Old Chrome browser logo – still my favourite

The Chrome browser has been a favourite of mine since it was first introduced late in 2008.  Downloading the beta on a whim, I was immediately taken by its Omnibox, an intelligent merged search/address bar, where the browser is smart enough to determine which of these you’ve typed.  Of course, the main reason I kept using it was the speed; compared to the clunky old Internet Explorer (IE), it was lightning fast, even beating its developer-beloved competitor Firefox in independent testing at the time.

I love the minimalistic user interface with its myriad themes and easy-to-use theme creation tool.  Naturally, my Chrome theme sports a lovely image of Hannibal, my dog, at his favourite activity.  The delightful “most visited” page displays your eight most visited web locations with an attractive graphic image of each, making the bookmark bar far less needed.  And I’m always amused when some random browsing takes me somewhere unexpected, and Chrome informs me, “This page is in <choose one of 52 supported languages here>.  Would you like to translate it?”  I always select the “Nope” option with a smile.

Every time I visit my octogenarian mother in Toronto, I have to refrain myself from making Chrome her default browser.  Because, while she’d love the option of faster browsing, the different interface from her familiar IE would just confuse someone who’s such a newcomer to the computer in general.  So when on her computer, I keep things to her familiar environment … at a certain age, change is no longer good. Continue reading →