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programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood
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I haven't had the opportunity to talk at all about Google's new Chrome browser yet. Which is a shame, because it's easily the best web browser I've ever used. If it wasn't for the complete and utter lack of an add-in ecosystem, I'd switch away from Firefox in a heartbeat. If you're curious about Chrome, check out the Scott McCloud comic Google commissioned to explain it. Or, heck, just try it yourself!
Chrome is a joy to use, and in my opinion at least, it's the first true advance in web browser technology since the heady days of Internet Explorer 4.0. Chrome is filled with so many thoughtful details, so many reimaginings of web browser functionality as a true application platform, it's hard to even list them all.
In fact, the best way to explain how great Chrome is might arguably be one of the silliest, tiniest things about it -- even Chrome's error messages are fun! Here's an error I experienced last night while trying to clean up my GMail contacts list.
The tab is frozen, you see? With the snowflakes, its little scarf and teeth chattering in the cold? Rather than being annoyed with GMail, and blaming Chrome, I am completely disarmed by this error. It makes me laugh! It reminds me that the developers working on this software, rather than just taking the path of least resistance and spitting out a generic message box with a cryptic error code, took time to make their error messages not only user friendly, but fun.
I'm reminded of the Beagle Brothers statement of quality:
Our programs are FUN to use. Our instructions are CLEAR and complete.
And what happens if there's a serious rendering error on a Chrome tab, resulting in a per-tab process crash? Aw, Snap!
These errors are subtle homages to the classic Macintosh Sad Mac. Which is a tad ironic, as Chrome is very much Windows only, at least for now.
Now, none of this means that you shouldn't take errors seriously. As a competent and professional software developer, you will crash responsibly. Every time. Humor alone is not the goal here.
Errors aren't the most glamorous part of software development. In fact, they're sort of a downer. But the way you handle errors speaks volumes about how much you respect your users, and ultimately, your own project. Remember, this stuff is supposed to be fun! Why not share some of that joy, that fun you had building your application, with your users? We certainly did this on Stack Overflow with our CAPTCHA and Error pages. It's a major drag for your users to end up on a human verification page, or a big fat honking server error. So why not ease the tension a bit by spending a little extra time on your errors and using them to illustrate the lighter side of software development?
Don't get me wrong. Your error messages should always be informative and helpful. That's not optional. But as Google Chrome shows us, it is possible to do that while also being fun. And that's even better.
Cute is cute for a short while.
Google and its tentacles have me feeling a little creepy lately, along with its news censorship, dark areas on Google maps, and so forth.
I'll stay with FF for now, and resist the cuteness of Chrome.
Steve on March 11, 2009 2:24 AMWe have a lot of internal web apps at out company, each with it's own funny little name and quirks. Our reporting permission system is called Clamps, and when a user tries to view a report without the correct permissions - they see Yoda telling them 'Permissions enough you don't have. Request from help desk you will'.
Not exactly an error message, but a much better way of communicating this to our users than one black line on a page saying Restricted.
`Josh on March 11, 2009 2:32 AMThese errors are subtle homages to the classic Macintosh Sad Mac. Which is a tad ironic, as Chrome is very much Windows only, at least for now.
Chrome uses WebKit (as pointed out by another commenter) and even contains Safari in the user agent string. So it is not so ironic that it would use Sad Mac like error icons. It is ridiculous, though, that it is available only for Windows.
kbiel on March 11, 2009 2:44 AMRemember - those who do not use Opera are forced to reimplement it (poorly)
The first ever UI design principal I ever learned was to not use humor in my software or error messages.
To this day I am disgusted by anyone who tries (ie be-bo.com) - aparently I can't complain about the non hyphen version.
Sure it maybe funny the first few times, but after the 100th time you've seen it is just isn't funny anymore. The fact google made this mistake is a retarded and totally strengthens my dis-like for chrome.
That principal is probably going to stay with me forever as I feel it is probably the only one that can't be changed because it becomes main stream or that users now understand more complex tasks under a given context.
How would you like it if your online banking software had an error that removed all your money and then made a joke about it. Adding insult to injury? Hell yes. Sure banking software is a little bit of an extreme case but even in the above, you are trying to do something with a google product in a google browser, yet it broke and won't let you. Then they go and try to make a joke about it? How is that funny.
