We've been playing with the beta of Google Chrome 2 for a while, but Google has now given it an official release instead of supplying us with an "install at your own risk, if it eats your pets don't blame us" version.
So what's new? You get three key new features: a new autofill feature that means you don't need to remember passwords, a full-screen mode that's particularly useful on netbooks, and the ability to remove individual thumbnails from the start page.
Handy so the wife doesn't know you've been shopping for presents and the boss doesn't know you've been wasting time at work.
Anything else? Chrome 2 promises better stability - although we haven't found it to be particularly crashy - and faster performance, but there's still a lot missing, such as the extensions and ad-blocking that keep us loyal to Firefox.
The interface hasn't changed either, so if you're not a fan of the somewhat Fisher-Price look of Chrome then you're still going to hate version 2.
FULL SCREEN: Chrome 2 finally gets full screen view, which should make netbook users very happy
As before it's a joy to use, and it does feel slightly quicker than before - which is something the Sunspider benchmarks demonstrate, although there's not a great deal in it.
When we tested the beta back in march the benchmarks came in at 976.0ms to 991.2ms; this time out we're getting 726.8ms to 906.8ms. Bear in mind that these benchmarks are for JavaScript, not everyday web browsing, and on a reasonably powered machine a few hundred milliseconds here and there won't make a noticeable difference.
So how does Chrome compare to the latest non-beta builds of IE and Firefox? IE's benchmarks were 5496.6ms to 6007.2ms, while Firefox achieved 3756.4ms to 3789.2ms. In both cases we ran the tests with all add-ons disabled.
SPEEDY: If Chrome were a car, it would be one of these. You wouldn't take it to Tesco, but it goes like lightning
At the risk of encouraging Microsoft to send us another white paper telling us how we should review web browsers, we found that Chrome was also faster in other respects: with Google set as the home page on all three browsers, startup time was less than one second compared to two seconds for Firefox and three for Internet Explorer.
Loading an (uncached) blog took IE and Firefox three seconds while Chrome did it in one. Chrome and Firefox also had the smallest memory footprints - 35MB to display the BBC home page, compared to 54MB in IE. And of the three browsers, Chrome felt the snappiest.
What we think
The verdict? If you're on a netbook or an underpowered PC, Chrome should be your browser - and if the lack of ad-blocking gets your goat, you can always install a proxy.
If extensions and add-ons matter then Firefox is still great on a decently powered PC. And IE8? It's a big improvement on IE7, but unless you're a huge fan of its Web Slices and Accelerators there's no compelling reason to use it when the competition is so good.
Firefox is more flexible and Chrome is faster. Shall we trot out our car analogy? Firefox is a gadget-stuffed MPV, Chrome is a stripped-down sports car and IE8 is a Honda Legend: it's built well enough, but it's hopelessly outgunned by smarter and more stylish rivals.
FILL IT: At last, Chrome gets an autofill feature so you don't have to keep all your passwords on a Post-It note
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Your comments (2) Click to add a new comment
kasino72
May 22nd
2. You're absolutely right. I've got forms and passwords confused, like a dolt.
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dcox99
May 22nd
1. I'm pretty positive Chrome has always had the ability to remember passwords... The newest version just allows it to remember what's been filled in forms such as addresses.
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