Chrome is fast and loaded with new standard support, and, if you use Google services, it offers at least one unique advantage: It's the only browser that works with Google Voice Search. It also offers syncing of bookmarks and browser history among Chrome users on iOS and desktop. Android users of Firefox can sync it to the desktop version, but there's no iOS version.
Since our last look (at version 33), Chrome has added no major new features, but it has implemented support for more HTML5 features (including CSS Path drawing and CSS Selectors), along with bug and security fixes. Chrome's Windows 8 modern app version also gets an update, though it still completely flouts that platform's interface conventions, giving Windows users the Chromebook experience inside their OS.
Installation
Chrome is available for Mac OS X and Linux, as well as Windows—all recent versions of Windows, back to XP. That's something even Microsoft's own Internet Explorer 11 can't claim, since its runs only on Windows 7, 8, or 8.1. Installation is a snap, handled by a very small stub program, and no reboot is required.
When you first run Chrome, the whole page is about signing into a Google account, but, fear not, you can simply open a new tab and close that one. Signing in doesn't change the behavior of the browser, but it does raise more concerns about browser-activity tracking. On the plus side, signing in to an account gives you the benefit of being able to sync your browser settings and bookmarks on different computers (more on this later).
Interface
Chrome started the trend of minimalist browser interfaces. All the other major browsers have followed suit, to the point that a minimalist interface can no longer be seen as a Chrome competitive advantage. In fact, Internet Explorer actually uses less "chrome"—the developer's term for window borders and other interface elements—than Chrome. Like Chrome, other browsers now have just a single menu button to access options. As with Firefox, Chrome lets you dress up the browser using Themes that change the window border background, but not the design of buttons and other interface elements.
Search Box. Omnibox is the name for Chrome's combined search and address bar, which runs all the way across the top of Chrome windows. In IE, tabs are by default next to the search/address bar, so that browser leaves even more space for the webpage you're looking at. Firefox is the last major browser to keep separate search and address boxes, which is a boon to privacy, since everything you type into the omnibox is sent to Google servers—even before you hit Enter, if you have search prediction on, which is the default. Not so with Firefox.
Tabtastic. Chrome offers excellent tab implementation. The distinctive angle-edged tabs are prominent at the top of the browser window, and you can drag them out to the desktop to create independent windows. You can pin a site up in the tab bar, and clicking a corner X lets you remove a thumbnail from the most-visited tile view of new tabs. The new-tab page is, however, less useful than IE's, which lets you reopen closed sessions and tabs.
Voice Search
One nifty feature: Chrome lets you search by voice. This comes courtesy of WebRTC support, which lets webpages use your microphone and webcam without the need for plug-ins like Adobe Flash. Unfortunately, even though WebRTC is supported in other browsers, Google only allows Voice Search on Chrome. You simply tap the microphone icon and say something and the search results instantly appear on the page. (Be aware that anything you say isn't only displayed on your screen, it's also stored on Google's servers, and the company even has technology that identifies individual voices.) The screen below shows what Voice Search looks like.
Another recent update of interest is that Chrome now lets you run Web apps you get in its Web store—outside the borders of the browser. Opera offered similar widgets years ago but subsequently abandoned them. The Chrome version lets you install a toolbar button that opens a grid of all your installed Web apps:
Built-In Flash and PDF Support
Chrome was the first browser to come with Adobe Flash built in, rather than requiring a separate (and annoying) installation. Now Opera includes Flash, too, since that browser uses all of Chrome's underlying page-rendering code. Not having to perform frequent Flash updates is a huge boon—it updates automatically with the browser. This avoids many Flash security issues, too, because Chrome runs the plug-in in an isolated sandbox without access to critical system areas.
Like Firefox, Chrome boasts a PDF reader, so you don't have to worry about installing Adobe plug-ins for viewing specialized Web content. When you load a PDF, an intuitive toolbar shows when your mouse cursor is in the lower-right corner of the browser window. From this toolbar, you can have the document fill the width of the window, show a full page, or zoom in and out. By default, you can select text for copying and pasting, but the viewer doesn't let you copy and paste images. You can print the PDF as you would any webpage.
Extensions in Chrome
There's a healthy supply of Chrome extensions these days, accessible from the Tools submenu of the Chrome main menu. These don't customize the browser quite as drastically as Firefox extensions and themes can. A checkbox for each extension allows it to run while you're in incognito (private-browsing) mode. Enough users must have complained that extensions disappear when you enter that mode; it makes sense that you might still want to run your Ad Blocker while in the private mode. In comparison, Firefox's extensions always work in its private browsing mode, as do Internet Explorer's Accelerators and WebSlices.
After I installed an extension, a tooltip popped up showing its icon either in the address bar or as an added menu button next to the default page and wrench menus. Some extensions, such as the RSS reader, don't install icons, while others add choices to the browser's options dialog.
Syncing Bookmarks and More
Bookmark syncing has been available in Chrome for a couple years, duplicating a feature introduced by Opera. Google has incrementally added more sync-ables, and these include tabs, passwords, preferences, themes, the aforementioned Web apps, auto-fill entries, extensions, and Omnibox history. You can also add new users to one machine's installation of Chrome, letting multiple users sync their customizations.
The changes bring Chrome to parity with Firefox's syncing prowess. Both let you sync browsing history as well as the rest of it to the Android version of the browser as well as to Windows and Mac versions. It's refreshing to browse certain sites at work and then find the same ones waiting on your home PC or on your phone.
One caveat: If you set up Omnibox history syncing, enabled by default, you're not explicitly warned that your entire search and address entry activity will be stored on Google's servers. You can head to your Google Dashboard to see and control what's stored.
Multiple Users
To allow another user to sync to their Chrome customizations and history, you head to the Users section of the Settings page and choose "Add new user…" This opens a new browser window with a clever choice of icons for the new user, such as an alien head or ninja mask. These appear in Chrome's Taskbar icon when the new user logs in. It's a useful feature for computers with more than one user, but it's not a privacy feature like Incognito windows, which don't save any browsing history.
