Well, yesterday evening, Google released their latest (and possibly greatest) invention, Google Chrome. It’s been the buzz this morning in the office on the tech floor. Mixed feelings all around really - Kelvin likes it, Chris thinks it lacks the pluggable power of Firefox (probably due to it being so young!), Jon wonders why his is using Live Search, Sii thinks it’s really really really quick, and I’m just not sure yet.
I’ve become quite set in my ways with Firefox, I’ve got it running quickly by disabling pretty much all flash (including YouTube). I’ve got an ad blocker as well, so that helps a little. I have to say, the thing I do like in Google Chrome is the speedy Javascript execution. I’m not sure how it works, but from what I understand it actually parses Javascript into machine code (i.e. compiled code that has been put together to work on the processor you are using). It opens a whole new window (and I’ve thought of compiled Javascript before, and it seemed to be a good idea to me… interpreted languages just aren’t as quick). Think of it like this:
Current JS Execution:
Browser parses Javascript, and goes back and forth between the JS, interpreting it, which can be slow. The parser interacts with the script, and does the calculations by processing the information. It’s constantly going back and forth. It’s just running a clean tidy binary that just parses a text file that could be very VERY messy and unoptimised.
Google Chrome’s Idea:
On page load, browser parses Javascript and compiles it into compiled binary code. The code can interact directly with the CPU, and magic is done, there is no on-the-fly parsing and it just works, and quickly.
It’s a really good idea, and I approve of it. Even though I thought of it about a year ago… hehe.
I’m an advocate of Google stuff, and I’m not too worried about them invading my privacy etc., like some people… and this browser has an opt-in button to send information about how you use the browser to Google. I’m all for this sort of thing, as it makes me feel like I’m doing my bit to make the browser better. They should have microphones so you can hear the swearing and cursing at the browser when it messes up.
One final thing to note though is that it actually uses Webkit, the rendering engine of Safari, as opposed to Gecko, Mozilla’s prized rendering engine. I’m not sure what to make of it yet, I never liked Safari, but so far things are rendering well in Google Chrome. I’ll try and use it today (despite using Firefox right now) and see how I get on with it…
Oh, and for those of you who have seen this, take a look at this for a bit of a laugh.
