In Google Chrome, Cracks Appear

Updated EddieC 0 264 Views

Bravo to Google for daring to compete in the two-party system of the world's desktop browser market. And kudos for bucking the status quo to design a "modern platform for Web pages and applications," as its read. But there's also skepticism out there about Google's bravado, and about its motives for the whole browser project.

"Google wants to control the way people do business on the Internet, and the way to do that is to control how they get there," said Gwyn Fisher, CTO of Klocwork which makes code analysis tools. While many of today's news reports say Google has it sights on Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Chrome's so-called Omnibar--an address bar that also performs Google searches--allows Google to gain search business perhaps without the user even realizing it. "We look at it with a jaundiced eye because and they’re having people search more, just by putting text in the address bar."

Still, the Chrome platform does offer some pretty cool and users. It's built on Mozilla and WebKit, the same open source rendering engine used by Apple's Safari. As such, content tested for Safari "should already work well on Google Chrome," says Google. Perhaps more significant is that Chrome's user agent string includes AppleWebKit , which simplifies the browser targeting for your applications. There's also a freshly rewritten JavaScript engine, which Google says vastly outperforms those available today. But that claim was challenged today in
an ars technica article.

Google's name alone will give Chrome browser a fighting chance to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox. Respectively, the two own 72 percent and 20 percent of the worldwide browser market, according to Market Share. Chrome was released to beta yesterday.

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Generated

The short news posts by set the scene but leave out practical troubleshooting and developer-side fixes for visual “cracks” or rendering artifacts. The items below focus on isolating whether the problem is Chrome-specific, GPU/compositing-related, or a page-layout issue, and on measuring real-world JavaScript performance rather than relying solely on synthetic benchmarks.

Common diagnostic steps:

  • Reproduce with the smallest possible page (remove external scripts/styles).
  • Test in a fresh profile or Incognito to rule out extensions and profile state.
  • Toggle hardware acceleration (Settings -> System) and try launching with flags such as --disable-gpu or --disable-gpu-compositing to see if artifacts disappear.
  • Update GPU drivers and test on another machine to distinguish driver bugs from browser bugs.

A simple CSS tweak that often removes flicker or visible seams is to force a compositing layer for the troublesome element. This can change painting behavior and remove subpixel cracks:

.troublesome {
  -webkit-transform: translateZ(0);
  transform: translateZ(0);
  -webkit-backface-visibility: hidden;
  backface-visibility: hidden;
}

Use this cautiously: promoting many elements to their own layers increases memory use and can change stacking/antialiasing.

For JavaScript performance, prefer in-page profiling over headline benchmarks. Use DevTools' profiler and timeline to find layout thrashing and long tasks. Batch DOM reads and writes and schedule visual updates with requestAnimationFrame:

function updateLayout() {
  requestAnimationFrame(function() {
    const w = el.offsetWidth;    // read
    el.style.transform = 'translateX(' + (w/2) + 'px)'; // write
  });
}

If artifacts persist across versions and other WebKit-based browsers, produce a minimal reproducible test case (single HTML/CSS/JS file) and file a Chromium bug report including OS, GPU model and driver, Chrome build, exact steps, and command-line flags used. This yields the best chance of a durable fix rather than guessing at transient causes.

Member Avatar for EddieC
EddieC 0 Posting Whiz in Training

Sorry folks. Here's the link to the ars technica comparing JavaScript engine performance of Chrome's V8 versus Firefox 3. It got messed up in my original post somehow. -EC

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