Sorry if you like it, but to me it is just stupid.
Jimmay on March 11, 2009 3:00 AMChrome is a joy to use, and in my opinion at least, it's the first true advance in web browser technology since the heady days of Internet Explorer 4.0
Yeah, 'cause that XMLHttpRequest stuff that IE 5 introduced didn't lead to *anything* interesting.
Evan on March 11, 2009 3:01 AMAll I want from Chrome is an Open in Firefox context menu option. I still can't get Chrome to play YouTube videos.
CynicalTyler on March 11, 2009 3:31 AMI'm afraid I can't let you do that John. Aint life a bitch?
Awww, you really didn't mean to transfer funds to Nigeria? Oops, my bad.
There are times when impersonal and dispassionate would probably be better. Better to have less errors.
seanb on March 11, 2009 4:00 AMChrome is the browser that loves to love.
Anonymous on March 11, 2009 4:33 AMAnonymous, are you referring to this:
And if not, why not?
Jeff Atwood on March 11, 2009 4:38 AM@Sean: Yes, Ctrl-Shift-T works. Not in Incognito mode, perhaps? (Which makes sense.)
Thanks.
http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/91q3/cerrors.html
Per Erik Stendahl on March 11, 2009 4:48 AMI have fallen head over heels for Chrome. At first, there was still the pull of all the whizzy Firefox add-ons but you know what? I don't miss them (apart from mouse gestures, still, a bit). And it's just so fast - at starting up, at rendering (poor old IE7 feels glacial now). The UI is clean, the clever touches are useful (dragging tabs out into their own windows, tabs resizing appropriately after one is closed, etc). The browser bores will yell Hey, Opera/FF/Safari did [insert ui feature here] years ago! but they've cherry picked the best bits and pulled it together with a fantastic engine from the ground up. Simple, efficient and fun FTW.
fourstar on March 11, 2009 4:49 AMI totally agree with you!
Once, one of my collegue got a pretty funny error message from eclipse.
After several attemps to checkout a project from a CVS Server, he finally got a message saying eclipse cannot connect to the url and : I HATE YOU :-)
While not an error, i'm quite fond of Firefox's 'Here by dragons' warning when you try to goto about:config
Demoli on March 11, 2009 5:06 AMWhile I was impressed with Chrome I would have to say that your wrong.
Chrome is a joy to use, and in my opinion at least, it's the first true advance in web browser technology since the heady days of Internet Explorer 4.0.
Firefox, has always been a joy to use. Always felt faster and more efficent to me than its competition.
Chrome is, imo, more of a refinement of firefox, than a revolution.
Chris Coffey on March 11, 2009 5:13 AMError Messages UI guidelines: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511267.aspx
Z on March 11, 2009 5:25 AMAlways felt faster and more efficent to me than its competition.
Felt, yes. Past tense :)
Chrome is, imo, more of a refinement of firefox, than a revolution.
Have you even read the Scott McCloud comic that Jeff links to?
fourstar on March 11, 2009 5:26 AMI love the Flight of the Conchords reference whenever I edit my posts too often. Always makes me chuckle.
Jax on March 11, 2009 5:30 AMChrome is cool, but not half as good as the new Safari... and that's just in beta. Blistering javascript performance, and it's rock solid.
Jason on March 11, 2009 5:30 AMChrome feels bare compared to Firefox, and Firefox feels completely featureless compared to Opera...
I'm honestly not sure what's there to love. At the end of the day, it's just a browser, and they all do the same thing.
Marko on March 11, 2009 5:37 AMI love the error where the Chrome browser window goes totally blank and it stops responding to anything I type or do other than to just kill the entire chrome browser.
No wait, I hate that.
Cutsey error messages are all well and good for those of you that like that sort of thing but frankly I'd rather they spend the time making me see any kind of error from Chrome in the first place.
RobM on March 11, 2009 5:43 AMThis BrightKite login error made me laugh out loud. http://i44.tinypic.com/4hsh2c.png
Bob on March 11, 2009 5:54 AM@Jeff, i don't mean to be a sourpuss (no, wait scratch that). chrome is cool yes but what is with this opening the new tab right next to the one i am using? if god had intended us to do that then firefox would be doing it too!!! i tend to open many many new tabs thus the first i opened will be right next to the one i am reading in the end. placing tabs at the end just so happens to fit my order of priorities.
other than that minor gripe i love chrome and i tend to use it alot when just surfing for fun. it is my other browser.
