Google Chrome Is A Developer’s Dream Realized

Google has just released its own proprietary browser called Google Chrome. It has made a very impressive debut and is likely to be very popular among developers.

Windows XP and Vista users can download it here.

Feature Packed

Some exciting developer features include:

• Enhanced viewing of source code. Now, when viewing the source code of a web page, not only does it open in a new tab, but Chrome also shows developers a screen reminiscent of a code editor. It shows numbers lines of HTML code, with different colors designating different types of source code. You can also click any link in the source code to preview in a new tab. This includes stylesheets, javascript, and images.
• Built in task manager. If you are someone who likes to have 10, 20, 30, or more open tabs in your browser, you will appreciate this task manager. With it, you can see the full memory usage of the browser as a whole, as well as the usage for each individual page. And it even enables you to end a process. In the case that you want more comprehensive stats on the running processes, you can click on the Stats for nerds link, which also provides additional stats on any other open browsers.
• Powerful code inspector. If you like the Firebug plugin for Firefox, you will definitely approve of this feature which does just about everything that Firebug can, and more! My favorite use for this is to determine the download time (in milliseconds) for each item on a page. It can also be used to easily switch between stylesheets, html code, javascript, and images.

Enhanced browsing features

Some other features include a very user friendly home page which displays screenshots of your most visited websites, as well as a list of recently closed tabs.

Probably the most user-friendly feature, the address bar is multipurpose. Using it, you can load a web page, or perform a query with your search engine of choice. It also suggests potential sites that you might like to visit based on the characters that you enter.

Finally, downloads are handled very elegantly. With Chrome, the download status is displayed at the bottom of the browser window. And to access a download, Google Chrome will automatically open the file or destination folder for you. No more lost downloads! To see all downloads, a comprehensive download page is opened in a new tab which shows the filename, the web location from where it was retrieved, as well as the date that it was downloaded.

To see all features of the new Google Chrome browser, click here.

If you couldn’t tell by this article, we’re sold. This browser is lightweight, easy to use, and good looking. It’ll be exciting to see what features are included in the actual release version. (Find more info on this beta version on the Official Google Blog.)