Chrome - Google's new browser

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 03 Sep 2008, 15:02

http://www.google.com/chrome/

Has anyone tried it yet?

I can't be bothered TBH, I'm happy with Firefox as my primary and IE7+Opera as backups.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 03 Sep 2008, 15:30

I'm more than happy with Avant, which is perfect for me.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 03 Sep 2008, 17:57

I saw that. It's bound to be missing shed loads IE7 and FF2 has, the first release of anything is rarely super duper.

I cannot be arsed either. Firefox is the dogs nadges and IE7 when I have to use it. The world really doesn't need anther browser.

I am looking forward to Google Android though. That should give the iPhone some decent competition, the less said about Windows Mobile the better (although v7 due out early next year does look like it "could" be as good as the iPhone).

I didn't much like Opera personally.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 04 Sep 2008, 05:08

bradavon wrote:I didn't much like Opera personally.

When was the last time that you used it? It's probably evolved quite a bit since then.

I found an ad blocking filter list that's just as good as the ones available for Firefox's Adblock Plus.

The less said about the POS used by Yi, the better.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 04 Sep 2008, 13:03

Apparently it has a porn viewing mode called "Incognito".

This would be useful for the simpletons who don't know how to empty their caches and histories.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 04 Sep 2008, 20:09

So when in Incognito mode no personal data is saved right? I thought I'd leave it up to you to comment on Avant

.

I used Opera about 2 years ago. I doubt the general UI has changed much (UIs rarely do) and it was that that I didn't much like. It was messy and illogical. At least with Firefox it's not too dissimilar to other browsers.

Firefox (except for it's memory leak, that's there by design) is pretty much perfect.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Sep 2008, 12:41

10 Features of Google Chrome (3:37 Minutes):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlh8gSF_hhE

It looks 99% the same as IE7, which also has a minimalist interface and opens quickly.

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One feature I'd love that it amazes me no browser has out of the box is: Internet bookmarks. So I can install a browser of my choice, login somehow and my bookmarks are automatically added from the web. I have loads of bookmarks on my PC but there's never a simple way to view them on another PC or even a Web cafe type PC where I'm not able to install/configure stuff.

It would need to directly interface with the Bookmarking functionality inside the browser to be effective. You have to mess around exporting/copying them out of the browser then e-mail/copy them to a USB Stick before re-importing them again on to the new PC. That strikes me as so outdated.

EDIT: I've found these two, the first looks like it provides a Bookmarks Menu (separate from the main one):

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4496
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2410

But it's still pointless if you have to install an extension for it to work (for me anyway). Sure I could install these at home and work but what about when travelling/holiday? You cannot be expected to install the extension on every PC you may use and this isn't always possible.

It's also rather overly messy too. I don't change my bookmarks that often but when I do I want the changes to be on any PC I access.

At the moment I have to add it on one PC and e-mail the link home to manually add it on the second PC. I also have my bookmarks in a bookmarks.htm file stored on my webspace.

This works well enough but it's messy having to navigate to this to access my bookmarks when away.

It needs to be "out of the box"!

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 05 Sep 2008, 15:29

It's built upon WebKit, apparently. (Another open source browser engine, by Apple originally, similar to Mozilla's Gecko.)

Brad, why don't you use Delicious and mark your bookmarks as private or something? I haven't really looked into it, but Wikipedia say this:-
All bookmarks posted to Delicious are publicly viewable by default, although users can mark specific bookmarks as private, and imported bookmarks are private by default.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Sep 2008, 15:32

Thanks Eva. I've thought about using that but I always come back to the simple truth that a "website" just isn't the best way of viewing bookmarks. It needs to be a drop down menu in the application to be effective. With Delicious you have to leave a tab open just for your bookmarks.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 05 Sep 2008, 15:41

bradavon wrote:Thanks Eva. I've thought about using that but I always come back to the simple truth that a "website" just isn't the best way of viewing bookmarks. It needs to be a drop down menu in the application to be effective. With Delicious you have to leave a tab open just for your bookmarks.

It's a good compromise to your "ease of access whilst travelling" dilemma though.

I use webmail exclusively, I gave up on client programs several years ago. I like having to the option of permanently archiving messages, with minimal hassle. With web-based I don't have to worry about backing up messages if I buy a new PC, reinstall Windows, etc.

As a child, then teenager, I didn't have the option of paying for a POP3 account. Years ago I seriously doubt that there were many, if any, free POP3 services that would let you save messages server-side for several years.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Sep 2008, 18:19

Have you never heard of IMAP?

I use Outlook 2007 + IMAP on my Main PC and Webmail when elsewhere. Webmail cannot compete to a Desktop application for efficiency and wealth of features, it just cannot.

IMAP means I am accessing my online mail directly but can use proper Desktop software to access it. When I use Webmail I access the exact same messages/folders. Unlike POP3 where mail is downloaded and disconnected from the mail online.

I can buy a new PC give it the IMAP details and my mail starts to download, folders are synchronised back and fourth too.

EvaUnit02 wrote:It's a good compromise to your "ease of access whilst travelling" dilemma though.

True. I'll probably stick to exporting my FF Bookmarks before I travel for now. It works well enough, if I remember to export them. This use to be easier with FF2 as it was just a Bookmarks.htm I could easily copy, it's now some odd JSON file.

I could even use Sync software to copy the Bookmarks file directly to my Webspace (using WebDAV).