Fun error messages are alright, but remember the user should almost never see them -
Remember the bomb icon in Mac OS 8/9?? Pretty funny the first few times, but after losing what you're working on a couple times it quickly loses it's funniness...
Josh on March 11, 2009 5:58 AMYou can have Chrome on OS X if you aren't willing to wait for Google:
http://dev.chromium.org/
Have you even read the Scott McCloud comic that Jeff links to?
They promise a revolution. But all they deliver is somewhat more secure and somewhat faster. Yes, an improvement. Not a revolution. In particular the inability to properly separate cookies of different tabs. (yes, that would break some sites, but the main origin of XSS attacks is the flawed /model/, not implementation)
So far, Firefox feature set and the general feeling is IMO unmatched.
E on March 11, 2009 6:02 AMThe error messages are cool and amusing. It's a good thing.
However, I'm surprised that anyone loves Chrome that much *right now*. It's missing a lot of config options that other browsers have. And, its UI is *far* from keyboard-friendly.
Chrome has per-process stuff and a task manager, but its UI still isn't as great as Opera's. If I switched from Opera to Chrome, I'd be losing *so* much. I'd much rather just have Opera do the per-process stuff.
Finally, Chrome does the sin of all sins and closes the whole browser when you try to close the only open tab. It *should* just clear the tab instead (by default, at least on windows and linux). (FWIW though, Mozilla stupidly started doing this crap recently. At least they have a config option to turn it off.)
Mike on March 11, 2009 6:07 AMSeriously man, aren't you supposed to be doing the whole Lamaze thing right now???
Also, you might want to take a moment to hold a memorial to a good nights sleep cause you will never get one again :)
Josh on March 11, 2009 6:08 AMThere are a lot of delights in Chrome: I'm especially fond of it opening source code in another browser window, so that links are live.
I needs me my Firebug, though, and my IETab, and my Foxmarks and a few other plugins, so Chrome will remain my niche task browser for now.
I'm not sure about the funny message thing - there's definitely a place for appropriate humour, it's just that, as you can tell from my spelling of humour, I'm not American. And the rest of the English-speaking world doesn't have the Snap! meme. So that particular message grates a little, as another example of the US-centricity of some global developments.
That sort of reads like it's unbelievably petty and it may indeed be, in which case I apologise. It doesn't hurt from time to time to point out that the majority of the English-speaking Web World are not actually resident in the USA, though, hard as that may be to remember at times.
Mike Woodhouse on March 11, 2009 6:09 AMSadly in many companies, such Error Messages are considered unprofessional and mocking the customer. In the mind of some people, a customer who experiences an error and gets such a silly error message would think So they had time for this crap, but not for a proper program? Great, I'll change vendors.
it reminds me a bit of Winamp's It mostly works! bullet point that they had before they were assimilated by AOL and had sticks being put in their behinds to make sure that they stay professional from now on.
That being said, I am not one of those hypothetical customers. I'm in for the fun, and after being disappointed by Firefox 3.0 so badly, Chrome is my default browser since a few months and it's great.
Michael Stum on March 11, 2009 6:09 AMAbout browsers:
I agree with Marko, it's just a browser and all functionality still comes from the web.
Firefox' search kicks ass and it has some cool plugins. I see no reason to switch to another browser because it's error-messages are more fun.
About errormessages being 'fun':
I doubt our customers would appreciate it. It's a sign of unprofessionalism.
Apart from that I would definately not appreciate a 'funny' message when it turns out a database was corrupted and I'll re restoring backups until midnight. Or anything like that.
Errormessage should at first be informative. All the crap I've seen in some Open Source software makes me quiver. There's nothing worse than a programmer trying to be funny above giving me useful information about what went wrong.
Nick on March 11, 2009 6:16 AMIf the error happens frequently, will it still seem funny, or will you think that it is mocking you? Humorous and cute messages can be appropriate, but can rapidly become annoying.
Brian G. on March 11, 2009 6:16 AMError messages should not be fun! They must tell the user that there is a problem with the software and take immediate action.
Billy Boe on March 11, 2009 6:20 AMTry to uninstall it, somebody told me that it says something like this:
Did we do something wrong?
