Chrome for iPhone, iPad: It’s Safari with Smart Extras [HANDS ON]

Chrome for iPhone, iPad: It’s Safari with Smart Extras [HANDS ON]
June 28, 2012 by Christina Warren

Chrome for iOS is Here

Chrome for iOS is here. Available for the IPhone and iPad, how does it compare to the third-party browser competition?

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Sign In

You can sign-in to Chrome for iOS with your Google user name and password. This allows users to sync bookmarks, view open tabs from other devices, access passwords and automatically login to Google services.

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Take a Tour

The first time you launch Chrome for iOS, the app offers a user tour.

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Search Omnibox

The search and location bar are on in Chrome for iOS, just like with Chrome on the desktop.

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Tab Switching

Tab switching works by dragging at the edges. It is card-like, similar to webOS and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

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Browsing in Portrait

The number of open tabs is displayed at the top, next to the Omnibox.

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Browsing in Landscape

Landscape browsing offers minimal cruft.

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Tab View

Tabs can be browsed like cards and quickly removed with a swipe to the left.

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Context Menu

The menu button brings up options, including quick access to favorites, email, "Find on Page" and the ability to view tabs on other devices.

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Open Tab Sync

You can select open tabs for any of the computers currently logged into Chrome on the desktop or for mobile with open tab syncing turned on. Tapping on a tab will open the window in Chrome for iOS.

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Blank New Tab Screen

After closing all tabs, this subtle background greets users.

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Chrome on the iPad

On the iPad, Chrome looks much more similar to its interface on a Mac or PC.

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Tabs On Top

Chrome's famous "tabs on top" motif carries over to Chrome on the iPad.

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Context Menu

The context menu in Chrome for iPad has more room to breath and expand, thanks to the larger screen.

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Browsing Open Tabs

It's easy to browse open tabs from other synced devices. Here, you can see I am browsing open tabs on my MacBook Air and my iPhone 4S.

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Chrome Keyboard

Chrome offers a custom keyboard for search and address entry with the Omnibox.

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Chrome for iPad in Portrait

This is how Chrome looks on an iPad while in portrait orientation.

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Mobile Safari in Portrait

This is how Safari looks on the iPad. Please note, this iPad is running iOS 6.

As promised, Google’s Chrome web browser is now available for iOS.

We’ve spent some time playing with the app — which you can download from the App Store now [iTunes link] — and trying it out alongside Mobile Safari, iCab Mobile, Opera Mini and others.

Understanding the Trade-Offs

Because Apple restricts the way third-party web browsers can work with iOS, Chrome isn’t substantially different from any other mobile web browser. In fact, it’s basically just the UIWebView (geek speak for the basic Mobile Safari rendering engine) with a customized skin.

That’s not a bad thing — Mobile Safari is a great mobile web browser — but it means that users have to accept a few trade-offs. First, Apple restricts the super fast Nitro JavaScript engine to its own Mobile Safari browser. For security reasons, third-party apps can’t use Nitro within their own UIWebViews.

The lack of Nitro JavaScript support is one of the reasons Facebook for iPhone is so slow (and why the team is building a native version of the app).

In practical terms, this means that web pages aren’t going to load any better in Chrome for iOS than they would in any other third-party browser. Moreover, Mobile Safari will always have the home-field advantage.

Second, because Apple won’t allow users to designate default apps, users will have to manually invoke Chrome for iOS each time they want to use it. This works fine for most tasks — just move the Chrome iOS icon to your home screen or dock.

It does mean, however, that tapping links in email, messages or other apps will still open in Safari.

Google Sync is Awesome

You might be asking yourself — why bother with Chrome for iOS at all? If you’re a heavy user of Chrome on the desktop (or on an Android device), it’s all about cross-platform simplicity.

When a user logs into Chrome for iOS, he or she instantly gets access to bookmarks, passwords, search histories and open tabs on other devices.

Even better — you can choose what aspects you want to sync with other Chrome devices. For instance, I might not want to sync bookmarks or open tabs on my mobile device with my desktop — I can choose exactly what to sync in the settings section of the app.

While bookmark sync solutions are not new — XMarks, Firefox and Apple’s own iCloud all offer bookmark syncing from the browser to iOS — it’s the open tab aspect that makes the Google integration worth it.

I rarely use the feature on the desktop, usually because I am only logged into one machine at a time. But having the ability to pull up an open tab from my browser on my phone (or vice versa) can save tons of time.

The Look and Feel

On both the iPhone and iPad, Google has given its own distinctive design to Chrome for iOS. The browser looks and behaves very much like Chrome for Android and little flourishes like the ability to swipe away tabs or search and enter an address in the same bar are nice touches.

Although Chrome for the iPhone looks and works well, it’s on the iPad that the browser really shines. Unlike Mobile Safari, users can open more than 8 tabs at once (though don’t expect to switch between them quickly) and the tabs on top motif works really well on the 9.7″ screen.

