A Web Developer’s Review of Google Chrome

December 10, 2015

A Review of the Google Chrome Internet Browser

Google Chrome is an internet/web browser developed by Google. It was first launched in 2008, and it has been gaining popularity at lightning speed since then. According to StatCounter’s latest report about worldwide usage share of browsers, Google Chrome takes up 46.01 per cent of worldwide web browser usage share, and Apple Safari has 12.39 per cent of the total usage share, followed by Internet Explorer with a 9.69 per cent market share. The contributors to this compelling achievement is not only because of the big name – “Google”, but also the usability of the product itself.

Google Chrome is a successful example of UI design, functionality and speed. Of course, Chrome isn’t prefect. If you value your privacy, Google Chrome might not be your top choice. In the following article, you can check out some of pros and cons, and weigh them up yourself to decide if Google Chrome is the right browser for you. In addition, we also list several useful Chrome extensions that may be of interest to you.

Pros

Handy installation

Google Chrome values its speed very much as the speed is crucial to user experience. The whole installation process takes less than a minute without additional wizard to unzip or system to restart. In addition, Google Chrome is available on most devices (e.g. iPad, iPhone, Samsung etc.) as well as various operating systems (e.g. MAX OS X, Linux and Windows etc.).

Robustness

If you have ever used Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox web browsers, you might have already encountered a “crash”. Internet Explorer and Firefox shut down and restarts itself when users open a bad web page or faulty application; however this is much less likely to happen in Google Chrome due to its multiple-process architecture. More specifically, each tab/window has its own virtual environment; therefore, when a fault occurs, Chrome only aborts that particular window or tab without taking the entire browser down.

Dynamic Homepage

Chrome has a very tidy and straight forward homepage. As you use it, it remembers the most visited sites and displays them as snapshots in grids. In addition, it has a Google search bar with built-in voice search on the homepage. Even if Google is the developer, you are not imposed on when using the Google search engine. You can change your default search engine as well as set up your own homepage.

Syncing with your account

This is one of my favourite features. It isn’t a complicated function but works well for me. Once you are signed in with your Google account, your bookmarks, browsing history, passwords, preferences, themes, extensions all become sync-able. Wherever you wish to access them, you can simply sign in and “Confirm Sync Preferences”.

Built-in device compatibility tools

It is an extremely handy and useful feature for web development. To test the responsiveness on different devices, you don’t have to go on a third party website and pay for the testing. Google Chrome has it built-in, right click the mouse and choose “Inspect element”, and then you can pick the device you wish to test at the top left corner.

Cons

Passwords in plain text

The passwords you get Google Chrome to remember are stored in plain text. Anybody who can view your Google Chrome browser is able to access those passwords, through Settings -> Show advanced settings… -> Manage passwords.

No warning upon closing Chrome

This is something that annoys me. If you accidently close the browser, all tabs are closed without warning.

Some useful Google Chrome Extensions

If you have decided to go use Google Chrome, you might find this helpful.

AdBlock: The #1 ad blocker, which blocks ads on the web, including abs on YouTube and Facebook.
Google Dictionary (by Google): View definitions of any words by double-clicks while surfing on the Internet.
Facebook Notifications: Notify you if there is any Facebook notification while you browsing other pages
Google Calendar (by Google): Check Google Calendar and directly create an event from the site you visit.
Capture Webpage Screenshot Entirely: Snapshot FULL webpage, edit and save to PDF/JPEG/GIF/PNG/BMP.
Stylish: Install themes and skins for many popular sites.
LastPass: Free Password Manager: Manage your passwords in a more secure fashion
Print: Prints the current page
Google Translate: view instant translations as you browse the web