The NeverEnding Beta (Google, 2004)

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Remember when Gmail first arrived? Unless you’re unlucky enough to be called John Smith you probably got the username you wanted first time, and without having to add six digits on to the end. Then you experienced the fun of sending invites to your mates so they could join you in your exclusive little club – after all, Gmail was still in beta, they couldn’t have every Tom, Dick and Harry overwhelming it before it hit its stride.

Fast-forward four and half years and guess what? Google Mail, as it’s now known, still has that little BETA label under it, and it shows no sign of buggering off.

Over at the Royal Pingdom they’ve gone through the whole Google catalog and counted the applications that are in beta today. While 22 out of 49 may sound reasonable – Google is always coming up with innovations, after all – when you realise that these include Google Mail, Docs, and Product Search, you have to wonder if Google interprets the word beta in the same way as the rest of us.

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Google says it can keep Chrome on top

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Chrome may have impressed with its speedy rendering and JavaScript performance, but there’s more where that came from says a Google developer.

Kevin Millikin, one of the team which worked on the V8 JavaScript rendering engine that underpins Chrome, gave a talk at the Google Developers Conference today where he explained that although the code is already pretty unique, there are plenty more avenues they can explore to eke out more performance. (more…)

Why is Chrome so polished?

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

I’ve been using Chrome for a few days now, and something’s been bugging me about it. Nothing immediately obvious, just a vague sense of something being not quite right. Then, as I was tromping into work this morning, munching on bacon sandwich, I finally put my finger on it. What’s bothering me, is that I can’t believe Google made this.

Don’t get me wrong, Google’s muddy size twelves are all over it. The simplistic interface, the lashings of space, and of course, the brilliant search. What’s been bothering me are the flourishes. The transparency when you drag a tab into a window, the fading task bar, the slide away tabs, the cute animations. Chrome is by far and away the prettiest browser doing the rounds, but pretty is not something I associate with Google -which to my mind has always been the most utilitarian company out there.

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Chrome niggles, plus a few secret features…

Friday, September 5th, 2008

Well, we’re into day three and a half of the Chrome experience. And as the initial excitement dies down, we’re starting to notice a few niggles – plus some nice little features that aren’t immediately obvious.

Thankfully, most of our problems are minor bugs, which will hopefully be fixed in short order, either by Google or by website developers. For example, the button for switching between the old and new Facebook interfaces doesn’t currently work in Chrome. And despite its multi-process cleverness, the whole thing grinds to a halt when it tries to launch Adobe Reader (though in fairness, what doesn’t?). (more…)

Google Chrome: first impressions

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Tonight, I attended a Google briefing on its hastily-launched web browser, Chrome – which is now available for download here.

At first glance, the browser looked extremely impressive. In fact, it’s the only browser I’ve seen that could seriously tempt me away from my snug-fitting default browser, Firefox. However, I must stress that I was only privy to a Google demonstration of the browser before tonight’s 8pm launch, and haven’t actually played with it hands-on myself. For that, you’ll have to wait for PC Pro’s full preview tomorrow.

Here, however, are my early thoughts on what I saw:

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Firefox loses its sugar daddy

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Google’s shock entry into the browser market might be bad news for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but it could be terminal for Mozilla and Firefox.

Google is Mozilla’s sugar daddy. In 2006 (the latest figures we have available), a staggering 85% of Mozilla Corp’s revenue came from the homepage and search deal it has with Google. Firefox is almost entirely dependent on the company that’s just launched what could easily become its biggest rival.

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Chrome and the multi-core cloud

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

The constantly-evolving nature of technology is, for me, a source of endless fascination — and frequent amusement when it catches us off guard.

Just last night, our own Dear Leader was on the radio talking about Microsoft’s latest salvo in the browser wars. This morning, the battlefield has changed completely, thanks to the surprise arrival of Google Chrome.

To be precise, Chrome isn’t here quite yet: the beta is due out later today. For now, I’ve had to content myself with reading the product notes, which Google has oddly elected to release in cartoon form. Cute, but hardly practical.

Still, it looks like a lot of good ideas have gone into Chrome, and there’s one idea that excites me in particular:

As I say, we’re still waiting for the beta, so we don’t yet know how this works in practice. But running each tab, and each extension, as an independent process should, in theory, enable Chrome to make very effective use of multiple CPU cores.

Thus, not only is Google set to shake up the browser wars; it could actually make “cloud” computing as stable, efficient and responsive as local software – or more so in many scenarios. That would set the scene for a revolution in our very model of personal computing.

Of course, for now this is all just speculation. But even without seeing the software, I can confidently say this much: Google hasn’t lost its knack for disrupting the market.