Google Chrome: It’s really, really fast
- September 2nd, 2008
- 91 Comments

Just fired up Google Chrome, Google’s new web browser. I haven’t had a chance to really dig into it yet, but I’ve noticed that it feels really, really fast. Almost like I’m loading up cached pages offline. Google Reader, especially, feels super quick.
I’ve noticed a couple of little CSS oddities here and there (YouTube videos are centered in our posts when using Firefox but left-aligned in Chrome, for instance) but other than that, it’s been humming along pretty nicely.
But enough about me. How are those of you who have already downloaded and installed Chrome liking it so far? Good? Bad? Think you’ll keep using it?
Update from Devin: It lacks a home button, which isn’t such a big deal until you think about how useful they’re trying to make their “speed dial” thing. I have a personalized, extremely useful home page that I go back to in already-open tabs all the time. I also am addicted to gestures and there are none in Chrome, so while it’s clearly super fast, it’s not very productive for me in this form. What do you guys think?
Update 2: Found the home button, I was just being stupid. I would like gestures, though. And the bookmark bar buttons should close if you click them twice or otherwise act like menus. Scrolling doesn’t seem to obey my universal settings of three text lines per “notch” or equivalent. Fast as hell though.




Nate (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Hell yes it’s fast, but I wish it would let me scroll up a page, as well as down.
Treb (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Agreed.
Atanas (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I know … SAME THING HERE :(
Atanas (Who am I?)
2 months ago
U using Vista as well?
David (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Having the same scroll issue in XP.
Graeme (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Thank gawd for that - thought it was just me not being able to scroll up! It’s very jerky scrolling down too don’t you think, even you you can’t head back up again afterwards! Deal breaker for me unless they fix it.
Stewart (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I have the same problem. I noticed 2 processes in the task manager. ICO.exe & PMXMICED.exe [both described as Mouse Suite 98 Daemon]. When I delete these, chrome scroll up starts working. Not sure how to stop these starting up each time I boot up.
Nate (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Yup. I’m using Vista. It’s a Synaptics driver (10.1.2.0).
It was a long shot, but I also tried loading an Alps driver, that’s known to work with the XPS m1530. No dice.
My machine is an Inspiron 13 with Vista and, like I said, a Synaptics trackpad. I’d suggest everyone send in their error reports through Chrome, so we can get this thing working. I like the speed, but no scrolling = no Chrome, for me.
b-a88 (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Thanks for the info, I’ve sent a bug report.
This scrolling issue, not being able to middle click on a link to open in a new tab, and it covering up the taskbar are the only things I have to complain about, other than that it’s really nice and super fast.
Austin (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I submitted a bug report also. I’m using Synaptics PS/2 Trackpad on my Asus w7J 13″ notebook. I can scroll down but not up, so annoying.
Mike (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Um, great browser but one or two of those most visited web sites I probably don’t want anyone seeing when you launch the program. :)
Kevin (Who am I?)
2 months ago
That’s what the Icognito mode is for, my friend. Just click the little new icon over on the right and choose “New incognito window” ;-)
Little Red Ryan Hood (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I’ve been using it for all of 20 minutes and have become a fan already. I love, love, love the way it runs separate tabs as separate processes instead of say firefox or IE where it runs as one app using a huge chunk of memory. I’m going to keep using it to see how it goes.
Paul (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I like it, I noticed the speed difference immediately.
Can’t yet say if I am fully decided, but its very close to becoming my browser of choice.
Nate (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Anyone else having problems with their trackpad scrollbar only allowing you to scroll down?
Atanas (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I KNOW ……
Derik Wilson (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Yeah. I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro and the touch pad will only scroll down, not up. I absolutely love this browser. It is very clean, very fast, and doesn’t hang at all…so far.
Derik Wilson (Who am I?)
2 months ago
And on another note, it appears to conform to W3C standards, unlike Internet Explorer. Conforming to the standards makes it a lot easier for web developers because we do not have to code for multiple browsers. Unfortunately, since IE still exists, we still do.
Derik Wilson (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Ok, ok..it doesn’t conform to ALL W3C standards. As someone pointed out, it fails the Acid3 test. But, it does seem to handle CSS well, or at least the same as FireFox and Opera. IE handles CSS differently which causes me to have to work around the differences.
shamess (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Irck. Same here. It looks like it’s our mouse driver that isn’t compatible with Chrome just yet. I’m sure they’ll fix it.