Igor on March 11, 2009 6:22 AMIronically, we did just this for a client's site.
It seems every single user that got the error messages gathered on a related forum to complain about how we'd obviously spent way too much time on funny error messages, and not enough time making it work.
Apparently not everyone appreciates having friendly error messages.
Will Hughes on March 11, 2009 6:24 AMChrome, chock-full of error message truthiness!
Craig on March 11, 2009 6:25 AMThese Chrome error messages are pretty ugly.
Lone Wolf on March 11, 2009 6:30 AMComic strip makers Wulffmorgenthalers errormessage is different:
http://www.wulffmorgenthaler.com/error.htm
- but I know, websites errors are often more fun than OS applications....
Mr T on March 11, 2009 6:33 AMBut Chrome is practically a Rip-off of Safari (from the usability point of view). Of course technically it uses processes and has a different script engine, but as for features its practically the same.
Robert on March 11, 2009 6:35 AMI completely agree. It's like how fun sites tend to have fun 404 pages. And I love Chrome as well! It's my favorite browser, but I just wish it had plugins like Firefox, so that I could have a Firebug-ish tool to use.
Timothy on March 11, 2009 6:53 AMI absolutely agree with you! Even though I use Chrome, I have never noticed this little feature. (maybe my Tabs just never crashed? :-))
I could have never imagined that handling errors would be fun someday. Now there is a realistic chance that I might edit some of the code-bricks in our software to make them more human :-)
Thank you for this nice and smart article :-)
vertexbase on March 11, 2009 7:04 AMalso, WebKit is overrated.
Nicolas on March 11, 2009 7:05 AMObject reference not set to an instance of an object. Have fun figuring out which object this is referring to!
Robert S. Robbins on March 11, 2009 7:11 AMBrian G said :
--If the error happens frequently, will it still seem funny, or will you think that it is mocking you?
I agree entirely. Funny the first time, but when things are going wrong I'm likely to be frustrated. Weak jokes I've heard dozens of times before will not help me when I'm frustrated.
Is there an ad blocker for Chrome yet? Firefox and AdBlock+ have spoiled me. I can't remember the last time I saw a single advertisement on the web. It might actually be the last time I tried chrome over a month ago.
AndyL on March 11, 2009 7:14 AMI don't understand why people are so thrilled with chrome. I have used it, and I agree that it's quite fun. However! I am hard pressed to think of a single interface feature that was not lifted from another browser.
For example:
Opera Speed Dial like history view
Opera style rip-off tabs (create a new window by dragging a tab out of the Opera window)
Firefox 3 style favorites button
IE7/8 style options menus
Evidently some features from safari (reading the comments)?
The tabs on top are kind of neat, but I see how this could be really annoying in the eventual linux port (windows can be maximized and unmaximized by dragging them to the top of the screen, and you can't drag the window if a tab is there.)
Also, the book mark interface is almost non-existant.
What you're left with in the end is a mish-mash of other browsers with a baby's first browser look.
Finally, when you get down to it, it's no faster than Opera or Safari, and Firefox 3 still beats it at Javascript rendering.
I fail to see how this is innovative and I honestly expected more from Google.
Nicholas Bundy on March 11, 2009 7:15 AMMost of us have a hard enough time writing error messages that are meaningful and helpful to the user. Making them fun on top of that adds a extra level of difficulty.
My advice:
1. Master meaningful and helpful before moving on to fun.
2. If your shop has someone to write the documentation, they should be working with you on the wording of error messages.
Dave C. on March 11, 2009 7:23 AMWow. Amazing some of the comments about unprofessionalism. When did an all-business outlook and lack of a sense of humor become professional? To those of us with personalities it's not professional, it's more like dead.
Wake up and smell the 21st century! Know your audience. If you can't make error messages informative, helpful, and entertaining, hire someone who can.
A. L. Flanagan on March 11, 2009 7:26 AMHow about error messages that remember you've seen the error 10 times before, and become less humorous and more sympathetic? You know, I bet you're getting tired of this problem. Have you checked our automated help at http://help.basic.net? If that doesn't work, you can contact us directly at http://im.a.human.really, or email mail://a_developer@bigcompany.com. We're here to help.
Error handling is not an afterthought.
