Comments on: Google’s Chrome-plated strategy

By: Patrick, Pheonix, AZ

Patrick, Pheonix, AZ — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:20:00 +0000

i keep learning about more and more little advantages and quirks with Chrome, such as with privacy, for example... now if only they would take care of it's cookie management glitches

By: RobC, Independence Missouri

RobC, Independence Missouri — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:43:06 +0000

Is google bothering anyone else? I have been a user for roughly 10 years. I started back when it was little known. Now when I search, it is becoming difficult to get infomational pages. What comes up as the top 1000 links are stuff to buy. In addition, one company will buy dozens of domains, and so all the top hits for a particular product will lead you to the same company. You can choose “A”, or “A”, or for some real variety have a look at “A” – I am looking around for something better.

By: M.P., Sacramento, CA

M.P., Sacramento, CA — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:02:46 +0000

Privacy, shmivacy. I honestly wonder if all these privacy posts aren’t by Microsoft Strategic Marketing employees doing their job to curb the buzz about Chrome.

People: WHAT do you think Google is going to DO with your site viewing history that will IMPINGE upon YOUR privacy? Hell, sell mine! I couldn’t care less!

Google doesn’t collect or use anything that would affect my personal or public life. Period. Why are you people so concerned? Unbelievable.

By: S, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

S, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:58:55 +0000

It amazes me that so many people are willing to give up their privacy without a second thought. I’m just saying….times have changed.

By: GeeDubz, Los Angeles, CA

GeeDubz, Los Angeles, CA — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:57:30 +0000

It’s the fastest browser out but this beta version has still not worked out the bugs for popup Java Applets, JavaScript, and some issues with Flash and Shockwave websites. And only Vista or XP compatible now.

By: Matt C Brooklyn,NY

Matt C Brooklyn,NY — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:05:47 +0000

From a tech support view this is one of the best browsers i have ever seen.
From a user perspective they probably wouldn’t notice much difference from any other browser. What is really hurting is the support for business users behind a proxy. That does not work well at all. Then again this is only a BETA version so lets give Google a little room here for improvement.

By: B Phoenix, AZ

B Phoenix, AZ — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:08:56 +0000

Wow, a lot of people are all “Google is invading my privacy!!”

1) Don’t download it.
2) This website tracked who referred you to, how long your session is, what you clicked on, and whether or not you’ll be back.
3) Want to talk about Privacy? Why not ask the NSA about the big locked up servers at AT&T.
4) If you think that google is the only one tracking your habits online, you fail, and fail long and hard.

If you’re such a space cadet that the mere notion of anyone spying on you has you spooked, there’s plenty of programs out there to help with that. Firefox addons to control cookies and javascript, peerguardian, firewalls, TOR Onion Routing, various anonymizers, etc. The point is, if you’re going to wear a tinfoil hat, you should have a tinfoil suit too, instead of walking around in your underwear thinking you’re not exposed to the world.

Give it up, if you want something sent privately you have to do it in writing with a private courier called yourself, then burn the letter after.

By: T. Johns Austin, Texas

T. Johns Austin, Texas — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:16:33 +0000

This browser smacks of Google big brother-ism.
Google is notorious for not only collecting a VAST amount of user information, but also for SHARING it.

Searching for something like “how to build a bomb” on Google will show up in your trial…

Searching for something like Walmart will show up in Wally World memos of which products are searched on Google.

Even if it is Open Sourced, still expect some proprietary code in there to collect data. I give it about 2 weeks before people discover this. Or it’s not implemented in Beta, and waiting for Release 1 or somesuch.

By: Pirate, Hopkinsville, KY

Pirate, Hopkinsville, KY — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:51:08 +0000

Why get all upset about this? You can use different browsers. No need to get your shorts in a wad over Chrome.
Several browsers are common, and many users switch back and forth all the time.

By: J Houston, Texas

J Houston, Texas — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:23:39 +0000

I installed the browser yesterday and I admit it is much faster than Firefox. I also like the fact that the tabs are independent of one another. There have been plenty of times when I had to totally close Firefox because of a crashed tab. I will have to see what type of third party apps will be available for it in the future.

By: John, Los Angeles, CA

John, Los Angeles, CA — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:17:55 +0000

I’m confused about some of these comments – if a producer wants to track information about its customers, it can and should be able to. people who complain about using these services are more than welcome to use sub-standard products that don’t track.

there’s a reason google has a huge share of the search market – it produces good results. don’t want google to track your queries? use yahoo (if you really are naive enough to think yahoo doesn’t track user searches). better yet, go back to dogpile (if it’s even still around). sure, you won’t find what you’re looking for, but at least you’ll be safe.

