Google Chrome

By Bradley Shively

Chrome is developer jargon for the parts of your web browser that reside outside of the actual page that you are viewing.  This includes the back and forward buttons, the status bar displayed below the page, and the address bar.  When Google set out to build their new browser, they wanted to change the way that people interact with the internet, and especially web applications.  This meant getting the browser out of the user’s way, so that he or she could focus on the task at hand, rather than the tool being used to perform the task.  Choosing to name their browser Chrome, therefore, was ironic, as one of the major interface improvements that is presented in the software is that it features much less chrome than its competitors.

Google Chrome is based on the open source Webkit browser engine.  Webkit, which is also the core of Apple’s Safari browser, is known for being leaner and faster than other competing web browsers.  The most notable advantage is Webkit’s enhanced performance on JavaScript-intensive tasks.  Since the majority of web applications employ AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML – the code that allows your Facebook status to be updated and your Gmail messages to be deleted without reloading the page), these types of sites often perform better in Webkit than in browsers based on other technologies.

While building on the Webkit foundation was a great start in improving the web application experience, Google wanted to push the envelope further with Chrome.  To do this, they had to tackle the design and implementation of a JavaScript engine in a way that no one had ever done before.  Google contracted the V8 Team, based out of Denmark, to build an entirely new JavaScript virtual machine (VM).  The V8 team specializes in developing highly efficient, custom VMs.  With the improved performance of the V8 JavaScript engine, web applications feel more like their desktop counterparts because the delay in response is greatly reduced; the apps simply have more “zip.”

If Internet Explorer is the Model T, and Firefox is a modern luxury sedan with all the bells and whistles (extensions), then Chrome is arguably the hybrid prototype: the first step towards a whole new experience on the information superhighway. Google has once again found a way to redefine what others have done, and improve upon the existing methods along the way.

Most of the benefits gained by using Chrome would likely go unnoticed by a typical internet user, or at best might be summarized as “it doesn’t crash as much.”  In addition, some features may even, at first, be perceived as setbacks.  However, these improvements represent innovative design changes that will improve the overall user experience at only a minor cost to the user’s resource overhead.

For example, individual tabs are initialized as separate processes.  Unlike in other browsers, if a website causes the tab to lockup, or a web application crashes, only that individual tab is lost.  A small sacrifice is made in terms of memory usage; the overall memory footprint size increased. These separate processes also serve an additional function.  When all the tabs are bundled into one large memory space, sections of this space can become fragmented as tabs are created and closed.  This is due to inefficient garbage collection by the browser, as well as other factors.  This situation is analogous to a large box packed with objects.  Removing a few objects will free up some space inside the box for new items, but not as efficiently (in terms as space) as unpacking the box entirely and repacking it.  In Chrome, each tab represents its own small box.  Closing the tab destroys the entire space, and creating a new tab creates a new, fresh space.  This drastically reduces memory fragmentation.

There are some significant changes to the user interface as well.  The “search bar,” common to IE and Firefox, has been consolidated and merged with the address bar.  Many reviewers have already referred to the multipurpose address bar introduced in Firefox 3 as the “everything bar.”  Google has taken this concept a step further, embedding several layers of functionality into what they refer to as the OmniBar.  Additionally, improved blacklisting of malware sites is also included in Chrome.

However, some privacy concerns have been raised by Chrome.  Chrome features search term completion in the OmniBar.  For example, typing “penn state” results in the suggested search term “penn state football,” among others.  Essentially, every keystroke you type in the OmniBar is transmitted to Google for evaluation.  This includes URLs, such as when you type in the address of your online banking website or other secure sites that you visit regularly.  Some feel that this allows Google to have excessive access to your surfing habits outside of the Google network.  Some security professionals have gone so far as to call the OmniBar a “key logger.”  There have also been concerns raised regarding the fact that Chrome constantly “phones home” to download malware blacklist updates, even when the actual browser is not open or in use.

A few additional interesting features have also been added to Chrome.  First, the browser features a Smart Search Capture.  This looks at the pages that you use, such as Amazon, eBay, and others, and adds their built-in search boxes directly to your browser.  Here, if you search for several items on Amazon.com, Chrome will intelligently grab the location of the Amazon search box and allow you to perform Amazon queries without having to visit the main Amazon page.  Furthermore, it adds sites that you frequently visit to a homepage that consists of links to your most-visited pages, letting you easily launch these into new tabs when you first open Chrome.  Since this list is generated based on page visits, it also allows you determine which sites you truly visit most frequently.

Chrome also features an “Incognito” mode, which essentially operates in a session mode that retains no traces once the browser has been closed.  This is useful for preventing pages and cookies from being added to your browsing history and cache.  This same functionality can be achieved in Firefox using the Stealther add-on.  This brings up one of the major pitfalls of Chrome: lack of extensibility.  Chrome does not currently support “add-ons” like Firefox, so users that depend on a large collection plug-ins in order to enhance their daily browsing experience may find Chrome to be disappointing.

Measuring the true level of adoption achieved by Chrome is difficult.  While Google has a widespread audience, the current beta of the browser is targeted primarily at the tech-savvy crowd.  After one month of availability, ArsTechnica published statistics that showed that approximately 7% of their traffic utilized Google’s experimental browser.  However, this is clearly a tech-oriented site.  Other estimates place a more general audience adoption rate at somewhere around 1%.

Many have asked why Google created their own browser.  At the time that Chrome was launched, Google released a comic book-style document that explained their reasoning.  Suffice to say, they have a vested interest in improving the web application experience.  Google’s main products are web applications.  Google search, e-mail, calendars, and finance all rely on the inner workings of the user’s browser.  By improving the performance and display of online content, Google hopes to improve the user’s web application experience enough to encourage people to migrate to cloud computing solutions in place of their office suites, e-mail programs, and similar software packages.  Essentially, Google created Chrome in order to show Firefox and Internet Explorer developers the possibilities of improving web browsing technology, in hopes that these developers would adopt techniques to improve JavaScript performance, make web applications more reliable and stable, and increase the end user’s experience.

Overall, I find the innovations in Google Chrome to be a collection of interesting tools and tricks that improve the user’s experience.  However, I personally employ a large number of Firefox extensions in order to improve my daily browsing experience.  These include ad suppression plug-ins, custom skinning for Gmail, integration of my online task management with Gmail and Google Calendar, and many others.  While I certainly hope that the development teams of both Firefox and Internet Explorer follow Chrome’s lead, at present, I do not think that switching to Chrome is a realistic option for most users.