The Youtube-posted video about Chrome was obviously encoded with errors. There are numerous times throughout the video where for a single frame, the video “freaks out”. It’s obviously the result of bad/sloppy encoding or a buggy codec. I thought for a moment it might be Chrome itself that was causing the oddity, but it happens in Firefox and IE as well. Here are some example frames of what I’m talking about:
Real professional. No, really, nice job…
Installation — The Chrome installer is quite possibly the most bizarre thing on earth. I’ve seen people report it as “fast and incredible”, which makes no sense — it doesn’t appear to be fast, and you have absolutely no visibility into what it’s doing, who it’s talking to, or why it’s doing what it is. I also hope you don’t install programs in places other than C:\Program Files, because with Chrome’s installer (presently), you have no choice.
Processes — Chrome’s “separate process” concept is great, but upon examining the Windows Task Manager, I was shocked to find that by “separate process” they really did mean it. Five chrome.exe processes running? How do I know which is associated with what? I’m forced to use Chrome’s Task Manager if I want to do that… but what if the browser is completely wedged and I can’t get to that? Yep, better start killing off random processes until you get the right one. I already have to do this in Windows when it comes to Internet Explorer…
Tabs — either you love them or hate them. I’m one of the few who hate them. Why does Google insist they’re what I want with Chrome? I’m used to looking at my taskbar whenever a new window is made; it’s instinctive, which is why tabs in all other browsers are optional.
UI design — fairly horrible. I also want to know what jackfuck at Google decided the default minimise/maximise/close buttons should visually mimic that of Vista. I use Windows XP, and the theming on windows/borders/buttons is defined by me in Windows; per-application “theming” or “skinning” is absolutely horrible. This is a web browser, not Winamp or ThemeXP.
Miscellaneous — Why does the currently-focused HTML form input box have a gold border around it? It’s to signify what’s currently in focus, input-wise, I’m sure. But I know where my input is, because I’m the one who last clicked there… unless, of course, the web page is stealing or changing cursor focus on you, which should NEVER HAPPEN. So what’s the point?
Otherwise, it’s nice to see someone actually creating something from the ground up… oh wait, you’re using WebKit. Well, it’s *almost* from the ground up. ;-) In all sincerity though, I’m serious: I grow sick and tired of the “why re-invent the wheel?” attitude that is often toted in our industry — and I’m a UNIX guy.
2008/09/03 at 17:20
GOOGLE CHROME is a weird thing indeed.
It won’t let me download a full installer package, as you said. Instead I am allowed to download a tiny stub that initiates the real download, which proceeds without progress bars or indicators of any kind.
More from curiosity than anything else, I gave in and let it do that, and it installed the program in some weird place in which NO OTHER apps are installed: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data
It also installed a bunch of junk in my PAINT SHOP PRO plugins folder, in a subfolder called GEARS. What the hell?
After install I couldn’t move the program and make it work. I manually hosed it out of the system and stomped the embers with JV16. CHROME was too headstrong and ill-behaved. Maybe I’ll check it out later when there’s a portable version.
GOOGLE is becoming more obnoxious and sneaky by the day.
2008/09/07 at 18:47
You’ve captured my sentiments closely.
Despite their other EULAs, I really don’t trust Google in the long run. I don’t care what they say, I don’t like any process scanning my email (or worse, keystrokes) so I don’t use Gmail.
Then come the nits to pick. No version yet for Linux or Win2K – my stable main systems. What features of newer Windoze did they need to exclude coding for Win2K compatibility.
I hear the ‘mobile’ version of Chrome is out which has an updated EULA, doesn’t put crap in wierd places and doesn’t (?) install background services. You be the guinea pig :-).
No thanks, Google. Stick to your knitting, whatever that is.
2008/09/07 at 20:55
I’ve been using Chrome pretty frequently since it came out. So far
Pros…
* Yes, it’s fast … loads up almost instantly
* Each window/tab residing in it’s own exe/mem space means one stalling out or crashing won’t bring down whole browser … you just kill off the offending one and you’re done.
Cons…
* Each having its own mem-space can lead to mem-hogging … Firefox usually runs me ~20-30mb RAM when opened. Each Chrome instance runs 5-50mb RAM. You get several tabs/windows going, and you could easily eat up 100mb+ RAM. But with systems having GB of ram these days, it’s really a paltry complaint.
* Yes, it follows Acid, etc, but there’s no way to have it override the default font settings of pages! I use an flat panel monitor that has an optimized resolution in the 1600w range. When I open Chrome, most web fonts are so miniscule, like 6pt or 8pt font. I have to Ctrl-+ to increase font size. But that only affects my current tab/window. If I open new tabs/windows…back to default. They let you set options for fonts & sizes, but I see no impact.
* Likewise, how resizing web fonts won’t impact fixed-widths on the web-page, neither are flash pop-ups or movie files. Some pages you can Ctrl-+ to increse the total size of the web page, including embedded movies & flash. But not in Chrome. The font increases only…flash movies or other media do not. SOL.
* Web pages look amazingly crappy when they’re kept to their web programmers constraints. For instance, this blog we’re in right now has some max width setting that only uses 1/2 of my flat panel screen. If I Ctrl-+ to increase font size, the font increases but is mushed inside the same max width the blog keeps for itself. When you combine pictures, ad boxes, etc with text, these fixed-width sites can look down-right atricious when fonts are blown up to a readable level.
* No ad-block, flash-block, content-block. Chrome runs very fast, but not when 15 flash ads hog up the web page.
* Can’t right-click in bookmark menu to select auto-sort. WTH? This is like a no-brainer in all other browesers. You have to manually drag and drop your bookmarks into the alphabetical order you’d like them to be in.
However, keep in mind we’re just using a BETA. I’m sure the Google folks working on Chrome are getting an earful from folks who want all kinds of crap added under the sun, which would defeat the purpose of Chrome to begin with. We should definitely pat them on the back for coming through with flying colors on their initial goals.
2008/09/12 at 22:54
Everything google puts out is in beta, so you really cant justify the cons of chrome just because its in beta. What I dont like is that there is no bookmark organizer, and it leaves google installer after i uninstall it.