When Google announced the beta release of it’s new browser, Google Chrome, you could almost hear the groans resonating off the Internet walls. For web designers and webmasters, another browser means more time will need to be spent slugging through the dreary sea of cross browser compatibility issues, a process that can be about as enjoyable as a double root canal.
As much as we’d like to turn our noses up in the air at Chrome and pretend it doesn’t exist, I believe we are better off dealing with it and accepting that it’s here to stay. It’s actually a very nice browser with a clean, simplistic design and a number of features that make it attractive from a user’s standpoint.
From a browser compatibility standpoint, Chrome, like Safari, is based on the WebKit open source project, which means it pays careful attention to web standards and validation. In essence, it is less forgiving of coding mistakes than Internet Explorer is. This means that while your web site might display perfectly in Internet Explorer, it might look downright awful in Chrome.
On the bright side, Microsoft will soon be releasing Internet Explorer version 8 (currently available in beta), and it’s been announced that this version will now interpret web pages based on strict W3C standards. This is a smart move on Microsoft’s part, in my opinion. As browsers move towards following web standards, cross browser compatibility will become easier to work through as different browsers begin to interpret and display web pages in the same manner.
But that day isn’t here yet. And so for now, we need to add Google Chrome to our list of browsers to check our web sites in…not just to make sure that they display as intended, but also to make sure everything works properly as well.
How does YOUR web site look in Google Chrome?
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I was thinking about downloading Chrome just to see what was what. Do you know if it takes a lot of resources? I’ve never been one to rush out and download all the latest things because many of them are resource hogs. And uninstalling them can leave little “ghosts” all through your registry.
Hi Karon,
I’m exactly like you. I resist installing new programs for the same reasons you mentioned. I often have to be forced into upgrading programs and installing updates, because I’m always concerned about what affect it will have on my computer.
While I haven’t spent a whole lot of time with Chrome, my experience with it so far has been positive. It has a minimalist design and seems very light on the system resources it uses.
It allows you to import all your settings, passwords, bookmarks and history from your other browsers. I happen to really like that feature.
There’s also a lot less “junk” at the top of the Chrome browser window than other browsers, so you can see more of the page from top to bottom.
Another advantage it has over other browsers is that if you have numerous tabs open and one tab ends up crashing, it will crash that tab only and won’t crash the entire browser. I’ll have a tab crash on me in Firefox every so often, and it always crashes all my open tabs.
So far, while browsing in Chrome, the biggest compatibility issue I’ve seen on web sites is pictures overlapping text and covering portions of text up so it’s rendered unreadable. Because of that, people will definitely want to check to see how their web sites and blogs display in Chrome.
I’ve tried Chrome but haven’t spent a lot of time yet. I quite like what I’ve seen but yeah, trying to get a web site you’re working on to display correctly everywhere is such a pain, now I gotta add one more to the list!
Anita
Hi Viki,
Moan-Groan. I can’t stand IE and now a new one. I went to the link you have for Chrome and it says download for PC. I’m on a MAC. All these different browsers are like dealing with the Tower of Babel. How about a standard? My wish.
Hi Adele,
If I remember right, Google doesn’t offer Chrome to Mac users right now, but plans to in the future. I think we all wish for a standard for both PC’s and Mac’s! Sure would make things easier from a browser compatibility standpoint.