Just testing out Google Chrome, which is an Open Source web browser developed by Google, and I must say I am very impressed. They are beyond any current browser in many ways.

The interface is awesome, very simple, and elegant. The most compelling aspect of Chrome however is how the development team designed it from the ground up to cater for todays modern websites. The browser is desinged like an operating system, each new tab has its own process just like each application in your OS. JavaScript is executed in a JavaScript Virtual Machine, which means… speed!

I encountered a bug however, when opening the built in JavaScript console. Noting serious.

A small quirk is that you can’t view the list of history pages for a single tab like in Firefox and IE. You have to view the whole browser history. Other then that, the browser rocks. (update: You can view the list of pages by clicking on the back button and holding)

Another browser also means more time debugging JavaScript (and xHTML/CSS). But I’ve just tested a few of the web based apps we’ve developed and they work fine. I’ve also heard the same news from other developers. (update: I’ve found a few bugs, some flash apps that talk to JS don’t work - same bug I’ve seen in Safari)

That reminds me, the browser testing is actually done automatically using Google’s Index of sites. They claim to be able to test new Chrome builds against thousands of sites within half an hour and I believe them. What a development edge over Mozilla - don’t think Firefox has such a super testing process.

Now the only thing I haven’t looked into is how easy it would be to write plugins - what they have in store for plugin/extension developers.

Google Chrome even has the built in functionality of the famous Firefox Extension, Firebug, with its Chrome Inspector. Good stuff.