The new browser looks good at first glance, but how does it stand up against Firefox and Microsoft in terms of speed?
It’s new, it’s shiny and it’s finally here. Whispers of a Google browser have been floating around the web ever since the time Google declared it wouldn’t enter the so called ‘browser wars’ in 2001.
Much has changed since then, including a significant partnering with Mozilla’s Firefox browser, among other developments in Google ranging from Google's apps to Google maps and toolbar.
But a Google Browser?
It’s makes perfect sense to us; the strategic synergy between Google search and the user browsing experience has been one of Google’s major objectives, ever since the browser was put into development two years ago.
So, how fast is it really?
All this talk of a shiny quick browsing experience from Google would amount to very little without some testing and real world comparisons to place it against. So we did just that – downloaded the browser for ourselves and tested it against the two biggest competitors in web browsing software; Microsoft IE 7 and Mozilla Firefox V3.
Chrome V8 architecture - the secret ingredient?
A big part of Chrome is based on its proprietary V8 and webkit developed ‘sandboxing’ or multi-process architecture, where tabs within the browser contain their own unique processes, in much the same way that your desktop O.S controls specific software applications.
The beauty of a sandboxed design allows Chrome the flexibility to deal with malware and spyware in a non-intrusive manner. This also solves the ‘domino effect’ crash experienced in browsers such as IE, where if one tab breaks down, the entire browsing experience is often compromised.
Chrome Googlebusters – say goodbye to malware and spyware
Each tab in Chrome is best described as a kind of single entity that allows neither spyware or malware to read and write to the operating system because it’s run as a separate process.
After the tab is closed, the danger is gone. That’s Google’s way of targeted self-containment, Ghostbusters style.
Powered by a beefy V8 engine, but too fast to accurately test?
Google did admit that it will be hard to quantify the speed of Chrome because many developers will not have developed apps for the chrome V8 engine at the time of launch.
Chrome favours a fully open sourced approach (much like Firefox) with a powerful JavaScript engine that is said to make their browser (through V8) a great deal faster than the competition - or so the engineers at Google say.
So while conclusive tests may not be quite clear yet, it's interesting to see in our first play with the browser that it didn't seem much faster - loading the homepage of some well-known sites, at least.
Loading amazon, Chrome was on par with Firefox v3 (3.0.1), taking 9 seconds, which was miles quicker than IE 7 which took 15 seconds. Second time round (to allow for the cache effect), Chrome was around the same as IE at about 4 seconds, vs 5 for Firefox.
But Chrome seemed to take a touch longer on our PC, loading other sites - it took around 10 seconds on digg,versus about 7 seconds for IE. But at these minuscule ranges, it's still very hard to complain.
At Google Maps, we clicked on Sydney and searched for 688 George Street. The time includes typing it in at an average typing speed. The whole process wasn't that much faster in Chrome, taking 12 seconds first time round, versus 14 for IE.
Overall Usability ratings
Chrome has added a nice touch to their browser that automatically suggests the web address based on Google search technology. Most of the suggestions it offers were almost always accurate for us every time.
As a browser, it does feel majorly stripped down - to the point where casual users may miss their normal toolbars. There are options to import bookmarks from Firefox and other settings can be applied to make it feel more like your usual browser. But at this point in time, don’t expect Google toolbar to be Chrome ready. Google has made it abundantly clear to us that Chrome is independent of their current products.
So while Chrome doesn't appear to have a big speed advantage, we predict that by the time V8 developed apps hit the web, Chrome may well be at the forefront of browser technology.
For now, it’s little more than a great alternative and nothing more earth shattering than that. Until further tests are carried out, don’t expect browsing miracles. Chrome works and it works well. That’s plenty for now.