Chrome (beta)

CNET editors' take

• Reviewed by:
  Robert Vamosi
• Reviewed on: 09/02/2008
• Released on: 09/02/2008

Google has released the beta version of a new browser, Chrome. In its comic-book preannouncement, Google stated correctly that watching videos, chatting, and even playing Web-based games didn't exist when browsers were first invented. Google wants the browser to help users focus on the applications and pages they are viewing, rather than on browser toolbars and buttons. Google has rethought the Internet browser--some of its basic underpinnings are quite novel--but users will recognize some features as they exist in other, open-source browsers on the market today.

At the moment, only the Windows version of Chrome is available for download. Plans call for Mac OS X and Linux versions in the near future. That said, Google has released Chrome in 43 languages and in 122 countries.

Chrome is based on the open-source project Webkit, the same rendering engine used by Apple Safari. If a page renders in Safari, it will render in Chrome. Webkit is also the basis for Android, Google's mobile platform, so it seems that Google is planning to use Chrome in mobile environments.

The interface in Chrome is very different from other browsers and takes a little getting used to. Instead of the traditional Netscape/IE-style toolbar across the top, Chrome puts tabs across the top. Moreover, the tabs are detachable, so the terms "tabs" and "windows" become interchangeable within Chrome. Detached tabs can be dragged and dropped into the browser, and tabs can be rearranged at any time.

New tab pages display your nine most visited Web pages, as well as the searches you perform most, and your most recent bookmarks. Within each tab are individual controls, such as forward and back buttons. Missing is the search box. Instead, Chrome sports a hybrid address bar, which Google calls the Omnibox. The Omnibox includes not only suggestions for URLs culled from your browser's history, but it also includes search suggestions from Google. URL Auto completion in Chrome is for top-level domains, not just some individual page you last visited on a site. There are also other neat additional elements; for example, if you go to Amazon and type within its search box to find a book or CD, Chrome remembers that Amazon search and when it next suggests the Amazon URL in the Omnibox, it also include a link to Amazon's search box.

Application Shortcuts is a feature that allows you to create desktop icons for Web-only applications, such as Gmail or Calendar.

And there's a stealth mode, as well. Like IE8 InPrivate, Chrome has its own incognito mode. The Incognito window looks different: it's darker and has a little detective character in the upper left corner to help you remember it's not remembering the Web sites you visit. Although the Omnibox in Incognito has access to the regular Chrome history, everything typed into that stealth tab will be erased when you exit, as though you were never there.

Chrome deals with pop-up dialogues in a novel way. Pop-ups associated with a Web page appear within that page's tab, so if you want to see a pop-up in greater detail, just drag it out into its own new window. This carries over to downloads as well. Instead of using a pop-up dialogue, downloads are shunted to the bottom of the tab frame where you can monitor or interact with them if you wish.

Compare prices for Chrome

Download for free from CNET Download.com.

Recent user reviews

• Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 120 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 3 of 120 user reviews

• 4.5 stars

  "Chrome or Firefox?"

  on November 8, 2009

• 4.5 stars

  "Amazing.. Just amazing"

  by seider7 on October 19, 2009

• 5.0 stars

  "Fast, slick, great, clean, and just plain awesome."

  by Dav244835 on October 3, 2009

• See all 120 user reviews Write review