A. L. Flanagan on March 11, 2009 7:31 AMLOL. Of course the comment system turned my imaginary URLs into hot links. Click at your own risk. :)
A. L. Flanagan on March 11, 2009 7:32 AMI cannot believe how many people are not aware that Chrome uses Apple's WebKit rendering
engine, the same that is used in Safari.
About the CVS error message: the error message you saw was not tailored as it should have been. CVS has its server software called pserver (which is, or at least was, insecure), and if it establishes a connection properly it returns I LOVE YOU. The default error message is I HATE YOU, but the manual suggests that it be customized.
David on March 11, 2009 7:38 AMAs soon as Chrome for OSX comes out, and as soon as they add common add-ons like Firefox has, I'll switch in a heartbeat. Until then, I 3 my Firefox. Safari is good too but almost all the plugins (the good ones anyway) cost money, which I find to be nonsense.
Wayne on March 11, 2009 7:40 AMMan, fun error messages! Yay! That's so much better than verbose error messages that tell me precisely what has gone wrong!
I can't wait until this honeymoon with overly simplified fun UIs is over.
EvaUnit02 on March 11, 2009 7:41 AMScrolling in Chrome is jerky; I hate it.
Not to mention no Ctrl-Shift-T to restore closed tabs, etc.
@jeff:
chrome is cool yes but what is with this opening the new tab right next to the one i am using? if god had intended us to do that then firefox would be doing it too!!!
Firefox will do it in 3.5. I'm sure there'll be some about:config workaround, but maybe people will just get used to it (I know I will). Anyone remembers the thing about the multiple close-tab buttons after Firefox 2? Anyone still tweaks FF to have only one close-tab button?
@Rimantas
I'm believe how many people here think you have to _add_ something to a browser to make it innovative.
IMO, that's exactly what sets Chrome apart - they took away the junk and left a clean but effective interface.
And browsers have always stolen from each other, just the way that car makers take the best ideas from other companies and make sure to include them in their products. I don't see why it would be any different with software (MS Office and Open Office??)
oops.. I mean't I can't believe
HB on March 11, 2009 7:48 AMSorry, I meant @jake.
Jorge Rosa on March 11, 2009 7:48 AMYou *do* need to be careful with whimsical messages so as not to look the fool. It is a sort of artificial intelligence. Devising a good message is the culminating step. It says to the user: I perceive your situation, and here is what it means for your situation. Just make sure that your app really does perceive the situation as astutely as your pithy message implies.
Chris Noe on March 11, 2009 7:50 AMDon't depend on the browser for powerful error reporting: BSOD comes to the web! The javascript BSOD.js provides an easy-to-use class to boost the error reporting user experience of your websites!
http://devthought.com/wp-content/projects/mootools/BSOD/
Aeron on March 11, 2009 7:52 AMHodie natus est radici frater. (Fun error messages have been around forever...)
James D on March 11, 2009 7:52 AMI write software at an engineering/manufacturing company. They are serious no-nonsense types. The only person who would be laughing if I did this is the HR person assigned to my disciplinary action.
Bob on March 11, 2009 7:57 AMI wonder when the web became about browsers, not about the content displayed in them.
Hoffmann on March 11, 2009 7:57 AMHm, wasn't Twitter's fail whale kind of funny the first twenty times? Not so much anymore...
Jeff Schiller on March 11, 2009 8:00 AMEven if a web without AdBlock was somehow tolerable, I would still not use Chrome. Chrome is about CONTROL. Control the web, control the world. Do you really trust Google that much? It's bad enough they have a record of all of your search activity. You want to also give them the opportunity to have a record of all of your browser activity? Mozilla may be seriously in bed with them, but at least there is SOME degree of separation.
Also, when I tried Chrome, the UX was all Google saying it's my way or the highway. Configurability? Nah, who needs that! We're so brilliant we came up with the single best way for everything and everyone!
Tom on March 11, 2009 8:05 AMBTW, if you like chrome, you can use ad muncher to get rid of the adds. Works like a charm in all browsers, but it is windows only.
Hoffmann on March 11, 2009 8:05 AMReminds me of the time (man, this is going to date me) when a friend and I patched the mbasic on an Osborne to have more umm, earthy, error messages. Eg. instead of Syntax error on line 4 you'd get F*ck up on line 4. We called it fbasic.