Paying for POP3??? I've never paid for it. Hotmail is the only Webmail provider that insists on charging for it. Yahoo too if you live in North America (Internationally it's free). All other providers POP3 is free.

POP3 is pretty bollocks though. I only use it occasionally nowadays and on slow connections (i.e - dial-up) because it is quicker than IMAP but purely because all it checks is the Inbox. It also has no Sync function meaning which isn't what you want over Dial-up.

The only real downside to IMAP is lack of support. Yahoo still don't offer it to the masses (it's offered on some mobile packages) and virtually no ISP based mail does too. If they do it's rarely advertised.

They don't tend to offer it as most don't understand what it is, so don't use it and it does produce a much bigger pull on the servers over POP3.

Google Mail and GMX are the only Webmail providers I know of that offer IMAP. IMAP (and it's built in Webspace, also supporting WebDAV!) is the reason I've moved from Yahoo to GMX. If Yahoo were to offer IMAP I'd probably have stuck with them.

I tried Google Mail but it's interface and threaded approach to messages is hideous. I couldn't stand it. Like the Ipod, GMail is so overrated. It's Search engine is very good though, as is Google Maps (although Microsoft Live Maps is better).

free POP3 services that would let you save messages server-side for several years.

When you were a teenager Yahoo/Hotmail were around and allowed for saving messages server side. Yahoo has offered free POP3 since day dot (except in North America). Space was an issue but then it was for every Webmail provider back then.

I remember travelling for 6 months in 2002 and having to make do with 6Mb of Mail storage

, compared with Hotmail's 2Mb it was massive. Remarkably (I cannot think how) I managed to cope just fine with 6Mb.

I do agree that I'd never use ISP based mail though. Their Webmail interface is always awful, if it even has one at all.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 05 Sep 2008, 18:49

bradavon wrote:This use to be easier with FF2 as it was just a Bookmarks.htm I could easily copy, it's now some odd JSON file.

You can still export your bookmarks as an HTML file from within the latest version of Firefox.

Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > Import & Backup > Export HTML.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 05 Sep 2008, 21:09

Probably best not to use it:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/software/ ... counts-/p1

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Sep 2008, 21:18

IronMonkey wrote:You can still export your bookmarks as an HTML file from within the latest version of Firefox.

Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > Import & Backup > Export HTML.

True. That's how I do it now but it's now a manual process whereas before I could Sync the bookmarks.htm direct from FF to my WebDAV Webspace or Backup Drive (even with FF open at the time). I could just copy the file direct from my FF profile.

The advantage of the FF2 (and older) way of doing it was the bookmarks file was just a plain Jane HTML file and could be read in any web browser ever created.

I cannot see any advantage to moving away from a bookmarks.htm to a JSON file. I guess there is one.

gasteropod wrote:Probably best not to use it:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/software/ ... counts-/p1

WOW! What a fuck up.

This sort of thing really should get noticed before even a Beta release. Speaking of Beta, who'd use the web on a Beta browser? Browsers by definition are never going to be 100% without making it worse.

IE has this option too but it's hidden in "Advanced settings" and has always been disabled by default. Only a nut job would cache encrypted sites.

Imagine using Chrome on a shared PC, such as an Internet cafe!

Once when I was in Bangkok I went to Yahoo to login and to my surprise I had full access to someone's e-mail. The fool hadn't bothered to logout and had just closed the window. Due to the nature of Webmail I had full access. As I'm trustworthy I logged off and logged in myself.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Sep 2008, 21:32

Has anyone ever told you, you look like Geoffrey from Rainbow Gasteropod? -

http://www.virginmedia.com/images/geoff ... 31x300.jpg

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 05 Sep 2008, 22:07

Nah you're definitely the first one lol, on most nights out I get called 'Mighty Boosh' by strangers though.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 06 Sep 2008, 08:14

bradavon wrote:The advantage of the FF2 (and older) way of doing it was the bookmarks file was just a plain Jane HTML file and could be read in any web browser ever created.

I don't see your point. You can still export it as a "plain Jane" HTML file which any other browser will read, so how has Firefox 2 (or older) get an advantage?

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 06 Sep 2008, 08:14

Yeah, him too. I prefer the Geoffrey likeness myself

.

Speaking of The Mighty Boosh. I really don't need the appeal of that show, it's mildly amusing at best.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 06 Sep 2008, 11:05

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 06 Sep 2008, 17:20

My mum and I are off to see the Boosh live at Sheffield Arena in January and we can't wait!

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 07 Sep 2008, 07:38

The Mighty Boosh is the biggest load of supposed comedy excrement that I've witnessed in years.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 07 Sep 2008, 16:27

It's surrealism, maybe Little Britain is more up your alley then *shudder*.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 07 Sep 2008, 17:10

I'm not a big fan of sketch-shows. Occasionally there's a nice sketch that's very funny and memorable, but more often than not the majority of the sketches is utter crap.

Also sketch-shows usually suffer from only 1 or 2 of the cast being actually talented and funny, and the rest of the cast is usually lame.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 07 Sep 2008, 17:51

I don't like sketch shows either, they're often repetitive and unfunny. In Little Britain's case: extremely irritating.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 07 Sep 2008, 18:09

Little Britain is annoying now. Harry Enfield was better in the 90's (though the new series has its moments). I do like Armstrong and Miller though