A Solid Debut

All in all, Chrome for iOS is a solid alternative iPhone browser. The Chrome sync is what sets it apart from the competition, but for Chrome devotees, that’s enough.

We do wish there was more of a focus on social integration in the browser. iCab Mobile [iTunes link] — my favorite third party browser — really excels here with support for a slew of add-ons, including Readability, Instapaper, Twitter, Facebook and more.

We’d love for an easy way to post to Google+ from the browser, for instance.

Given Chrome for iOS a spin? Let us know what you think of the app in the comments.



Source: Mashable


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Google introduces Chrome for phone

Google introduces Chrome for phone
Search giant to replace web browser in Android smartphones with revamped version named after its Chrome desktop product

Google is to replace the web browser in Android smartphones with a revamped version named after its Chrome desktop product, as the search giant redoubles its efforts to knock Microsoft off the top perch in the battle of the browsers.

Chrome for phone, which is faster, links to the user's desktop and allows an unlimited number of pages to remain open simultaneously, begins its public "beta" trial on Tuesday, and may move to a full launch this spring.

The upgrade reinforces Google's push to eat into Microsoft's dominance of web browsers. Since Chrome for desktop computers was launched in October 2008, Microsoft's Internet Explorer has dropped from a 67% to 37% market share, according to analysis by StatCounter.

Chrome, which has 200 million users worldwide, overtook Firefox, an independent open source browser funded by a trust, as the second most popular in December 2011 and now has a 29% market share, with Firefox at 25%.

In a move designed to tie users more closely to Google products and services, Chrome desktop users will be able to call up on their phone, at the touch of one button, the last set of web pages opened on their desktop.

The feature should be useful for those leaving the office in a hurry: look up the location of a meeting but forget to print out the map, and the phone can open the map page without having to carry out a new search. Start work on an online document at the office and continue adding to it on the move without having to spend time retrieving it.

Bookmarks saved on Chrome for desktop are also automatically available on the browser of any smartphone, tablet or laptop also using Chrome. A user's various Chrome browsers will synchronise with each other every two minutes.

Google claims Chrome is faster than many other browsers because of technology that anticipates which page a user is going to click on next so that it can start pre-loading it, and in a demonstration at Google's London headquarters on Tuesday, Chrome completed the loading of pages containing rich media such as photos and videos more quickly than Apple's Safari browser on an iPhone.

Chrome for phone will work only on the latest version 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich version of Google's Android phone operating system. The browser will only be available to Android phones during the trial period, but a Google spokesperson said it hoped eventually to release versions for all operating systems including Apple's iOS for iPhones.

Chrome will come pre-installed on Android phones as the default browser, although users will be free to select a rival such as Firefox, Dolphin and Opera. The advent of an improved browser is likely to slow the adoption on smartphones of independent alternatives, which have attracted praise in comparison with Android's current offering.

Google calls this seamless link between devices the "personal web", and it is clearly designed to ensure that it retains control of the gateways to the internet on all devices.

The development is yet another sign that Google is deploying a strategy very similar to Apple's – tying customers into the brand on whatever screen they happen to be using. Unlike Apple, Google does not manufacture hardware, and wants its software to be available on any device its users choose to buy.

Chrome's presence as an operating system on desktop computers is also negligible. But with most activities moving off the desktop and on to the internet, a suite of tools such as email, Chrome and Google Docs, plus sharing services like Google+ and YouTube, have given the company a daily visibility on Apple and Microsoft machines that no advertising spend could buy.

So much so that it no longer feels appropriate to refer to Google as a search giant. Although without search dollars, none of these market share building but so far loss-making activities would be possible.

beta, Chrome for phone, battle of the browsers, Chrome, Smartphones, Mobile phones, Internet, web browser in Android smartphones, Search giant, Google, Chrome for iphone, Chrome for phone, Chrome for phone free download

Internet Explorer Still on Top, But Chrome Is Winning the Browser War

Chrome up big, IE and Firefox decline in 2011's browser marketshare battle

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is still the world’s most popular browser, but it and Mozilla’s Firefox lost a lot of market share to Google’s Chrome in 2011, which is now firmly in second place.

According to StatCounter’s 2011 data, Internet Explorer currently has a 39% market share, Chrome is at 27%, while Firefox holds 25% of the market.

Safari and Opera follow with 6% and 2% market share, respectively.

These numbers alone don’t tell the whole story, however. Internet Explorer started 2011 with a 46% share of the market, and Firefox was over 30%. Both browsers steadily lost their share throughout the year, and almost all of it went to Chrome, which is clearly the year’s biggest gainer.

Net Applications’ numbers for 2011 are very different, with Internet Explorer having a much bigger lead (52%), but the trends are similar: Chrome was the only clear winner in 2011, having jumped from 10% to 19% market share.

Interestingly, Net Applications sees Firefox’ current market share almost exactly where it started 2011: at 22%.

