Google Chrome

[Big Boy Laroux]

Any of you guys checked out Google Chrome yet? It's a new browser from Google.

They just released the beta, and I'm using it right now. Not bad. Very simplistic, which could be a good thing. They have a pretty long comic about all the background things that make Chrome "better" at the web page.

http://www.google.com/chrome

I know there are people on here that use firefox and there are people that are much more tech savvy than me, so I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

[jthig32]

I've tried to instal it twice and gotten two different error codes. Must be a very early beta.

[MavsX]

i read a blog about it this morning at work. I may try it..for now i'll just stick with firefox 3, also i never use IE

[jthig32]

Ok, immediate thoughts:

The dynamic tab browsing is very, very cool. You can drag a tab out and immediately create a new window with it, and you can grab a tab in one window and drag into another one. That alone is probably a nice enough feature to make me want to use this browser.

I really like the one bar for everything. It saves clutter.

I like that the bottom taskbar is only up for a time and then goes away.

Obviously is has some early bugs that are obvious just in viewing this site. The options at the top, like "rate thread" should be popups of some sort (ajax maybe?) but are regular links in Chrome with the content at the bottom of the page.

But for a beta I like it, and that's coming from someone who's been using IE since 7 came out. All I ever really wanted from Firefox was tabs. Once IE had them I was perfectly content with it.

Hmm. Not Ajax, that was working on another site.

[Ninkobei]

Firefox is good because of the addons. I use "Mouse Gestures" - If I want a new tab all I do is hold right click and move my mouse up. sooo convenient.

sorry to hijack, just responding to jthig ^ ^

[Flacolaco]

Hmm. Not Ajax, that was working on another site.

That's what I thought at first as well...I'd love to get a look at the vBulletin source code sometime. I think you could accomplish that, or some approximation with javascript and CSS.

[Usually Lurkin]

I'll wait till I'm sure Microsoft isn't sending out a bunch of hackers to break into your computer right now.

I'm using Opera, btw - it's got the drag the tabs around things, I think, and a (very) limited number of widgets that are like Firefox add-ons.

[u2sarajevo]

A couple of flaws so far, which will undoubtedly be fixed by launch... but since some here are using it thought I would post these if you weren't aware:

Google's Chrome (BETA) allows files (e.g. executable files) to be automatically downloaded to the user's computer without any user prompt.



To check the flaw, open a URL that points to an executable file.

Google Chrome Crashes with All Tabs

Problem:

An issue exists in how chrome behaves with undefined-handlers in chrome.dll version 0.2.149.27. A crash can result without user interaction. When a user is made to visit a malicious link, which has an undefined handler followed by a 'special' character, the chrome crashes with a Google Chrome message window "Whoa! Google Chrome has crashed. Restart now?". It lies in dealing with the POP EBP instruction when pointed out by the EIP register at 0x01002FF4.


Proof of Concept:

http://evilfingers.com/advisory/google_chrome_poc.php

Credit:

Rishi Narang | psy.echo

[Big Boy Laroux]

Thanks, U2. I just downloaded it at home, and was using it sparingly to test it out. Still using a mix of IE and Firefox for the majority of my browsing.

[MavsX]

after hearing what U2 posted, i think i'll wait. Someone could hide a rick roll in a link that could take me to some german porn site

[Ninkobei]

what's with the Banner ads built in to the thing? are you kidding. what a piece of crap

[jthig32]

Those are from the site, not the browser.

[u2sarajevo]

To fix the executable downloading issue I mentioned above:

In Google chrome
Tools -> Options -> Minor Tweaks (tab) in download location: check the "ask where to save each file before downloading"

[Big Boy Laroux]

Yeah, Ninkobei, that's obviously from the site. The main bar of Chrome is practically non-existent, so that's why it looks like that.

[Big Boy Laroux]

Hey U2, i did notice that download thing last night now that you mention it. I downloaded the new Picasa 3 beta. It did not prompt me, but it did show up the bottom left of the browser showing that i was downloading the executable.

But you're right, you should always be prompted to download exectuables. That setting should be the default.

[jthig32]

From a more technical standpoint, I really like the individual process for each tab. It makes sense from a recovery standpoint, and it's cool to be able to see which pieces are taking up resources when things start slowing down.

[Big Boy Laroux]

Yes, I thought that was one of the "behind the scenes" things that really stood out.

[GermanDunk]

I will not use google

[jthig32]

It's an interesting position to take from a development perspective. Most of the time your mantra is "no resource leaks!". Which is good. But sometimes they're simply inevitable, especially when the program you're making is designed to interpret other people's code AND you're allowing other people to write hooks into your program.

So to instead say "let's minimize resource leaks but let's also come up with a great way to overcome the inevitable leaks" is a nice, fresh perspective.

