I’m really liking Google Chrome, the new browser for Windows (Mac and Linux someday!) from everyone’s favorite Internet stock. Of course, like any Google product it’s a beta release, and likely to stay that way for the next 4-5 years. But somehow I feel like there may be some things that are too beta.
When you view a feed in most modern browsers, you either get a code-highlighted version of the XML or a nice XSLT-modified view of the feed as a web page. Google Chrome gives you this:

Which isn’t terribly helpful. By comparison, the browser whose engine they used for their rendering code, Safari, gives you this:

Which is only about a million times nicer.
Still, Chrome is pretty nice, all things considered. It may not be faster than Firefox, but it feels like it is because it isn’t loaded down with add-ons. Of course, that’s the other problem: no way to extend the browser means no ad-blocking. And I don’t imagine that Google plans on putting out a product that blocks their major revenue stream. So I’ll inevitably be switching back to Firefox. Again.
Update: Also insufferable: the built-in dictionary doesn’t seem to have any way to add new words, so my name will always be red-underlined until they fix that. Sigh.
September 4th, 2008 · Category: Technology · Tags: chrome, feeds, firefox, google, safari · 1 Comment »