Davey Winder
Thursday, 04 September 2008 17:32
Business IT -
Networking
Page 3 of 4
"I really wonder why Google have taken several features
from other browsers and mixed them all together. Security wise, it’s
very problematic" Raff writes, concluding "It will put Chrome users at
risk for a long time."
Meanwhile, another researcher, Rishi Narang, has
described how
malicious links could be built that would exploit an issue Chrome has
in dealing with undefined-handlers in the chrome.dll that could cause
the browser to crash without user interaction.
So maybe not as safe as Google would have us believe either then?
OK, what about the faster claim then? Surely that cannot be denied,
pretty much everyone who has installed Chrome has been impressed with
how fleet of foot this client is. Me included.
It starts so quickly that it is just about impossible to time it.
However, start-up time is one thing, how it handles JavaScript and CSS
is quite another. Lifehacker
conducted tests using industry standard systems for both.
On the JavaScript front, these tests have Firefox just ahead of Chrome,
but both browsers blew IE8 not only out of the water but into orbit as
well. When it came to CSS, IE8 still sucked elephants through a straw,
but Chrome took the lead on Firefox.
Lifehacker determined that on speed, it was a tie between Chrome and
Firefox although the latter would probably win out in a Dynamic Web
Performance test.
So yes, Chrome is fast. How fast depends on whether you go by the
Google driven test figures, the Mozilla driven ones or the independents
such as Lifehacker. I prefer the latter, and this says that there ain't
much in it between Chrome and Firefox at the end of the day.
Which just leaves us with ease of use. Google has an edge here, in that
it has built its success in the online business around the whole keep
it simple stupid concept. that's what kicked Google search into the big
time after all.
How easy to use is Chrome, in the real world, and what is our overall
verdict on the Google browser client? Find out on page 4...
CONTINUES