Once upon a time, there was only Internet Explorer. High and mighty, proud and haughty. The poor Internet denizens of the world had to use what IE gave them, without question. It had no popup blockers, no problem. It had no multi-tabbing, no problem. It was partial to Windows, no problem at all. It was the Internet browser and most people did not know anything else. IE ruled. In the nineties, it had a 90% market share in the Internet browser market.
There was a teensy weensy browser that some people used and was slowly proving to be a competition to IE at that time. This was the Netscape Navigator. Remember the black lighthouse in the blue sky icon? Yes, this was it. NN, though small fry compared to IE, was growing. IE, of course, did not like it and the cold war began. In the late nineties, IE ate up NN with a clean sweep. It made the very intelligent business decision of bundling up with Windows systems, so that if anyone installed the Windows operating system, they got IE for free.
That killed NN, and it was obvious why that happened. Other browsers that existed at that time did not even count. But did NN sleep? NO! It resurfaced, and how! It went open source. It came reborn as Mozilla Firefox and swept the world away. For the first time, here was a browser that was extremely user-friendly. It allowed people to open multiple tabs at once. Professional web users could not have several tabs open in the same window and experience the convenience of multi-tabbed browsing. It had easier to control privacy settings. It had downloadable themes and other features. Mozilla Firefox was the way to go. New browsers that came in during that period thought of competing with Mozilla Firefox and not IE.
That was an indication of its popularity. IE, if anything, is a strong business operator. The fact that most people of the world use Windows and that IE is the default for Windows, it has also become the default browser of the world ever since it was developed. Even today, IE occupies about 75% of the market share, where Mozilla Firefox occupies 20% because of its great features. But that equation is to change now. The Google Chrome has been launched. It is very important, when reviewing Google Chrome, to hark back to history a little. That is why I refreshed you on the Internet wars of the nineties.
Because that war is going to be staged all over again with Google Chrome in the business. But this time, IE will not be able to win hands down, because its competition is with Google, the Internet users’ manna from heaven. At first look, Google Chrome has advantages over every other browser today. As soon as it is launched, you can see the advantages. It does away with the top taskbar, a bane in all browsers I think, and thus increases the work area. If you are a professional web user, you will surely appreciate that. Like everything else that Google is famous for, the look here is stark and minimal. It actually tells you, "I am not here; this is your work area!" unlike IE who tells you, "I am all here and you are working in my space!" That’s where the big difference lies. Multi-tabbing is present, of course.
It seems that the tabs open much faster than in Mozilla Firefox even. I wouldn’t know technically why this happens, but I have experiencing this over the past 24 hours. Google Chrome tabs are opening faster. The same can be said about email attachments. I just attached a folder containing 50 doc files and mailed them to a client. The attachment was done in well under a second. That’s awesome speed, whatever other contention you might have. There are privacy options and setting options, just like in other browsers, but they are minimized in a right hand side icon so they don’t intrude in your workspace in any way. Among other things, it allows you to open the tabs that were last open on the browser.
That’s a big benefit for professionals who have to shut down their computers at the end of the day and open the same windows the next day. Mozilla Firefox has this option too, but it is hidden in all the clutter and not many people know about it. Google Chrome brings it out starkly. The browser is intelligent. It will remember the websites you visit most often and show them on any new tab that you open. It will also show you your bookmarks here, so you don’t really need to manually open your bookmarks tab. Such small things definitely add up to the speed. You will find that there are no toolbars here yet.
I am not sure if you can download the toolbars for the browser, especially the Google toolbar which most people find much needed. But with the fast speed that the browser provides, it is definitely no sweat to open another tab and load the Google homepage itself. That’s an absolute switching-over convenience too. Finally, this is still a beta version. Google Chrome is open source, so it will undergo a lot of development. But it is quite likeable as it is. If you are professional web user, this web browser is for you.
If you look for bells and whistles and a more colorful experience, stick to your old browsers till you learn better. By the way, if you are switching over from another browser to Google Chrome(I have tested this with Mozilla Firefox, my default browser until yesterday), Google Chrome will automatically import all your information from the old browser. Also, I would like to see how IE catches up. It always catches up with developments in other browsers, like IE7 did with Mozilla Firefox. Now, IE 8 is in the pipeline. Surely it will have something as an answer for Google Chrome. Let’s wait and watch.