Best Web browser ? – Google Chrome Review

My first impression of Google Chrome was not so good.The first time when I downloaded and started using it, felt very uncomfortable without the Google Toolbar. I got so used to using Google toolbar and my first thought was this browser is not for me at least for time being. So after a few hours I was back to Firefox and IE 7.

Google Chrome - Best browser ?
Google Chrome - Best browser ?

Few days went on and heard somewhere Chrome works better with google’s products like GMail and Youtube. So again I went back to Chrome and started using with Gmail and to my surprise, Gmail was very fast in Chrome and I decided to try it for a few more days.The other main factor which was refreshingly good was how fast the browser itself opens and in this Google Chrome seemed to beat Firefox and IE by a quite a margin. But this could be because the current version
of Chrome doesnt allow support addons or extensions and does not have a separate toolbar like Firefox or IE. Maybe this might or might not change in future versions.

Now coming back to Missing toolbar issue, after a few hours with Chrome, I started using the address bar of Chrome to search, jus like the way we type site addresses. Type any word and enter and your search results are there for you. Still Im missing the suggest(and Autofill) feature which is present in google toolbar, which will bring related
keywords and help you in searching.

 Google chrome Browsing history view

One more notable feature is the ‘ Browsing history view ‘ when you open Chrome, It brings up to nine most visited website thumbnails, and most of the time I use these thumbnails to navigate these websites. This is definitely a very useful addition. The incognito tab option, which is basically private browsing which would allow any tracking files(cookies) to be stored in your computer or wouldnt leave any browsing history / Search history in your computer. Chrome also maintains browsing history in a calendar fashion with thumbnails and allows to search the browsing history. The browsing history can be deleted by day or completely.

Though Chrome doesnt have many new features now it has replaced Firefox in my laptop as the primary browser, I still use IE for what I used it for even before I got Google chrome. Nowadays I mostly dont use Firefox, this could be because firefox isnt faster or lighter anyomore and Chrome offers what I need. I believe Chrome will definitely eat into Firefox’s market.

On the negative side FTP downloads doesnt work in Chrome and even some other sites which use Flash also work differently in Chrome. Hopefully this will change with the newer versions of Chrome, afterall Chrome is a newbie in Browser market. If you go sheer speed of Browsing and JavaScript rendering Google Chrome seems to be the best browser in market.

Download chrome – http://www.google.com/chrome

Download Chrome Beta (New version with more features) – http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/chrome/beta/

Google Chrome Blog – http://chrome.blogspot.com/

Google Chrome’s Features – http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/features.html

[PS: I recently downloaded IE 8 and quite impressed with it, Not like Chrome but still will come out with its review soon]

Fennec -Firefox for mobile out for Nokia N810 (Beta)

For those who surf the web in their firefox a good news, Mozilla’s community browser Firefox will be soon available for All Symbian devices and Windows mobile devices in the form of Fennec Mobile Browser. Now the Fennec is in Beta and released for Nokia’s Internet device N810.

Fennec - Mobile Firefox logo Full size
Fennec - Mobile Firefox logo Full size

Considering the most of Symbian softwares are released first on N800 and N810, it shouldnt be too long before we get Fennec for other Symbian devices. Mozilla also is developing Fennec for Windows Mobile Platform and would be launched along with Symbian launch.

The below is simplified version of Fennec logo for small screened devices

Fennec Simple Logo - Firefox for mobile

Fennec is poised to be main competitor for Nokia’s S60 3rd version builtin browser Opera Browser and Windows Mobile IE.

Fennec team aims to achieve following features for Fennec in the initial stable release.

1. Faster/Simple and less memory hungry broswer with intuitive mobile UI.
2. Support for all the features of desktop Firefox engine like AJAX meaning ‘FULL’ web browser unlike other mobile browsers. Developers need not worry about writing a separate web page except adapting for the disaplay size.
3. Secure Browser implementation which will mimic its desktop brother.
4. Fully integrated application instead of just browser, aim is to make Fennec fully compatible with other phone feautures like Call,Contacts,Mapping applications and even more.
5. With addons Fennec will act like a mobile platform itself.

The Fennec team is also working on some of the cool touch screen UI proposals which could hit Iphone later but expect Fennec to be available on Nokia N97 much earlier than Apple’s Iphone.

World Bank intranet hacked several times.. Satyam Computers under fire

World Bank’s several servers were intruded several times over the last one year period. The originating ip addresses were traced back to China. But the blame for the keylogger(A spyware which sends all typed key strokes to the hacker) itself was on India’s Satyam computers.

An independant security firm which conducted investigation submitted its report to World Bank and has indicted one of the contractors of Satyam responsible for the spyware. Though the spyware itself was installed as a result of carelessness of the contractor, it is hard to believe whether World Bank will award any future projects to Satyam.

World Bank has already signed deals with two other Indian IT majors to take over from Satyam.The likely companies are TCS,Infosys or Wipro.