GOOGLE CHROME OKAY

[MikeA]

I've installed and am running with the new web browser from Google called "Chrome".

So far, I has functioned with the VP.COM site with no problems at all. I've tested forum navigation, game play and the game CHAT and all are working flawlessly as far as I've been able to determine.

There is one bug in the Chrome software that has been reported and will be supposedly fixed soon...I hope! It has to do with the "scroll" function on touchpads and with the wheels on the mouse. You can scroll down with the wheel, but you can't scroll "UP". You have to go to the slider bar over on the right to scroll back towards the top of the page.

The big advantage to the Chrome browser is that each Tab is process completely in an isolated portion of memory, so if something causes a page to crash in one tab, it will not bother you in the others.

My perception of the browser is that it is more efficient than either Internet Explorer (IE) or FireFox (FF). Pages load faster...much faster. The games here load faster too! But that is probably more a function of more efficient use of memory that may not be so apparent to those with slower connections than I have.

The "look" of the browser is clean. Not a lot of clutter on the top where all the search bars and other tool bars with bookmarks and tab-lists are displayed.

It doesn't have all the cosmetic features that FireFox has with different themes or skins. They may be offered later, but for now, I like the ultra clean appearance.

The FF and IE browsers have an option to always display Bookmarks in a side pane in the current window. Chrome does not have this option which is one that I never used anyway. There is a "button" on the toolbar that will display all of your saved bookmarks. You can also set up a bookmark toolbar that displays across the top of the screen for all of your most used bookmarks.

Installation was simplicity incarnate! You download a little 467KB file and execute it. You "agree" to the usage agreement and it does the rest automatically. It imports all of your bookmarks and passwords you've saved in your old default browser, whatever that was. I was up and running with it in no more than 15 minutes.

One caution that I read about but haven't looked up myself. Someone said there was a clause that gave ownership of ANYTHING that a user uploaded anywhere on the internet using CHROME, became the property of GOOGLE.

I suspect that might be a mis-interpretation of the clause in the agreement or it might be a clause that Google will have to alter. In any case, I don't think I'll upload any books or other potentially valuable information using Chrome until this is resolved.

[MikeA]

WM,

I have found one problem with Chrome specific to our website here. It isn't a problem on other websites. And, it is minor.

When entering a message and want to use any of the font changing buttons, you highlight the portion of the message that you wish to apply the characteristic to (like "B" for bolding) and it opens a window for you to enter the words you want to be highlighted with bold characters. In the quick reply, you can highlight them and it just slaps the bold brackeded "B"s at the end of whatever you've typed. In either case, it doesn't do what you wanted it to do. You can manually put the bracketed commands inline with your message and it works.

Strange that this only seems to happen with this particular text editor.

[Webman]

Thanks for the feedback, MikeA!Since google chrome is still in Beta, we won't be investing a lot of time in R&D to correct any minor bugs until their major release. I have come across many issues on a number of other sites, but fortunately this one does seem to be fairly stable from what I have tried so far.

[MikeA]

The "codes" in messages don't bother me. I can easily type in the coded to add font characteristics to messages.

[quote]in Beta Release[/quote]

I didn't realize that Chrome was still Beta. I didn't see it mentioned on the site. Certainly, this is the first release to the public though and I know the programmers are being pressured to get it fixed. I think they were pushed into releasing just a bit before they were ready. I think they should have done more Beta Testing.   

In fact, a warning popped up on MY site when I tried to activate the WYSIWYG editor on my Forum..."Rich Text not supported by your Browser".

It will insert the codes properly around the highlighted words but will not let you go into Rich Text entry mode. I typed in the following sentence and then went back and entered the BB codes by highlighting the words and selecting the font changing buttons in the editor

New Post where I'll try some inserted BB codes.

But that scrolling thing drives me nuts. Hope they get that fixed soon else I'll start booting FireFox again!

[Webman]

Strange... I have no problems scrolling up and down using the wheel on the mouse. I am already back to Firefox and IE for my own browsing though... some of the sites I frequent aren't even functioning properly in Chrome.

[MikeA]

There is a manual "fix" for the scrolling functionality of the mouse wheel.

Go into the "Control Panel". Select "Mouse". Select the "Wheel" tab. Look down and you'll see "Troubleshooter" and below that, "Advanced". Click on "Advanced". Then you'll notice that Google Chrome is not in the mix! You need to "Add" it.

But to find where it is, you must go to the shortcut icon on your desktop for Google Chrome and right click on it and then click on "Properties". It will show you where it is located on your computer if you look at the Shortcut Tab down next to the "start in" bar.

Go back to your Control Panel/Mouse/Wheel/Advanced/Add window and manipulate the Explorer Open window to point to the location pointed to by the Shortcut on your desktop.

That location will be something like:

"C:Documents and SettingsMikeLocal SettingsApplication DataGoogleChromeApplicationChrome.exe"

Click on that and it will add Google's "Chrome" to the applications serviced by the mouse software. Then click on "Apply" and everything is fixed.

This is actually an installation oversite that Google could easily fix in their installation package.