Just look at the image below. The left version is the bottom right corner of my Chrome browser window (version 8.0). This logo appears on every new empty tab, and I can’t help but wonder why Google didn’t spend 15 seconds making it look nicer. The version to the right literally took that long to make. I added a little padding, made it more subtle and changed the way the text aligns with the logo.

Looks much better, doesn’t it? I think it went from “Hey, there’s room for a logo there” to “all this awesomeness os powered by Chrome”. If I were a company trying to promote a new browser, I’d try to get these things right. And it’s not like they can’t afford it, right?

I’ve written a lot of posts about the advantages for running Linux on my netbook. Unfortunately there’s been one application I haven’t been able to get to run smoothly under Ubuntu 9.04. Firefox. No matter how many little tweaks I used, it remained unusably slow, and would drift in and out of conscienceness even when simply using a single tab to check my Gmail. For a machine I use primarily to do that kind of stuff, not having a decent browser was a major problem.
More Chromium for Linux rocks!

I love Google’s general tone of voice in things like this. They’re not saying Chrome is better than other browsers (which it is in many ways), nor do they list any benefits. You should just try it. And they’re telling you with a wonderfully quirky commercial that is nothing like what their competitors are doing. In fact it wasn’t originally intended for TV. Completely down to earth. Well done.

One of the first things I noticed when I started using my new router, was that I could not log in to the device’s web interface using Chrome as a browser. Like many other routers (I’ve had at least two, including a Linksys one), my new Draytek doesn’t really use the username field, and the manual advices to leave it empty. But it seems that’s exactly why Chrome is having trouble. When I tried ‘admin’ instead, I was able to log in.

So, if you’re having trouble logging in to configure your router, try using a generic name like ‘admin’, ‘user’ or ‘root’, or see if the manual lists a default username. Not because your router needs you to enter it, but because leaving the username field empty seems to upset Chrome. This issue probably isn’t exclusive to routers, but most other services will require a username anyway.

In a move that’s somewhat unusual for Google, they released version 1.0 of their Chrome browser today. This probably eliminates the last reason not to try this new browser for people who are hesitant to try beta software. Versions 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 were already pretty stable, and judging from the announcement blog post they’ve managed to make it even faster.
More Chrome out of beta

Google Chrome’s default tab length works really well with Google’s web analytics system…

We used to have a similar problem over on Choking on Popcorn, where Bringing Down the House became Bringing Down the Ho. We felt really sorry for Queen Latifah…

For the last couple of years, people have mostly used a Microsoft browser to use Google websites. I know this is a rather crude statement, but what I mean is that of the two Google has been most successful online while MS continues dominate the desktop and browser market.

Today, Microsoft announced they will be launching a web version of their Office suite. This made me chuckle, as it could lead to a strangely reversed situation where many users use a Google desktop application (Chrome) to use a Microsoft web application.

Chrome isn’t currently on the list of supported browsers, but the whole idea behind it is to create a browser that is ideally suited for online applications (as opposed to traditional, page-based websites). its lightning fast javascript engine could make those spreadsheets fly (by comparison that is).

My guess is that the Office brand name will help to quickly popularize its online exponent, and Chrome might turn out to be the best desktop application to go visit it. Go figure.

I’ve been using Google’s new browser for little over a week now. I need to have Firefox and IE running when I’m doing web design stuff, but for actually browsing the web, I’ve been using Chrome. And you know what? I just made it my default browser.
More One week of Chrome