September 25th, 2008
Is Chrome a security risk?
My lovely bride of 30 years worked from home yesterday, hoping to save our city some gas.
An e-mail came in from her administrator around mid-day which she decided to share with me.
It told all users to shut down Chrome.
The e-mail called Chrome a security risk. It told all users within the company to use Firefox or Internet Explorer, to shut Chrome down.
I don’t know how serious those concerns are. Without identifying my wife’s employer I will say it’s a conservative company, very security conscious, and often proactive.
But this is a good time to ask how well Chrome is doing. Google Analytics says 1 in 40 visits to ZDNet Open Source are now done with Chrome. It’s currently on build 2200, Version 0.2.149.30. (Click the wrench, then the About tab.)
Personally I have noticed that Chrome often crashes Shockwave and Flash pages. Thanks to its redundant tab-based design, whole browser sessions don’t die, but these plug-in crashes are more common than with Firefox.
I have also found that, despite its promise, it pays to shut Chrome down every once in a while and re-start it. The lack of add-ons can be annoying, as when I’m asked for personal information or want to search a page for a word or phrase.
Other reviewers have not been so kind. Some bloggers are already calling it a failure, and the criticism is global in scope.
On the other hand, this open source browser is already being forked, as with a German version dubbed Iron.
This, to me, is good news. It may be the most important news.
It is wrong to evaluate Chrome as you would a new TV show. It is wrong to consider it solely in terms of Google because, like Firefox, this is an open source product subject to the open source process.
But what I think or what any other reporter thinks really does not matter. What do you think? Are you using Google Chrome now? Do you plan to? When? And if not, why not?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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