I, For One, Welcome Our New Google Overlords

I’ve been using Google’s new Chrome browser for a couple days now (mainly at work where I’m forced to use Windows), and I have to say I’m very impressed.

Firefox has been my browser of choice since it came out, and before that I used Netscape Navigator. I’ve never been able to get used to IE or Safari. IE, because it’s swill, and Safari because it’s missing a few key UI elements that I’m really used to having in Firefox. Otherwise it’s a great browser, and I use it for the sites that Firefox doesn’t render correctly.

While I am a UI geek, I’m not a graphic designer or typography nerd, so my focus tends to be on everyday interaction and not so much the nit-picky details like font choice, anti-aliasing or things like that. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – we need people to obsess over those things to get quality products like the Mac OS and the iPhone. It’s just not my thing.

So, while I understand there are some anti-aliasing problems in Google Chrome, I would be hard-pressed to notice them.

What impressed me about Chrome is how easy it was to switch from Firefox. All the keyboard shortcuts do exactly what I expect; the controls that I use are available and prominent; and the things that are different or surprising are minimal and pleasantly so.

‘Minimal’ is really the key word here. As the cartoon says, Google really wanted to minimize the ‘chrome’ of the app – just get out of the way of the content. This has been one of my biggest frustrations with browsers, starting with Netscape 3: more buttons, more toolbars, more cruft.

Remember the little grab-handles on Netscape 3 that would allow you to move or collapse individual toolbars? What is the ratio of times that you actually wanted to use that feature vs. the number of times you hit it by accident and went “WTF? Where did all my buttons go?”

That’s the kind of stuff that gets in the way of a good browsing experience, and Chrome has none of it.

Other things I like:

• The download interface is pleasant. For some reason, which is probably more to do with Windows than Firefox, I get interrupted by the download interface no matter what I have the preferences set to. Google does a nice little animation which makes it clear where to go to get the downloaded files and then gets out of your way.
• Text completion in the “omnibar” works nicely. Except that I’m used to typing “domain” in Firefox’s URL bar and having it just tack on the “.com” automatically. Google performs a search, which usually nets the site at the top of the list, but it’s an extra click. The history memory, though, is rather smooth.
• Tab resizing when adding/removing tabs is slick.
• Showing common locations on a New Tab. I’m starting to get very used to this feature.
• Application shortcuts. I’ve already started using this for some internal work web apps that I want opened at a different size than my browser. Very nice.
• Incognito Browsing. Finally. I’m surprised Apple didn’t come out with this already. Kudos to the Google folks.

It’s not all sunshine and roses, however. There are some areas that could (and I’m sure will) be improved:

• Java WebStart support. Haven’t figured out how to get this to work. Anyone know? I’ve tried installing the latest Java SDK, which usually installs the browser plug-in, but it didn’t seem to work. (I need it for work.)
• Performance. One of the tradeoffs Google made was to make each tab its own process, rather than merely a thread. This was done for all sorts of security and stability reasons, but the drawback is that it uses more resources. Normally, I wouldn’t care, as I have 4GB of RAM in my MacBook Pro and hardly even notice when Firefox is bloating up. But, I have noticed that when Chrome is running, my XP PC gets periodically hung up for 10-20 seconds at a time. The CPU is not pegged, so I’m not sure what’s going on, but it’s definitely having an effect on the system.
• No Mac port yet. There’s only so much I want to do with a browser at work. But at home I’d really wring it out.

When it comes to browsers (and email clients), I tend to be very conservative – just give me something that works the way I’m used to and I’m happy. I learned how to work the Internet back in the mid-90’s and my brain still works mostly that way. I was devastated during the dark times between Netscape’s downfall and the rise of Firefox/Thunderbird, and only recently switched to using Apple Mail, which is clearly a superior product to TBird, because it was different enough.

So when I say I could easily switch to using Google Chrome as my default browser (once a few things are fixed), it’s a huge compliment. I realize that lots of people have tons of Firefox add-ons that aren’t in Chrome, or they’re used to Safari’s interface, but for me Chrome could be my new browser.

Since I’ve already switched to Apple Mail, this may be the first time my computer is Mozilla/Netscape-free since, well, ever.

I Just Feel So Dirty

Virtualizing operating systems is certainly one of the most obvious benefits of Apple switching to Intel CPUs. Those of us who choose to use Macs in our personal life can now use them for business purposes that were heretofore unavailable due to little incompatibilities, simply by installing Parallels or VMWare, or even Boot Camp, although rebooting just to open a spreadsheet or run IE sounds like a bit of a pain.

It just so happens I have to open and interpret a couple of fairly complex spreadsheets, with lots of formulas and macros, for some work I’m doing. Since Mac Office dropped VB support in the latest version, I needed to run it on Windows, which runs rather well under VMWare Fusion.

I figured that, being one of Microsoft’s flagship products (the other being “Microsoft Bob”, of course), it would be fairly easy to purchase or demo a copy of MS Office for Windows.

Microsoft, being a pure software company (not counting the keyboards and mice, which I believe are outsourced, and the XBox, which is essentially a cheap PC running stripped-down Windows, and certainly not counting the Zune, which is a rebadged Toshiba mp3 player, and hardly counts as a product) makes the overwhelming majority of their profits by selling countless copies of Windows and Office, which, after a certain point, are pure profit. You’d think they’d make it as smooth as possible. You’d also think you’d be able to move an empty text file to the Recycle bin in under four minutes. In both cases, you’d be wrong.

Once you find the Trial Download page, you need to jump through a few hoops about creating a Windows Live account (why would I want that? I just want a copy of Office) and giving them all of your pertinent information (I’m certainly not giving them a valid phone number for this) before you get to the actual download page.

OK, so you’ve finally made it. You have a Download button and are ready to go. Well, not quite:

Impressive – that one bullet point contains two sentences, and two lies.

• There is no “Download Now” button, and there are certainly not two “Download Now” buttons.
• You do not need to click both buttons to download the product, which I will get to in a moment.

Assuming you need to click both Download buttons, which do you suppose you should click first?

If you guessed “Download 1″, you might think you made some sort of mistake by the dialog that pops up:

I still have no idea what that’s for, even after encountering it three times.

But the important question is: If it automatically does the second download for you when you click “OK”, why does it need to yell at you in the first place?

I know that picking on Microsoft user interfaces is like shooting blind, comatose, fat fish in a barrel with an IED, and the barrel is wrapped with TNT, but with all the money they spend on pushing their products, you’d think they would catch these high-profile gaffes that are right in their profit stream.

Rule number 1 of commerce (e- or brick & mortar): Do not confuse your customers when they’re trying to give you money*.

*Actually, since this was the free trial site, I wasn’t actually trying to give them money, but I probably will after the 60 days is up, as I’ll need to keep using it.