I am working on an article on Google Chrome and have been exploring the various usability/UI features and the internal architecture.
In terms of the User Interface, IMO Google Chrome scores with the following features : (in order of my likeness)
- Application Shortcuts: Using this feature you can place a Desktop/Start Menu shortcut to a web application of your choice. Whenever you launch the web app using the shortcut, you will not see any of the browser features- Back/Forward/Reload buttons and misc other browser features. All you see is the web application. In a sense the website starts behaving like a true web application on the desktop and does not give the impression of running in a browser. I like this feature since I often have applications like GMail running all-day and all I need is the web application and not the browser with all its features. More on Application shortcuts here
- No Crab like mentality : If 1 out of the 10 tabs open crashes, its the ONLY one. The other 9 are usable and safe. No crab like mentality
- Task Manager : Google Chrome has a multi-process architecture at its core and has an inbuilt task manager that lists the various processes currently running under the browser. Think the core browser to be your OS and the open tabs, plugins as processes. More here
- Dynamic Tabs: With tabs as the primary focus, Google Chrome has truly dynamic tabs enabling a seamless tab based browsing experience. More here
All the features are listed here at http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/features.html
A must-watch video is the Google Chrome announcement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRmrMiOWdfc&feature=user
I don't see anything special about dynamic tabs, I already have all that in Safari. And seriously, the day I need a task manager in my browser is the day I switch off my internet connection.
Posted by 192.18.1.36 on September 30, 2008 at 10:06 PM IST #