Introduction
It seems that the web browser war isn’t going to stop any time soon and we’ve got a new warrior in this war. That’s right! I’m talking about the newly invented Google Chrome, a web browser developed by the well known web technology innovator, Google.
The browser’s first beta went live on the 2nd of September (2008). I reviewed Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and Opera 9.5 a few weeks ago so when I heard about Google Chrome, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this brand new browser. So I downloaded it, installed it and I’m still using it today. To find out how this browser stacks up against Firefox and Opera, and to get to know the ins and outs of Chrome, you’re going to have to read on.
Main Features
Now let’s have a look at the features of Google’s Chrome:
Multiple-Tabbed Browsing with Separate Process Feature
The most common feature shared by almost all web browsers is of course multiple tabbed browsing. Like Mozilla, IE, Opera and Safari, Chrome also allows you to do multi-tab browsing. But, Chrome’s multiple-tab browsing is unique from other web browsers because:
Every tab in Google Chrome runs its own process; where as, none of the other web browsers offer this feature. You might be wondering how this feature is going to enhance your browsing experience. Well, you must have suffered when Firefox and IE crashed because of a single tab or if you accidentally hit the wrong X, the whole browser will shut down. Every tab in Google Chrome runs its own process so if any one or more tab stops responding, you can simply close that tab without affecting your entire browser.
To close a tab;
- Right click on the Tab bar.
- Select Task Manager from the menu.
Chrome will launch the Task manager - Google Chrome window.
Note: Browser in the above picture is the parent for the entire browser and can’t be shut down using Google Chrome Task Manager.
Select the tab you want to end and click on the End process button. To end multiple tabs, hold the Ctrl key and click on the tabs you want to end and click on the End process button to terminate the selected tabs.
You can view and end processes by using Windows Task Manager too, but like Google Chrome Task Manager, Windows Task Manager doesn’t list the tab’s service with the page title, so you won’t know what tab you’re shutting down.
New Tab Page
Whenever you launch Google Chrome or open a new tab, the browser will list recently visited pages, bookmarked pages, closed pages and most used search engines in thumbnails.
The new tab page windows look like this:
FYI: This feature is not the same as Opera’s speed dialing. Here the thumbnail view automatically stores the info of the visited sites.
A thing I don’t like about Google Chrome is that it only shows the last 9 visits in thumbnail form. For the recent list of history, you need to select Show full history » I think it would be better if the thumbnail contained browsing history in such a way that the most recent visits would display in the first thumbnail and so on.
One of the things you might want to do is set your new tab page to a blank page so that when you fire any tab, it won’t show the most recently visited page.
You can configure Google Chrome so that the next time you launch the browser, it’ll open the page you have it set to.
To set a page, you need to do the following:
Click the Wrench menu and select Options
Click the Basic tab (default).
Click the Open the following pages radio button.
Click the Add button.
Type the website address in the URL text box or select one from the list of recently visited sites.
Click the Add button.
Click the Close button. It’s as simple as that.