Good Chrome

Google's Chrome New Design - what's good, what's poor and what's not?

10 years after Google released the first Chrome release, we got a big freshen up of the look, along with some smaller enhancements (wouldn't call them new functions because they're mostly smaller optimizations). I have been using Chrome since the 1st morning and have chosen to summarise his latest "face" in a relatively brief, unbiased way.

Following years in which the Chrome user interface has remained almost unaltered, Google's choice to develop it further and make it "material look like" shows that today they are not only focused on their service (e.g. Gmail, photos, etc.), but have also begun to advocate the use of desktops applications. Hopefully, Chrome will become more and more functional over the years.

Along with the new look, Google has put some work into the Adressleiste ( "Omnibox") so that you get more information (e.g. meteorological information when you type "City + Weather") directly in the Adressleiste, instead of going to the website: Also the Passwortmanager has become a little more intelligent, now he suggests that you use the safest combinations of signs as your pass phrase, along with the block on using the same passwords for several websites:

So much hype in the press, years of wait (without much development), the new Chrome theme is just a beautiful "face" (sometimes faulty, e.g. on Mac I couldn't even get the bookmark toolbar hidden) in the poor quality version of the titlebook. Missing new functionality and significant enhancements make me think that Google Chrome is taking Chrome user for granted and adding a new interface like a bones to them.

Certainly Chrome will not be dropped by Chrome due to lost aspirations, but Google had the opportunity to give us much more with new designs and screw it up. When Google introduced the Chrome natives ad blocking tool a few month ago, consumers got a sense of hoping that Chrome would move towards a feature-rich web browsers that meets the needs of the present day markets and consumers (the ad blocking tool is still gaining momentum in the US and Europe).

After a while, all the hustle and bustle of the subject is gone, along with the integrated advertising blocking function. Not naïve, advertisements are the heart of Google's operation, so I didn't expect Google to cut one of its feet; but still they had a shot at doing a lot of good for the user and the ad industry in general. uBlock Origin is a great replacement here.

Google was able to redesign the background image and add/remove/edit pages on the homepage. Everything would be great, but after a few working sessions, it felt like it was just done that way so as not to annoy the user about the shortage of new designs on the homepage. Websites can't be rearranged, there's no way to categorise them (e.g. with tabbed pages or folders), no way to customise the browser... I was looking forward to Google getting inspired by the competitors (e.g. Opera or Firefox) or looking at the most favourite home page enhancements in their webshop, but none of that happens.

Chrome is available for all personalisation options that competition has (nice background images, tabs for favourite pages, etc.).