Google Chrome "browser of browsers"?

Google Chrome is the new kid on the block, relative to the other heavyweights on the market, but it’s the richest. It is backed by one of the largest corporations on the planet and became a major player in a very short time.

Google Chrome is based on the WebKit layout engine and uses the V8 JavaScript engine. The software is free, but the source code is subject to a series of open source licences. Google poured money into the development of the Google Chrome browser, imposing an almost unprecedented development cycle. This type of management, releasing many smaller increments in a large number of releases, has caught on, and now Mozilla is following this pattern as well.

This rapid development cycle has managed to produce a ridiculous version number, at least in the eyes of the common user. The stable version of Google Chrome is 18.0.1025.162, the Beta version is 19.0.1084.36. and the Alpha version is 20.0.1115.1. and the most recent beta version is 22.0. The main reason why people use Google Chrome is because it looks simple and lightweight. I say looks because Google knew what it was doing. I wouldn’t be surprised if they hired some guys who only had one job, to make the interface as simple and functional as possible.

The browser also supports third-party extensions, and there are a lot of them. They are divided into extensions, which usually bring new or improved functionality, and web applications, which are more like third-party programs.

In addition to the apparent simplicity, Google Chrome is also lightweight and consumes much less resources than Mozilla Firefox. This is a web browser that I don’t have to restart in the middle of the day to reclaim some of the system memory.

It lacks a lot of features, some important and some not, especially on the Linux platform. You can’t really see the size of a file before you download it and there is no extension to provide this feature.

I have no doubts about the quality of Google Chrome and I am pretty sure that the third position it currently occupies in the world is well deserved. It’s light and fun to use, casually, but when it comes to heavy use it doesn’t measure up to its main competitor, Mozilla Firefox, at least on the Linux platform. I can’t recommend it anymore, but I can safely say that a year from now it will be very difficult to decide between web browsers. Google Chrome has made up a lot of ground in just a few years, and there’s no telling what innovations it will bring. 2012 will be a big year for end users as Google and Mozilla battle for supremacy.

My Ratings (4/5) Stars