I heard that Google released a version of Chrome for OS X, as I have firmly been using Safari since it was first available I thought that maybe I could try something new (I just never liked Firefox).
There are some really neat features in Chrome however the current release is just not good enough.
First things that I like over Safari:
- Themes. I like being able to have an overall darker look to the browser compared to the grey of Safari.
- Pages do feel like they are loading faster.
- It uses less memory on my laptop, this is an issue when handling large files in Matlab.
- The status bar only appears when the mouse is hovering over a link.
- Zooming in using Cmd + is handy and functions better then Safari.
Parts that are not good enough:
- I cannot set bookmark folders to open all the contents when clicked.
- When loading 18 new tabs simultaneously some fail to load.
- Chrome does not open PDF’s nor does it support Java well.
- While watching a flash video in full screen the mouse cursor is constantly moving up and down by one pixel.
- Difficulty logging into sites such as slashdot.org and getting Chrome to remember the login.
- Terrible history menu. Instead of getting my history I get Most Visited and Recently Closed, not where I have been.
- Cannot drag URL’s from the URL bar into the bookmark bar.
- Accessing the system Keychain works sometimes and rarely remembers choices.
- There is no obvious way to change themes once one is set.
- Once a file is downloaded the download bar remains until the window is closed.
I also thought that it would be easy to sync bookmarks between OS X and Windows 7 via Dropbox with Chrome but I have not gotten it to work (not saying it cannot be done, just that it is not obvious). I have not done this with Safari but I know it can be done with Firefox.
I wanted to like Chrome but it just disappoints and falls short of a pleasurable web browsing experience.
Maybe in a few releases it might be worth coming back.