Anyone have Google Chrome web browser or seen it?

The Google guys have now upped the ante in their rivalry with Microsoft. They are supposed to be releasing their version of a Web browser today. Has anyone seen it or had a beta of it? Opinions? I look forward to checking it out but so far it's not released yet (will be at www.google.com/chrome according to info I found). They do have a 'comic book' of sorts out on the new browser that tells a lot about it.

Some screenshots available at http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/01/first-public-screen-captures-of-google-chrome/ .

Should be launched any minute now according to BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7593106.stm .

And finally some official info on Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

I'm behind as usual :shakehead . I was going to start this thread
I'll be downloading this in a few weeks, after the first obvious bugs are gone.

Interesting! it will be launched this evening UK time,I will check it out for certain :twothumbs

exactly what time this evening :shrug:

Windows-only for right now - bummer, especially considering it's based off of the Mac-based WebKit framework (created by Apple, and used in Safari). :shrug:

The Mac & Linux versions are said to follow shortly.

john

useing it now it looks a lot diff but is very fast i like it so far

So far I tried downloading it and the first couple tries it said it was done downloading but was missing 2/3 of the .exe file. It finally looked like it was all there after several more tries (486,128 bytes) but when I click to run the install nothing happens at all. It just goes away. Anyone else having trouble with this. I'm quite experienced as a former computer and network specialist so I'm not missing anything obvious I don't believe. The only thing I can think of is that the download still did not complete even though it says it's done in my transfers. I'm sure their download servers are going like crazy right about now. I'm also guessing the little 486 kb file is just an install 'start' program that then accesses Google to further download and install components. Can someone confirm the exact size of the install file? TIA

One other observation - I opened the task manager and GoogleChrome.exe appears for about 1 second and then goes away. Nothing else happens. I'm betting it tries to access Google for more stuff but it's overloaded so badly at the moment that the install just quits.

Downloading it now. Back in a few minutes to report....

Okay, I'm back, running Chrome. Looks pretty slick. If you wish, it can import all your settings from Firefox, which I let it do. The setup was a little vague at spots, with delays that seemed that it was hanging, but it hadn't. I'll report again in a few hours after I've put a few miles on it. So far, so good....

Thanks for the report PhotonBoy! Good to hear from you. I just tried it on another computer here and got the same thing - nothing. I'm starting to think my local ISP is winking out on this in some way that the routing it needs is not working once I start the install. Does the install you download (486kb .exe file) go out and fetch a lot more during the setup?

Hi using it now,i had to download a plug in..to get hereit seems slow,but I am using a mobile connection

matrixshaman said:

Thanks for the report PhotonBoy! Good to hear from you. I just tried it on another computer here and got the same thing - nothing. I'm starting to think my local ISP is winking out on this in some way that the routing it needs is not working once I start the install. Does the install you download (486kb .exe file) go out and fetch a lot more during the setup?

Click to expand...

Hi Matrix, yeah, it downloads a small app that when run, finishes the job. As I mentioned, there are strange delays with no clickable buttons, making you think it's hung, but it hasn't. It seems faster than Firefox but it has a few quirks that I'll try to fine tune. For example, I like to middle click on a link, then instantly have the browser switch to the selected page. Chrome wants you to click on the tab after it's been added. Overall, fast and clean. I haven't found any gotchas or spoilers.... so far....

Just noticed the spell check,anyone else get it.
It seems to check as you type:twothumbs

[edited] yes I know I need it!,but it's cool IMO

Downloaded, installed, and runs without a hitch. I share PB's impression so far:

PhotonBoy said:

Overall, fast and clean.

Click to expand...

Google Chrome so far impresses me by a lot with its responsiveness. I'll be trying to use this as my primary browser for awhile and see how it treats me. Great experience so far although some incompatibilities with some sites like uploading to Flickr and popout windows in Meebo.

I just downloaded and installed it also.

I couldn't get it to import my stuff from FireFox for some reason. :shrug:

Everything seems pretty fast so far.

Haven't found how to install AdBlock yet.

Spellcheck is kinda nifty.

Waahhh! :laughing: Thanks again PhotonBoy for confirming that it fetches more to install. Still nothing here on 2 different computers. I even changed to OpenDNS temporarily to make sure my somewhat obscure provider wasn't blocking something. I click on the file Googlechrome.exe and nothing happens. I looked closely at my Router logs and firewall and DSL modem logs and see NO indication the executable is even trying to access the Internet. I'm stumped for the minute. I download all sorts of stuff and install it - I get stuff off giveawayoftheday.com quite often with no problems. I've killed off everything I can. Even shut down my Firewall briefly while running another safe machine feature to cover myself (Returnil). Still nothing. :thinking:

okay - thought about it - probably one of those obscure services I've got turned off - I went through every service running on Windows when I first got this version and turned off anything that is absolutely not needed. If this is the case than Google is using some fairly unusual service to Install this.

@matrixshaman have you tried it on a clean computer

Both computers I have access to now have been tweaked quite a bit - I went through every service and turned off anything not needed. Dcom and a lot of security holes have been manually plugged - that may be the problem but I'm not sure why Google would use something obscure or insecure to install. I'm digging through the list right now - may have something to do with the .NET framework. I'll get it eventually - good rainy day here for such troubleshooting.

I found something interesting. If you right click on the blue bar at the top (to the right of the tabs), it opens a drop-down menu. Click on Task Manager. It shows the memory and CPU used by each open window plus the network usage in kB/s. I run last.fm in a tab and I can see how much it's downloading to play music.

I'll wait for a couple days and make sure there isn't any terrible bug, and when they finally release it for Linux, I'll start to play with it. Imho it's an absolute crock that they tout an open source browser then don't release it for an open source OS.

By the way, firefox has had spellcheck for awhile... :thinking:
Though with 3 it's taken a dislike to any contractions underlining the "couldn" in couldn't for example.