I had some trouble accessing the CarMax web site this weekend. I thought maybe there was something wrong with my Internet Explorer browser. This was the perfect opportunity to install and try out the Google Chrome browser. During install, Chrome displayed an options screen. However the screen just froze. Nothing seemed to be happened. All I could do was move the screen. Underneath the window, I found another window that said the Chrome install was complete. That was very strange. This cannot be the correct behavior.Nevertheless, it looked like Chrome installed on my computer. I chose to import my Internet Explorer bookmarks. Unfortunately Chrome reordered my bookmarks in alphabetical order. I did not like this. So I tried to manually reorder the bookmarks. Chrome did not want to let me do that. I guess I had to live with the order that Chrome chose.
The good news is that Gmail feels a little faster in the Chrome browser. Netflix also feels a little faster. But I have lost the ability to drag and drop movies in my Netflix queue. This must be some web features that Chrome does not support yet. Playing videos seemed to work at about the same speed in Chrome as in Internet Explorer.
I understand that Chrome runs different tabs in different Windows processes to assist with crash protection. That sounds like a good idea on the surface. But I went to one web site on a single tab. I spied on Chrome user Windows task manager. I found three separate Chrome executables running. That did not feel right. I also found that a GoogleUpdate process running even when I have not launched the Chrome browser.
The main goal I had with Chrome was to see if it could help me view the CarMax web site. It was not the cure for this problem. That web site must have been physically down this weekend. So Chrome did not work much better than Internet Explorer for me at all. In fact, I was annoyed with some of the Chrome executables running at what seemed strange times and multiple instances. I don’t want my computer being slowed down by secret Chrome processes. Therefore I uninstalled Chrome for now. It is still in Beta mode. Maybe I will try it again later.
