Using Chrome every day (but not as a browser)
Google’s Chrome is a really interesting piece of software to me. It breaks rules about how Windows applications work and look, it’s an instantly-big player in a already-prolific browser market, and it’s a curve ball from Google: we just didn’t see it coming.
That said, I didn’t immediately see its utility. It uses the same engine as Safari (WebKit), so it isn’t changing the dialogue on web standards. It doesn’t support extensions, so I’m not ditching Firefox any time soon (life without Foxmarks, WebDev, and Firebug isn’t worth contemplating). It was just “another browser.” It saw a lot of play, and then most people went back to their browser of choice.
Then, about a week ago, I missed an appointment. Back in college, I had Outlook open 24/7 and it managed my life for me; I lived and died by its popup reminders. Now I have Google Calendar, but I kept closing the darn thing with my browser, immediately killing its helpfulness. If I can remember to open Calendar, then clearly I don’t need its popup reminders at that point, and SMS frequently finds my phone sitting idly in my bedroom.
Of course it’s immediately clear that the “Create application shorcut” is where I’m heading with this. But then it’s stuck in my taskbar. Add Gmail and Reader, and you have a mess. That’s where TrayIt! comes into play. I currently have my Calendar on standby, Gmail open (not just the silly Notifier), and Reader ticking away, all unobtrusively minimized to my system tray. Shortcuts to all three are in my Startup folder.
Perfect.
Having Reader open all day deserves its own attention. I need to know immediately when content is published on Icrontic or when a vBulletin or Wordpress upgrade is announced. I follow about a dozen blogs of personal interest and several dozen technology sites. I could literally spend an hour making my rounds in the morning to catch up; now Reader lets me get it done in about 10 minutes. Of course I could always check Reader in my browser, but having it open and running in my system tray was the difference between a great theory and reality.
So what is Chrome for me? It’s not my browser. It’s my first foray into the Google platform (Android, Gears, and Chrome). Internet Explorer has been bundled with Windows for the past 13 years, but it wasn’t until last week that I regarded a “browser” as a literal extension of my desktop. Go figure.
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