Browser Watch

Google Chrome Go Green Theme

In less than two weeks since Google Chrome was released, die-hard fans and users are already customising the browser. ChromeSpots Google Chrome Themes forum has plenty of themes to choose from already.

Theme’s resembling Apple’s Safari, to Mozilla’s Firefox, and even deviantART have all been created.

Once you download a theme you will need to install it. The install path is as follows:

Windows Vista
C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\[current version]\Themes\

Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\[current version]\Themes\

To install the theme simply copy the default.dll you have just downloaded to the above directory. I strongly suggest that you backup your current default.dll file before doing this. Unfortunately, for the time being, there is no way to manage multiple themes. However, this is definitely a promising start form theme developers. I look forward to seeing what’s to come.

Chrome Chrome, default.dll, Google Chrome, Themes, Windows Vista, Windows XP

With the release of Google Chrome, John Resig has performed JavaScript benchmark tests on a wide variety of browsers on both Windows Vista and XP. These browsers include:

• Chrome 0.2
• Safari 4
• Safari 3.1.2
• Opera 9.5.2
• Firefox 3.1
• Firefox 3.0.1
• IE7
• IE8 Beta 2

Testing, using three benchmarking tools; SunSpider, V8 Benchmark, and Dromaeo, has produced some interesting results. Results show that Google Chrome is ahead in all but one benchmark test - very impressive for a browser that is still in its early beta stages. It shows the performance of the new V8 JavaScript engine and the power of the WebKit rendering engine found in both Chrome and Safari.

You can read the full JavaScript Performance Rundown article to see the other (not-so)surprissing results.

Browser Watch, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari Benchmark, Dromaeo, Firefox, Google Chrome, IE, IE8, JavaScript, JavaScript Benchmark, Opera, Safari, SunSpider, V8 Benchmark, Windows Vista, Windows XP