By: Cntdwn

Cntdwn — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:06:57 +0000

yup, just as i suspected – google is taking your information
fine print people!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10030522-56.html?tag=mncol

By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.”

By: Lex, Rome, IT

Lex, Rome, IT — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:45:02 +0000

I gotta be honest…
chrome still does need a lot of adjustments, I am not talking about the interface itself, but about the app core.
It does nothing but take a lot of brilliant ideas from Mozilla Firefox and a few others from market competitors Safari (Apple) and Opera and put them all together into one big happy family
Let’s talk about ‘incognito’, nothing new there, it’s been in Safari for over two years (it was first introduced in Safari 2.0, april 2005), it’s just that people didn’t notice it, maybe cause it was known by a different name (private browsing), I dunno.
my point is the web does not need an umpteenth browser, cause users already have some pretty good browsers out there, may they be open source or not they are still, pretty good. this is gonna do nothing but confuse the average user even more.
people need solid applications not toys, an app should be tested for quite some time before being released even as a beta

By: Steve, Philadelphia, PA

Steve, Philadelphia, PA — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:39:28 +0000

Easily one of the most asinine titles I’ve ever read. A “free” browser? Really?? When is the last time anyone has paid money for a browser? We have a complete newbie writing tech articles for Fortune? This title lends such credibility to your publication….

By: Marc, Everett, WA

Marc, Everett, WA — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:00:10 +0000

What a tremendous pile of garbage.

It amazed me they even released something this poor as a beta.

Google is supposed to “do no harm”, yet every thing they do seems to integrate themselves further into our personal lives.

By: Jay, Fairless Hills, PA

Jay, Fairless Hills, PA — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:39:55 +0000

::sigh:: I wonder what Google is doing collecting all that information from us….sorry. While I like google as a search engine…I’m not about to “Google-out” and get everything Google. They are infamous for collecting absurb amounts of data on individuals. While MS already does…I don’t really need another doing the same thing.

By: Hopelawn, NJ

Hopelawn, NJ — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:37:54 +0000

I just downloaded both of them.

On the google browser, it is super fast. But I would like to see the toolbar on it. Tested several websites without problem.

IE 8, I still have the toolbar, but some of the websites I visit they can not be displayed.

Also, I noticed on IE 8, that on other websites with tables, images from the center will run over the left side table if image is too big. This does not happens on IE 7, Firefox or netscape. So IE 8 still have some fixing to do.

By: JR - Miami

JR - Miami — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:32:18 +0000

do you think that Microsoft is not collecting personal info? The end result is that the experience is better and quicker and Google Chrome is just that… I have been using it for 24 hours and I am very impressed…

I hope they make an OS, Exchange and Office competitor as well and take some $$$ away from Microsoft… I know that it will be a better product than anything Microsoft puts out…

By: bob, baldwin, ks

bob, baldwin, ks — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:26:12 +0000

Just spent 20 minutes on a 1/4 T1 backbone trying out IE8 by hitting sits I don’t visit (to give it a chance to deal with stuff that’s not in the cache), and then did the same with Chrome. Chrome was faster, though IE8 is pretty quick. If you’re getting a javascript/Flashplayer error when you try and view embedded video, go to the Chrome page and then the “Learn About Chrome” link, and you should be presented an opportunity to install the plug-in. Works fine after that.

Another interesting difference. I went to CBS.com and tried to navigate to some of the “Show” menu links. Spent several minutes trying to get the pop-up menu to stay in place while I navigated down to the show I wanted to look up, but the menu kept dissappearing. Shut down IE8, went to Chrome, and it worked as it was supposed to, w/o flaw.

If you have the time, take 10-15 minutes and read through the “comic book” about Chrome. Despite all the name-calling, fear-mongering, and other snarky comments, Chrome is a serious competitor. It hasn’t got the “little person working from their garage takes on the corporate giants” appeal (needed a soccer mom from Alaska to develop it, I guess). So it’s not going to be a complete media darling.

As a beta it does the job well, it does several things better, and it’s free open source. Watch out! Chrome is moving in to stay, folks.

By: WIlKo, San Francisco Bay Area, California

WIlKo, San Francisco Bay Area, California — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:20:49 +0000

While I’m all for competition in the marketplace, I would have preferred Google invest in Mozilla Firefox. As someone who cannot bear using IE and much prefers the innovation and flexibility found in Firefox, it’d be nice to have the chrome features Google is touing in Chrome available as an extension, or core component, of Firefox. In the end, such splintering of the open source browser market will only benefit MSFT, at least in the short-to-mid term, assuming Chrome garners a sort of critical mass along the lines of Firefox. And that’s the point: Firefox took years to mature into the viable (and arguably) superior competitor it is today…given Google’s intentions to preserve its search dominance, is their approach supportive of their objectives? Time will tell.