[jthig32]

Here's a funny easter egg for people that have installed chrome:

Refresh yourself on this absolutely hilarious quote from a senator:

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?
Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially...

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Now type "about:internets" into the omnibar on chrome.

[ty]

Be careful where you download it from...apparently it crashed one of my co-worker's computers just yesterday.

[Big Boy Laroux]

you mean the site? not sure why you'd download it from anything but google.com.

[fluid.forty.one]

going to DL it once I get my pc working again

[slowmo]

I have been using IE and downloaded Firefox 3.0. I cannot get my email though. Do I have to install Thunderbird or is there a way to get it to pull out my email from Outlook express?

[fluid.forty.one]

chrome logo looks like a pokeball

[fluid.forty.one]

well this is definitely different... not sure if I like the simplicity of the top bar or not. makes it feel like a children's browser or something.

[fluid.forty.one]

ooo I like the incognito window made especially for all those surf-porn-while-still-living-at-home users.

[fluid.forty.one]

I was surfing on chrome on my pc yesterday and I noticed that the "quick links" link at the top was missing.. haven't checked since so it might have been a one time thing, but it was strange.

[Usually Lurkin]

Here's some snippits of an article that pretty much sums up my thoughts on google and Chrome. Beware of all the evil empires, ya'll.

http://pajamasmedia.com/edgelings/20...google-agenda/

The Real Google Agenda
Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers
By Michael S. Malone, Editor-in-Chief

...

As you probably heard, last Monday – that is, on a national holiday, when business announcements are almost never made – Google rolled out “Chrome,” its new web browser.
Nowhere is the power to apply technology for its own sake more available than at Google. And despite the company’s motto, and childlike logo and homepage, this is the real driving force behind the company. And the long-term goal of this applied technology? Google has already said it: to manage all of the world’s information.

...

Remember, for these young techno-utopians, technology trumps all, even privacy. We saw a glimpse of that earlier this year when Facebook, that seemingly benign social network for young people, quietly implemented Beacon, which tracked users’ purchases and then notified their friends in hopes of influencing their future purchases. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg professed surprise at the massive backlash against Beacon and shut it down – but left the door opened for future surveillance programs.

...

For example, a couple weeks ago, in a barely noticed blog entry, reporter Clint Boulton of Computerworld recounted a conversation he’d had with a Google insider who admitted that whatever the company was saying publicly – and to Congress — about user privacy, it was indeed tracking not just user search trails, but also their identities – so-called “Deep Packet Inspection.” The entry drew few readers, and no comments, but it did attract attention from one source: a senior Google executive called the magazine to get it to back off the story.

...

But a second reason is more sinister. Only a few people have noticed yet that in the Terms of Service for signing up for Chrome, Google demands “perpetual, irrevocable, world-wide, royalty free and non-exclusive” license to any materials users create with the browser [Under public pressure, Google retracted the Chrome Terms of Service last night – ed.]

.. .

And that’s only part of the story: an earlier reviewer of Chrome, Andrew Cheung of TGDaily, has noted that the browser almost seems to work “too well.” For example, Cheung found that with a few keystrokes, Chrome will go into an on-line banking site and find account numbers, balances and transaction activity. Cheung suggests that it is a security flaw in the product. I’m not so sure.

[jthig32]

That language in the EULA was a mistake and they quickly took it out. If you really think they thought they could pull one over on everyone and keep it in there then you need to invest in tin foil.

I'm not some big Google fanboy, they're actually a direct competitor to the company I work for (well, the parent company), but come on. That article is incredibly over the top.

[Usually Lurkin]

Originally Posted by jthig32

That language in the EULA was a mistake and they quickly took it out. If you really think they thought they could pull one over on everyone and keep it in there then you need to invest in tin foil.

I'm not some big Google fanboy, they're actually a direct competitor to the company I work for (well, the parent company), but come on. That article is incredibly over the top.

well, over the top and tinfoil, but only depending on what you are willing to accept from world-ruling corporations these days. Microsoft can't bother you unless you buy their stuff. Of course, the way they've run things, you or your workplace has almost had to buy their stuff the last couple decades. If you don't mind what they've done and how they've gone about doing it, then that's for you.

If you don't mind Google's intended monopoly on information, and how they've gone about building it, then that's for you as well.

And a mistake in an EULA? By Google? That up there is a typo?

THere are lots of reasons to run a company, as many reasons as there are people, maybe. At Google, there is an undeniable drive for power. If you don't see that, or are just fine participating, then you need a tinfoil hat.

[jthig32]

Again, if you really think they were trying to just slip that language past everyone you're absolutely nuts. It was a freaking BETA. I could absolutely see the installer package language being copy/pasted from some other project and not checked. A very, very common thing. It's not rare at all at my company to have an install package be moved from one release version up to the next, and to have language left in that doesn't apply anymore, and we're talking about an official release of enterprise level software here. The installer is the last thing you analyze in a QA cycle, and it probably never happened at all for the BETA.

