Digital Media Buzz > Browser Wars: Will Google’s Chrome Shine?

Browser Wars: Will Google’s Chrome Shine?

By Sherry Londo-Thomas

Screenshot of Google Chrome

Google has slated a series of TV ads to promote its Chrome browser to help polish its lackluster performance. At number four, behind Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer, Google hopes its ads, designed by the company’s Japan-based team, will give the company the needed boost to outshine its competitors.

Although Chrome’s design is cleaner and faster than its competitors, one of the commercials, on first viewing, seems a bit child-like. The ad opens with a hand holding the circular green, red and yellow Chrome logo, with its blue center. The hand places the logo on a board filled with various wooden shapes. The logo bounces from side to side, and as it hits each shape, the shapes disappear, until all that’s left are the essential ones (representing Chrome icons).

“After releasing this video on the Web, we got lots of positive feedback and thoughtful comments. We designed a Google TV Ads campaign, which we hope will raise awareness of our browser … we’re excited to see how this test goes and what impact television might have on creating more awareness of Google Chrome,” states a blog entry at Google’s blog site.

Since the debut commercial, Chrome has come out with an even faster browser — Chrome 2. The JavaScript engine is bigger than its predecessor, and the speed in which it operates claims to be faster than the competition.

Although Chrome’s features are more complex, it’s not noticeable for those surfing the Web. Chrome is an open source code and uses Webkit. One of the first things you’ll notice, unlike its competitors, is its clean and uncluttered look. Since there is less clutter, it’s faster than the more popular browsers. The drag-and-drop feature is another plus. Users can drag any text or link and drop it into the search box.

Chrome’s Incognito feature allows private browsing. This private mode is referred to as stealth browsing and lets you peruse the Web anonymously. The great thing about this is after the Incognito window is closed, Chrome deletes cookies and passwords. Also, the download manager is unobtrusive, and sits at the bottom of the downloading tab.

Chrome doesn’t assault the user with a lot of unnecessary tools such as additional toolbars and icons. It breaks browsing down to its simplest form, making it faster than its competitors.

Coming in at the top of the heat is Safari 4.0. The speed is great, but some users complain about the tab placement being at the top of the browser, causing some to forget the tabs are there. According to Web designer expert Sholom Sandalow, users are unhappy with the new placement. “In this new version of Safari, the tabs (which you use to browse multiple Web pages simultaneously in one window) are physically located at the very top of the browser window. The address bar, and all the other Web page navigation controls, are now situated underneath your tabs,” Sandalow said. Users are so unhappy, that they’ve made calls to Apple to complain.

Opera’s browser is tuned into the needs of its users. Not only is surfing with them practical, but it’s also fun to maneuver. One of the stand-out features of Opera is interactive voice. Users can give voice commands to browse the Web. And if you’d like for Opera to read the text to you, it can do that as well.

Although Opera seems to be a great browser, because it isn’t as well known as Firefox and Internet Explorer, it isn’t compatible with many of sites. However, recently, Opera has made improvements concerning this issue.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 performs better than previous versions. In spite of the bugs and security issues Internet Explorer has had in the past, it is still the leader for browser use. However, Google’s Chrome is actively pursuing their lead. Although fairly new, compared to other browsers, Chrome has so out shined its competition that it has earned the Top Ten REVIEWS Silver Award.

Google’s browser is currently in the number four spot, but the company realizes that TV is still the best way of getting the word out on products. With these ads, Google is hoping to eventually overtake Internet Explorer and, like Google’s search engine, become number one.

Not everyone is excited about Chrome. According to ZDNet in Australia, a spokesperson from Google said, “Users do not get a notification when they are updated … When there are security fixes, it’s crucial that we update our users as quickly as possible in order to keep them safe. Thus, it’s important for us to not require user intervention,” the company said in a statement.

With this type of concern, hopefully the TV ads are enough to make Chrome a shining star among its competitors.