Regardless of whose number you believe, it seems that Chrome is on a roll, and its steep upward trajectory shows that other browser makers should take notice. Otherwise, we may have a new king of the browser market in a year or two.

Microsoft's official Windows blog was happy to trumpet Net Applications' latest browser marketshare numbers, which show that Internet Explorer 9's share is up to over 25 percent on computers running Windows 7. That's some clever and unsurprising data selection, but looking across all desktop platforms over the course of the year shows a very different picture. When you look at the absolute numbers, IE is still the king (browser share of 52 percent from Net Applications and 39 percent from StatCounter), but its marketshare has declined all year long, despite the introduction of IE9. Chrome, on the other hand, experienced 84 percent growth year-over-year, far beyond any other browser on the market. It now sits at 27 percent according to StatCounter or 22 percent if you ask Net Applications.

Firefox also had a tough year, as its marketshare slowly but surely dipped — depending on who you ask, its lead over Chrome has evaporated. StatCounter shows Chrome solidly in 2nd place, ahead of Firefox's 25 percent share; Net Applications shows Firefox hanging on over Chrome at 22 percent. While we felt like StatCounter jumped the gun a little last month when it announced Chrome as the 2nd place browser, it appears the browser's momentum isn't slowing down any time soon.

Image source: Net Applications

• VIAPC WORLD, THE WINDOWS BLOG
• SOURCENET APPLICATIONS, STATCOUNTER

How Google Can Deal a Death Blow to Firefox

Sunday, December 04, 2011 - by Paul Lilly

Firefox, Chrome

 Firefox's future has never been as uncertain as it is right now. Let's start with the market share numbers and work our way from there. Depending on which web analytics firm you put your faith into, Mozilla's browser has either given up it's second place position to Google's Chrome browser, or is really close to doing so. NetMarketShare, for example, has Firefox sitting on a 22.14 percent of the global market at the end of November 2011, down from 25.02 percent in December 2009 (which is as far back as NetMarketShare goes). Chrome, meanwhile, is nipping at Firefox's heels with an 18.18 percent share of the market, up considerably from just 4.71 percent in December 2009.

If you head on over to StatCounter, you'll see numbers that show Chrome overtaking Firefox globally for the first time. According to StatCounter, Chrome is the browser of choice 25.69 percent of the time, slightly above Firefox at 25.23 percent.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Browser Market Share

"We can look forward to a fascinating battle between Microsoft and Google as the pace of growth of Chrome suggests that it will become a real rival to Internet Explorer globally," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. "Our stats measure actual browser usage, not downloads, so while Chrome has been highly effective in ensuring downloads our stats show that people are actually using it to access the web also."

Notice that Firefox isn't even in the discussion. Big whoop, right?  After all, browsers are free, so does it even matter which browser claims the most market share, or second most? The answer is a resounding 'Yes,' and for two main reasons. First, there's the influence browser makers have over web standards, or the ability to blatantly ignore them. Consider Internet Explorer's dominant reign up to this point. IE isn't the most standards compliant browser available, nor is it the fastest or most feature rich. But after it took out Netscape Navigator, there wasn't any real competition left, and much of the web was written to comply with IE rather than the other way around. HTML5 is an attempt to right the ship, but as long as IE maintains its market share lead, programmers will continue to write software for IE.

The other reason market share matters is money. Browsers are free, advertising is not. Search companies pay big bucks to have their search engine featured as the default option, and this is where Firefox is in trouble. Can you guess where most of Mozilla's money comes from? It's through a search partnership with Google! Check out these numbers.

In 2010, Mozilla's revenue was $123 million, and 84 percent of it -- more than $103 million -- came from Google. Think about that for a moment. The vast majority of Mozilla's revenue comes from a competitor who's jockeying for position in the browser race.

In Mozilla's most recent financial statement (PDF), the browser maker won't even mention Google by name, but suggests the numbers are similar. Mozilla says it "has a contract with a search engine provider for royalties which expires November 2011. Approximately 84 percent and 86 percent of royalty revenue for 2010 and 2009, respectively, was derived from this contract."

Source: shoze.blogspot.com

The unnamed search engine provider is Google, and the sultan of search is now off the hook, if it wants to be. If Google wants to bury Firefox, or at least make things difficult for Mozilla, all it has to do is not renew its contract. It's hard to imagine Microsoft stepping in and saving the day with a Bing partnership, not when IE's lead continues to slip. So where does Mozilla go from here?

Good question, and one ZDNet's Ed Bott tried to have answered. Specifically, Mr. Bott asked Mozilla if it's in discussions with Google to renew its contract, and if not, are there any contingency plans in place.

"We believe that search providers will remain a solid generator of revenue for Mozilla for the foreseeable future," was all Mozilla responded with.

Mozilla can believe in Santa Claus too if it wants, but what happens when the fat man doesn't come down the chimney with a sack full of cash?