Rob McDermid on March 11, 2009 8:07 AMErrors shouldn't even exist!
An error implies that something bad or wrong happened.
If you enjoy bad things then yes, Error Messages Can Be Fun.
The first time probably it will be funny, but if it keeps popping, f@#$!
Nikos on March 11, 2009 8:12 AMAnyone still tweaks FF to have only one close-tab button?
Yup. Prevents accidentally closing the tab when you try to switch to it and your click is slightly off.
Chris C. on March 11, 2009 8:20 AMAs other people noted, the strange Google Update service comes along with Chrome:
- There is no option in Chrome to disabled it;
- If you use msconfig to prevent it from running during startup, the next time you open Chrome, bang, its back to the startup;
- Never warns about anything it does.
To me, this service is not only unnecessary, but behaves very strangely. The only way to get it disabled is by shuting it down in task manager and then *deleting* it. And Chrome never complains about it.
Ricardo N. on March 11, 2009 8:24 AMMy most recent web app, for 404 and 500 errors, shows a picture of Gordon Brown with the subtitle: Here is someone who messed up worse than we did. Sorry you had a problem, we've been notified and attend to it as soon as we can.
I've noticed that most people are suprised to get this, laugh (because it's true...) and are generally amicable about whatever problem they are experiencing.
Sam on March 11, 2009 8:32 AMHi Jeff, i'm fan of Firefox because i love their addons, but i think that if Google Chrome will be capable to adapt the addons of Firefox, then Chrome will be the choosen one.
Agusti-n on March 11, 2009 8:45 AMAs cutesy as 'fun' error messages can be, I'm afraid I have to sit in the camp that calls them unprofessional. When I'm working with a program, I don't want the program to make me laugh when something goes wrong. I want it to tell me what went wrong, and clearly, so that I can avoid doing it again if I can. More to the point, I'd rather that the five minutes spent coming up with a cutesy line and ten for the frozen tab icon have been spent on fixing the bug in the first place. Sure, it's just five minutes here, ten minutes there - and if they're really spending more time than that per 'fun' error message, they ARE wasting time - but it adds up fast.
As far as Chrome being the greatest and first revolution since IE 4? It's a browser. And a very stripped down browser, at that. Google has gone after it with a severe one-size-fits-all mentality. I can get the same effect by keeping a separate profile for Firefox with no add-ons enabled. My choice to use Firefox is one of flexibility, not one of speed.
JC on March 11, 2009 8:52 AMIf I've learned anything at all from having worked the help desk, it's that users never ever read error messages. Years of experience with poorly designed UIs with error messages that might as well have been written in Babylonian cuneiform for their readability have trained users to reflexively click the buttons until the message goes away. Often, this reflexive conditioning is so complete that the user is not even consciously aware of having seen an error message at all and only noticed there was a problem afterward because the application is no longer responding or their work has been lost.
If the message is still up on the screen when you VNC into the PC to take a look, it's because either they could not find a way to make the dialog box go away or because they've called help desk about that exact problem before and the tech support person answering the call had insufficient information to diagnose the problem (because the error message was no longer displayed and the user had no memory of what the message said) and he/she specifically told the user to leave the message up on the screen and call back if the problem happens again.
Matt on March 11, 2009 8:52 AMWe had a tape backup robot that had a sense of humor. We came in one morning and found that backups failed to run. Looked at the robot and there was tape on the floor of bots cabinet. The error message on the screen read, Oh rats! I dropped a tape.
It put a bit of fun in a failed backup.
I agree that Chrome is the best browser out there. I use it when I can. The only two issues I have is after remaining open a while (read: days) it gets flaky. Also, it seems to run a bit hot for multimedia.
Still, even with those issues it is my preference.
David on March 11, 2009 9:06 AMI would love to hear what makes Chrome such an excellent browser, in Jeff's opinion.
My experience has been that the only people who find Chrome to be the better browser of the bunch are the people who were desperately clutching onto IE until very recently. Chrome provided them with an out of their embarrassment, allowing them to switch while pretending that they're switching now only because, phew, finally something worth switching came out. I know Jeff alludes to IE above, but he is the classic clutch-onto-Microsoft sort of guy, so I wouldn't discount it as a motivation.
So why is Chrome better, Jeff? The JavaScript thing is long a thing of the past, and apart from that... Oh look, tabs randomly freeze...great. What a feature.
