Google Chrome - what, no coffee?

Well it was here when they said it would be, and I downloaded it. It installed, and crashed at the last minute when the browser had just started up and was importing settings and bookmarks from IE and Firefox, and it looked like it was the bookmarks that were responsible.

But, just like it says on the box, only the tab that was doing the imports fell over, and I was able to carry on and start browsing the web immediately. Later, I went to the options menu and got it to load the bookmarks again, and this time it completed without incident. So score +1 for Chrome.

So what about this blazingly fast Javascript engine then? I've deliberately refrained from running any official tests, on account of being lazy, but just let's say that I'm once again impressed at just how important network and server latency are in the browser experience. That is to say, working with Gmail and Google Reader, sure it seemed a little bit faster at opening the pages, but even in these Javascript-heavy apps, it's the I/O that's the bottleneck.

I decided to look at plugin support. Flash/Flex is there as you might expect (what with having to support YouTube and all!) but, very surprisingly, Java was absent. I managed to find some pages with applets on by going to the Sun website (what a blast from the past!) and got a message saying "No plug-in available to display this content". Here's one of the pages I tried, see what you get.

At first I was a little staggered. Could the status of Java applets have fallen so low that Google weren't even going to bother supporting Java in the browser? (And see here for what I found out about current antipathy to Java in the browser.) Well yes it could, I suppose. Maybe Google have simply concluded that Java in the browser has had its day.

I expect though that the explanation is simpler: Chrome is a beta after all, and there's no compelling need for Google to support applets from day one in the same way that YouTube makes it necessary for them to support Flash. Also maybe something technical about the way the JRE integrates with the browser makes it harder to support than Flash? Maybe. But Safari 3.1.2 (as kindly downloaded for me by iTunes when I wasn't paying attention during a product update) seems to have managed it without any problem. Hmm, this smells kinda bad, kinda fishy...

Of course, Google have got a JVM of their own though, haven't they? Maybe instead of incorporating the Sun product, they'll simply port Dalvik to run inside Chrome? That would unify two of their platforms very nicely indeed, thank you. Android games running in Chrome tabs? I'll have some of that!

If I were Google though, I keep it very quiet if that was indeed my plan, since it would undoubtedly cause a massive outcry (assuming anyone still cares, which is moot, but I bet a lot of people who didn't really care would still enjoy complaining for its own sake). In fact, the best way to do it might be to release Chrome without any Java support at all, and wait for annoyed voices to demand it, and then say something like "Well licensing restrictions mean we can't support yer actual Sun Java in Chrome, but we got something 'ere that's just as good, honest guv'nor."

---

Update: OK, panic over, Chrome does support Java! You just have to have the absolute latest, bleeding edge development release, version 6 update 10. If you click on the toolbar menu and then on the Help submenu it'll take you to a page where you can search for Java support, and that'll take you to a page where they explain what's going on. Or just take my word for it and go to http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/ea.jsp and download and install Java SE 6 Update 10. Phew!

Still think Android apps in Chrome would be a great idea though.