Using Chrome every day (but not as a browser)

primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
edited September 2008 in Science & Tech
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... Continue reading

Comments

  • MiracleManSMiracleManS Chambersburg, PA Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    I'll be honest, this is exactly where I saw Chrome going. The ability to use it as an application to directly access web apps is its niche and I think it does it nicely. Especially with the google suite :-P
  • lmorchardlmorchard {web,mad,computer} scientist Portland, OR Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    I think I mentioned this in a thread here about Chrome awhile back, but for what it's worth this single-site browser functionality wasn't invented by Google.

    If Chrome ends up being too buggy for you - which is hopefully unlikely with Google's own web apps - there are other alternatives for the single-site browser experience that pre-date chrome:

    http://bubbleshq.com/
    http://fluidapp.com/
    http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/10/prism/

    In particular, for Windows, I think Bubbles bundles in the ability to minimize site/apps to the tray without an additional utility - *and* it also can highlight the tray icon to alert on new mail in Gmail & etc.

    For OS X, the Fluid browser even includes an unread messages count in the dock for Gmail and (I think) Greader.

    I tend to have 5-7 sites as apps open on my dock at any given time. For example: Gmail for personal mail, Zimbra for work mail, WordPress for my blog, live105.com for tunes, ping.fm in my menu bar for tweets & etc. It's pretty useful, and helps that if any one of them crash, not all of them do. And that's not thanks to Chrome's process separation. :)
  • lmorchardlmorchard {web,mad,computer} scientist Portland, OR Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    Oh! And I think Bubbles (Windows), Fluid (OS X), and Prism (cross-platform) support either extensions or Greasemonkey-like user scripts that also have access to APIs to implement dock notifications and whatnot.

    So, for sites not supported directly in the apps, most of them have a library of user-supported hacks that scrape pages to come up with new message counts and the like.

    I'm really hoping that Chrome goes in this direction, too, but I've not yet been compelled to use it myself because the other solutions practically offer the same benefits and more. Even process separation, only using the native OS process separation itself.
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