Dennis Forbes on March 11, 2009 9:08 AMReally though. Rereading Jeff's hilarious claim above -- that Chrome is the first big advance since IE 4, I am desperately curious for some backing to that rhetoric. For most of the rest of the world, Chrome is like going back two years, but it made a splash because it held the JavaScript crown for a very short time.
Dennis Forbes on March 11, 2009 9:10 AMwebkit ftw!
dude on March 11, 2009 9:15 AM@Magnus - I'm glad I'm not the only one that doesn't like Chrome.
Like the actual material - I find it all bling but the actual substance is actually quite toxic. That is - it looks simple and clean, but it has built in key logging and what-not. I mean - it doesn't even support google toolbar, and that's just lame. I tried to use it for a couple of weeks but found it too limiting. I don't bother with multiple browsers, I uninstall those that don't do the complete job!
@Dennis - Agreed - IE 4 was the greatest break through... apart from every Netscape release. In fact - IE 4 was a massive step backwards due to integration/monopoly problems.
Who brought us Java integration? Netscape. Who brought us JavaScript? Netscape. Who brought us the vast majority of HTML 4 tags and option? Netscape. What killed Netscape off? Integration of IE4. What major advances have happend since BECAUSE of IE???? Come on... don't worry - I'm shrugging my shoulders too. But that's getting off tipic.
From what I saw Chrome thought Chrome was a step backwards too - like an almost ran.
I'd like to know what makes Chrome better too. Is it just the look and feel? Is it the short-held javascript speed record? Please explain because I haven't seen anything that would make me want to use it for more than 15 mins.
Philip on March 11, 2009 9:39 AMCool error messages are, like, totally awesome if you are a fluent speaker of American English. They are a complete nightmare for users where English is their second (or generally nth) language. Besides the use of slang there is also the problem that humor can be very culture specific so other people might not 'get it' at all.
For a website like StackOverflow having humor in the error messages makes more sense because you can assume that you are dealing with an audience mostly made up of native English speakers. When releasing a product like Chrome you have to take into account the fact that the English language version will actually be installed and used globally.
elBee on March 11, 2009 9:40 AMsomeone asked about opening new tabs next to the current one... this makes sense because it allows you to sort of generate a tree of documents to view... going from left to right navigates down the tree in the order that they were last opened. Its kinda like how you can do a heap-sort inplace in an array.
This makes it so that if you jump all around in your tabs, opening new ones from sub-tabs (which chrome is very good at doing), their context is kept local to the tab that spawned them...
the other way to do it just forces all the tabs on the end, which if you are constantly switching between two sites (slashdot and stack overflow), makes their spawnlings mis-mashed together.
having it this way, all slashdot tabs are groups together, and all stack overflow tabs are grouped together irregardless of the order in whcih you open sub tabs.
ape-inago on March 11, 2009 9:48 AM I wonder when the web became about browsers, not about the content displayed in them.
Since the first browser war, I think.
The Web is developing around tons of new dynamic Web technologies.
How can you write content when most of your time is passed in CSS/JavaScript/XHTML/whatever presentation?
And thanks to JavaScript, Web pages now can crash!
What're the differences between Web pages and book pages?
1) Book pages don't crash.
2) The second time you read the book, the book pages don't contain big bold 404 messages.
About computer humor. It s*cks.
Firstly, it's rarely funny (What's funny in a dead folder?), and secondly, the hundredth time you see this error message, you find it frustrating, ESPECIALLY if the error message is erronous.
Example:
Suppose you get a program creating files, and, if it thinks that it doesn't have enough disk space, it outputs I wanna disk space! I'm on strike until you buy a new HD!.
Now, suppose that this programs erronously displays this message because it doesn't have proper access rights to the directory, even though there's plenty of disk space.
(You've not yet diagnosed this problem)
The tenth time you see this error message, would you say:
Wow, how funny? That message is funnier everytime I see it?
Personally I would say.
******* WT* are you thinking? I've plenty of disk space. You ******
I agree with some of the others; personally, I find Google's error messages (in general, it seems to stretch across all of their offerings) to be patronizing and annoying. (My Google Reader frequently displays a simple Oops! An error occurred, please try again later.)