Little Red Ryan Hood (Who am I?)
2 months ago
@Nate I’ve noticed the scrolling thing also. I’m so used to clicking my scroll button to fly to the top of the page and can’t do that with Chrome. Which is a pretty big downer for me.
Tallin (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I’d love to try it. Unfortunately, I keep getting an application error, even after uninstalling and reinstalling. Sent a notice of this to Google through the report a bug feature.
tone tone (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I am in LOVE! I was really skeptical at first, being a total Firefox fanboy. This puppy is fast. And Google software, of course, runs extremely smoothly. I’m excited about it, and I think it might be my new browser of choice.
bradoug (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I’m having the scrolling issue as well… I installed it on my desktop and my laptop - my desktop is the only one having the issue - not the laptop…
JustSomeGuy (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Yes, it’s fast, but is it perhaps too fast? I’m not used to the internet being at my fingertips, I’m used to having to push and prod at the internet through a metaphorical wall of blubber. All this speed is making me dizzy.
Bill Szczytko (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Very fast … love the tabs along the time. Love the separate process idea. Really like the Recent history when you open a new tab. Killer. Wish I could import my firefox bookmarks though.
Nate (Who am I?)
2 months ago
It grabbed my Firefox bookmarks without issue.
b-a88 (Who am I?)
2 months ago
It did it all on it’s own for me, it even imported my history!!!!!
hype (Who am I?)
2 months ago
wouldn’t import my firefox bookmarks either. Seems not to detect it as the only option for browser selection in the import dialog is IE.
archdevil (Who am I?)
2 months ago
If you have multiple FireFox profiles, Chrome will import the last one that you used. What I did was: close all FF windows, open FF using my main profile, hit Import in Chrome.
David (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Definitely suffering from the scroll up problem…this is a deal breaker. Love the looks so far, let me know when I can scroll up.
shamess (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Well, fortunately it’s obviously a bug. They’ll fix it.
Nate (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I’m done with it, at least until this scrolling issue gets fixed. Surfing the internet without good scrolling is way too annoying.
Tushar (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Pure Love. Fast, Webkit, Gears — all I need.
Kyle
2 months ago
I am really enjoying it so far, the transfer from Firefox to this was painless and I like the increased security feature that IE 8 just came out with. Frankly I hate IE so being able to use this “incognito” mode works for me
Reply
Alan (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I’m having the scrolling up problem on my trackpad - but apart from that it’s freaking awesome.
Goodbye Firefox - I never thought I’d say that!
Jake (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Haven’t had the scrolling issue here.
First impression - wow, the speed is really, really impressive.
Bookmarks: It imports your default browsers bookmarks. If you have more than one (ie like me on my work lappy I also run firefox - go to the settings and import bookmarks again, select your other browser.)
Kyle
2 months ago
yea, so It is really really fast, but my bug list is growing quickly….
Right now I realized it will not let me print FedEx labels from fedex.com and I do a lot of that in a day, so right now I cannot replace Firefox yet.
Reply
Zach (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Speed is comparable to that of Firefox, maybe slightly faster…. but… I CAN’T SCROLL UP!!!!! This is a definite failure in my opinion, but I bet it will be awesome once they patch it and come out with Chrome 2, or just chrome without being a beta.
Joe (Who am I?)
2 months ago
A nice, clean browser, but it’s almost “to” simple for me, and is it just me, or am I seeing many more google adds…
shamess (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Definitely just you. Google doesn’t put any ads onto the pages you’re viewing. Maybe it’s because you’re not using AdBlock now?
Joe (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Definitely faster than Firefox but it wont import my Firefox settings, it only offers me IE. A few people are reporting this now. Firefox is the default browser.
Frans (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Cannot import Firefox bookmarks (only IE bookmarks) though my default browser is Firefox.
Scott (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Yes, it’s fast. Issues, however:
No third party plug-ins as of yet (no gestures, no toolbars etc)
I can’t even use my google bookmarks with it? Huh?
I can’t even figure out how to manage my bookmarks.
I now have a weird, short hanging issue at random times while Chrome is running.
satpal (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Home button is an option, you’ll find it in the ‘basics’ tab. Hope it’ll do the same for ‘favourites’ in the future, as well have as a proper full-screen option akin to ie.
Also having the option to go straight to incognito, or have mixed tabs (incognito/normal) in the same window, would be good.
I like it so far