What kind of information do you imagine Google is shooting for a monopoly in? They're not a player in relational databases, and they're woefully behind in the market of unstructered data collecting and indexing. They're very good at indexing web pages. Sounds incredibly nefarious.

[Usually Lurkin]

Originally Posted by jthig32

What kind of information do you imagine Google is shooting for a monopoly in?

whatever they can think of.

They're not a player in relational databases, and they're woefully behind in the market of unstructered data collecting and indexing.

as of now.

Sounds incredibly nefarious.

you should listen more to that little voice in your head that is just sarcasm right now.

[jthig32]

Er....ok.

I don't understand being scared of a monopoly from a company that doesn't charge for any of their products. How can you on one hand speak against the Microsoft monopoly, then on the other speak against a company that is entering into competition against them over PC browsers, cell phone browsers and more, and doing it with completely open source products.

[Usually Lurkin]

Originally Posted by jthig32

Er....ok.

I don't understand being scared of a monopoly from a company that doesn't charge for any of their products. How can you on one hand speak against the Microsoft monopoly, then on the other speak against a company that is entering into competition against them over PC browsers, cell phone browsers and more, and doing it with completely open source products.

does the phrase, "go ahead and try it, everyone's doing it. First one's free." mean anything to you? One of my basic philosophies is to not trust anyone that is willing to help a government cover up gross violations of human rights. Especially if they're telling me their motto is "do no evil" and especially especially if I think they have ways of using my computer (or my search behavior, or whatever) to help them to do it.

[jthig32]

Government coverup? What are you talking about?

[DavidDaMonkey]

Originally Posted by jthig32

Government coverup? What are you talking about?

From Wikipedia:

Prior to Google China's establishment, Google.com itself was accessible, even though it was not reliable. According to official statistics, it was accessible 90% of the time, and a number of services were not available at all.[5]

Since announcing its intent to comply with Internet censorship laws in the People's Republic of China, Google China has been the focus of controversy over what critics view as capitulation to the "Golden Shield Project" (also known as the Great Firewall of China). Because of its self-imposed censorship, whenever people search for interdicted Chinese keywords on a blocked list maintained by the PRC government, google.cn will display the following at the bottom of the page (translated): In accordance with local laws, regulations and policies, part of the search result is not shown.

Google has argued that it can play a role more useful to the cause of free speech by participating in China's IT industry than by refusing to comply and being denied admission to the Chinese market. "While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission," a statement said.[6]

A PBS analysis reported clear differences between results returned for controversial keywords by the censored and uncensored search engines.[7] According to The New York Times, Google has set up computer systems inside China that try to access Web sites outside the country. If a site is inaccessible (e.g., due to the Golden Shield Project), then it is added to Google China's blacklist.[8]

In February 2006, Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, was quoted as saying virtually all of Google's customers in China were using the non-censored version of their website.[9]

Google critics in the United States claim that Google China is a flagrant violation of the Google motto, "Don't be evil".[citation needed]

On April 9, 2007, Google China spokesman Cui Jin admitted that the pinyin Google IME "was built leveraging some non-Google database resources", this was in response to a request on April 6th from the Chinese search engine company Sohu that Google stop distributing its pinyin Input Method Editor software due to the fact it allegedly copied portions from Sohu's own software.[10]

In early 2008, Guo Quan (郭泉), a university professor who had been dismissed after having founded a democratic opposition party, announced plans to sue Yahoo! and Google in the United States for having blocked his name from search results in China.[11]

I assume this is what UL was talking about, but correct me if I'm wrong.

[jthig32]

Regardless of what you think of their decision there, it's not a government cover up.

Certainly they're cooperating with the censorship in China in order to have a web presence, just like all the other search engines.

[Usually Lurkin]

Originally Posted by jthig32

Regardless of what you think of their decision there, it's not a government cover up.

Certainly they're cooperating with the censorship in China in order to have a web presence, just like all the other search engines.

the chinese government censors things like tienamen square. And all the other bad stuff they do.

[Arne]

First off I have to say that I was not able to test Chrome, yet. I just got my new MacBook (which is briliant by the way) and Google only has a PC version out there. I'm pretty much sold on the Safari browser. I think it's the best one I've ever used.

Back when I used a PC I had used the Internet Explorer for years, till I found out about Firefox, which then became my standard browser.

On the issue of data collecting, I have to say that I was pretty scared away when a few weeks ago some government agency in Germany was able to buy 4 million personel profiles including credit card numbers for €800. I'm all against regulating the internet, but I am not fond of all this data being in one hand.