Google Chrome: A Substantial Review of the Top 4 Web Browsers in the Planet Today – Part 2 of 5
PCWorld says its “stable and speedy”. PCMag’s editor rating is “excellent”.
Based on Google Play, the number of installs for Chrome browser is between 500 million to 1 billion. The average review rating of over 2.7 million users is 4.2/5. The latest version for Windows, OS X and Linux is Chrome 40 which was released last Feb 5, 2015.
Apps
Google has a dedicated app store for Chrome, the Chrome Web Store. Users can easily filter and select the Chrome apps they want to download.
There are two versions of Chrome available for download at the Google App for Work site. These are the Chrome MSI which is applicable for enterprise deployments and Chrome EXE for single user deployment. Both versions run on Windows 8, 7, Vista, and XP 32-bit.
It’s interesting to know that based on Flurry Analytics, the number of apps downloaded per month by an average US consumer is 8.8 apps in 2014. While we have no records of which apps in which store they’ve downloaded the apps, we can tell that Chrome apps were a big part of the number. What’s the basis? Well, according to StatCounter, Chrome web browser, where Chrome apps run, has over 40% usage share on the same year.
Reviews
Users’ average rating for Chrome is 4.4/5 at SoftwareInsider. Users were impressed on the ease of setup, features, speed, security and add-ons. In fact, one user posted a comment saying that it’s “fast and hard to break.”
10TopTen Reviews scored Chrome with 9.73/10 but also cited that “in cold test runs, the browser was not the fastest we tested”. I think this finding coincides with SoftwareInsider‘s own test runs which indicates that Chrome, on average, uses 653MB of memory with ten tabs of high performance web pages.
Some users in Google Play, however, are not happy with device and site compatibility issues they’re experiencing in the latest version of Chrome.
User Interface
I tried downloading an app from Chrome Web Store and I was able to install it in seconds, 2 second to be exact. I also tried changing the theme and it made my browser really intuitive.
Chrome has a lot features, some of which you may not notice are there. I’ve tried the Voice Control on my Android device and it worked pretty clever. Other accessibility features are Full-test History Search, Page Zooming, and Tabbed Browsing. Browser features include Bookmarks, Password Management, Search Engine Toolbar, and Auto Updater.
Privacy and Security
SoftwareInsider’s security score of 16/17 for Chrome is unquestionable. Google is really serious about Chrome’s security, safety and reporting features. You can go to Settings and click Show advanced settings… to check whether you’re browsing activities are in safe mode. You can always reset the Settings to the default setting whenever you want to.
With Google’s Safe Browsing Technology, you will be warned if the site you're trying to visit is suspected of phishing or malware. If you need further support on privacy and security settings, you can visit the Chrome Help Center.
Standards Support
Chrome is HTML 5 compliant. I conducted my own testing by simply visiting the HTML5TEST site and this was the result: Your browser scores 511 out of 555 points.
Chrome uses WebKit for rendering web pages. It supports CSS2.1, XHTML 1.0 & 1.1, and XSLT web technologies.
Extensibility
It is the Chromium project that proves Chrome’s extensibility. It invites developers to build Chromium on Windows, OS X, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, or iOS. The project has been running since 2008. Chrome developers can also build websites, Chrome apps, extensions, and themes using Native Client Software Development Kit (SDK) which can be downloaded for free. You may opt to visit the Chrome Developer site to learn more about building with Chrome.
Next on my review list: Internet Explorer