Tell me what happened (in simple language), why it might have happened, and what I can do to recover. Aw, Snap! is about as bad as saying Something didn't work or 0x80005000 Unknown Error.
Errors aren't funny. They're ERRORS.
Nicholas Piasecki on March 11, 2009 10:02 AMI really dislike that Chrome installs the Google Update as a running service. Those kind of things really annoy me.
Also, Firefox + plugins makes it the most useful browser around.
Jake on March 11, 2009 10:05 AMSome people have pointed it out, but just to drive it home; when shit goes belly up and you are stressed, as it will sooner or later, the last thing you want is the feeling that the program is mocking you!
andy on March 11, 2009 10:11 AMThere's 2 things wrong with Chrome:
1. Ads. Until an Adblock-equivalent is implemented and available I'm not switching even if they paid me
2. Tabs at top. Ok, I get it, it's logical because each tab has its own process and... what? Who gives a damn about logic? It's an INTERFACE, make it CONVENIENT. Having to reach all the way up there to switch tabs is a massive step back in usability
Core Xii on March 11, 2009 10:12 AM@Core Xii
... all... the... way??? What?
HB on March 11, 2009 10:20 AMChrome is awesome, and Chromium (the beta) more so:
http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots/chromium-rel-xp/
I also appreciated their approach to error messages, but I'm particularly interested in the javascript interpreter performance, so I wrote a little raytracer to act as my definitive benchmark (ie, I don't give a crap about other benchmarks :)
http://mark.webster.googlepages.com/jsrt.html
The results on there are a little out of date. Chromium is faster than Chrome (and supports textures), so it's pretty much a dead heat between that and Safari 4. Firefox 3.1beta is coming along, but the JIT compiler still struggles with the raytracer:
http://mark.webster.googlepages.com/jsrt-pretty.html
@HB: Reach up to what? Ctrl-[shift]-Tab and Ctrl-{1..9}?
Keyboard shortcuts all the way!
Mark on March 11, 2009 10:22 AMHow is something went wrong informative?
Cook-a-doodle on March 11, 2009 10:27 AMWe have a billing platform at work that cracks me up when it fails:
Something really bad happened!. I'm sure the developer meant to replace that with something more professional or at least meaningful, but there it is anyway. Too bad it doesn't even give me a clue as to what needs fixing.
I really don't like Chrome at all. It's barebones, has a keylogger on it that calls home to Google, and I'm starting to fear this Google monopoly. Thanks God Firefox 3.5 will use TraceMonkey and the private mode, which were both borrowed from Chrome.
Also, that error message wasn't fun AT ALL.
More friendly error messages is all we need. Software that makes us laugh won't cause any stress. Next version will be called Google Goldilocks, in honor of the new planet search effort.
Makes perfect sense, Jeff. Another home run. Have you thought about starting your own party?
BugFree on March 11, 2009 10:53 AMNice post it is.
I begin to use chrome just minute ago after reading your post. It is so coooool. It has a auto-spell-checking function. so my coooool is red-underlined.
I am look forward to meet chrome's characteristic error message.
Thank you, Jeff.
Lee jong-sung on March 11, 2009 10:55 AMI tried out chrome when it first came out, but quickly stopped using it, primarily because of my extreme reliance on 3 FF plugins:
Firebug
NoScript
Live HTTP Headers
Also, there doesn't seem to be any way to protect your saved site passwords in Chrome. In FF, you can go to tools--options--Security and choose Use a master password
In Chrome, I was able to walk up to my colleague's machine, open Chrome, go to the Chrome Options--Minor Tweaks--Show Saved Passwords, go to our internal server address and grab his Windows Domain password without so much as a blip of restriction.
Yikes!!!!
The NetPositive web browser on BeOS used to display each message as a haiku.
Even cooler.
[)amien
Damien Guard on March 11, 2009 11:16 AMOne of the best things about AdBlock, is blocking all of googles bullshit.
Seriously, fuck google. Browser included.
Mal on March 11, 2009 11:23 AMFunny the first time or three, then it just gets tedious.
10th time in a row and you won't be amused, you'll still be steaming no matter how many juggling ponies the error dialog pulls out of its rear.
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| Content (c) 2009 Jeff Atwood. Logo image used with permission of the author. (c) 1993 Steven C. McConnell. All Rights Reserved. |
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