Sealan Cronin

A few days ago, Google released the latest Web Browser to hit our desktop. I think it’s great that we have a company such as Google who can throw time and money into projects such as this. The premise for Google Chrome is sound; the designers of today’s widely used Web browsers did not envision that the Web would be used how it is today. We’re not simply browsing the Web anymore, we’re interacting with a number of Web applications that users demand the levels of performance, reliability and security expected from our traditional desktop applications. The brains at Google have aimed to build a Web browser from scratch to satisfy the stringent non-functional requirements we demand of today’s Web applications.

Its software architecture is impressive; built using concepts found in modern operating systems. For instance, each tab is its own multi-threaded process that is managed by the browser – it even has its own task manager! Segmenting memory in this way allows each tab to be treated individually whilst providing protection from one another. So, if one tab crashes, it can crash gracefully and will not necessarily affect other applications currently running. Naturally, you would think that the overheads associated with switching between processes would degrade performance, in particular, the speed of the creation and switching between tabs. However, from what I’ve experienced, the browser is pretty swift overall, and arguably faster than its counterparts.

In terms of user interface, they’ve taken the good parts of all the other Web browsers and stuck them in one. So you’ll find Opera’s ‘quick dial’ and Firefox’s approach to bookmarks. However, it doesn’t zoom visually like Firefox or Internet Explorer 7 but instead much like Safari, which is bad in terms of accessibility (try zooming in and out on the BBC website for example). It has a very clean interface, which I rather like. I’m sure after its beta (which for Google, will probably be about 10 years!) together with all the feedback they’ll no doubtingly get, I imagine that Google Chrome will be a extremely well-polished piece of software.

It’s exciting times for Web applications. The integration of Google Gears into Chrome, which enables Web applications to run offline and act pretty much like their desktop counterparts, is beginning to remove the disadvantages to using Web versus desktop applications. With the ability to develop Web applications rapidly at lower costs, there is certainly a promising future for powerful and innovative software.

Download Google Chrome