Google Chrome 9 review

Google is showing no let-up in adding advanced features with the release of the Chrome version 9 web browser. Chrome is updated every six weeks, but major features tend only to make it into major version releases, such as Chrome version 9.

NetMarketShare data shows Chrome has broken through the 10 per cent usage barrier, and is holding down Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser to 50 per cent market share.

Chrome is powered by the WebKit open source rendering engine, and uses the V8 JavaScript engine.  

Install
We looked at version 9.0.597.98 on a Dell Optiplex 980, a Dell Optiplex GX280 and an Asus Intel Atom-powered Eee PC Seashell 1015 PEM netbook. Install took just a few minutes.

Chrome 9's new features
WebGL
The biggest feature in Chrome 9 is WebGL graphics support, which does not use browser plug-ins, which can be hard to use and update.

By writing pages in WebGL, or adding WebGL graphics to existing pages, online brands can create more content-rich pages rendered by the graphics-acceleration capabilities already in Chrome.

WebGL support also accelerates application delivery over the web because the graphics are rendered using hardware acceleration on graphics cards located on users’ desktop or laptop systems, rather than delivered over the network and sucking up bandwidth.

Chrome Web Store
Google's Chrome Web Store is basically an App Store for the Chrome browser, but currently the full store is accessible only in the US.

Users, including those in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, can only access the developer preview of the web store [see picture].

As well as applications,browser extensions and browser skins are available from the store, and these are available in the developer version as well as the full version.

Current reports indicate that sales of Web Store Apps for Chrome are low, although when Google releases the Chrome operating system, it is reasonable to expect enterprise-class applications to be available.

Instant Search
To further boost browser performance and usability, Google has introduced Instant Search. It means that when you start typing your search term, Chrome starts populating the search results page with results that it thinks you are looking for in real time, rather than waiting for you to press the search button.

Instant is not pre-enabled, and users need to click on the wrench icon and tick the box that appears.

Google Cloud Print
Google Cloud Print is an interesting feature that Google says makes "printing more intuitive, accessible and useful, by letting you print to your printers from Google Cloud Print-enabled apps on any computer or smartphone." [see picture]

To set up cloud printing, users need to enable the Google software Cloud Print Connector, after which they should be able to access their printer remotely.

This is done using the Actions tab, which is visible after you've logged into your Google account, providing the desktop system networked to the printer is turned on.

JavaScript Browser Performance
We used FutureMark's Peacekeeper browser benchmark, Apple's SunSpider JavaScript performance test [v0.9.1] and Acid Test's web standards adherence checker.

We tested Chrome installed on Windows XP (32-bit) running on 32-bit chip architecture, Windows 7 (32-bit) running on 32-bit and 64-bit chip architectures and Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) running on 64-bit chip architecture.

Browsers installed on 32-bit Windows XP running on 32-bit processors
We compared the top five browsers – Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera’s Opera browser – using FutureMark’s Peacekeeper browser benchmark and Acid Test’s Acid3 test, which checks web standards compliance.

IE9 is not supported on Windows XP, and as expected IE8 performed abjectly using the Peacekeeper and Acid3 tests.

Chrome has the best JavaScript performance – a good indicator of browser speed – as measured by Peacekeeper, with Opera 11.01 a close second. Safari 5.0.3 is next, followed by Firefox 3.6.13, and then IE8 [see picture].

In the web standards compatibility test Chrome, Opera and Safari achieved 100 per cent, with Firefox registering 94 per cent and IE8 12 per cent, which counts as a fail in this benchmark.

Browsers installed on 32-bit Windows 7 running on 64-bit processors
The performance order seen when the browsers ran the Peacekeeper benchmark under Windows XP Professional was replicated when they were run under Windows 7 Professional, with one difference. The recently released IE9 release candidate was faster than Firefox and Safari [see picture].

Cross-platform browser test
We measured the performance of Google Chrome 9 and Opera’s Opera 11 browser with the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark on Red Hat’s development operating system Fedora 14 and Windows XP.

Opera was more than 10 per cent faster on Fedora 14 and about 15 per cent faster than Chrome 9 on Windows XP Professional. Both browsers ran SunSpider faster on Windows XP.

Performance conclusions
Google's Chrome 9’s JavaScript performance was the best, when measured by Peacekeeper.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 release candidate performed well, and its development team will be working hard to increase IE9’s performance prior to the actual launch.

Mozilla is working on version 4 of Firefox, and we expect that to be near the top in terms of performance.

The unsung hero in the tests is Norwegian vendor Opera, whose browser also performed well, and when run with the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark on Windows XP and Linux, proved faster than Google Chrome.

General conclusions
The addition of WebGL makes an already cutting-edge browser even better and prepares for cloud-based application delivery by giving better complex graphics rendering.

Google Chrome 9 is currently the best-performing browser as measured by Peacekeeper on Windows 7 systems, and its six-weekly upgrade cycle is likely to keep it there.