Google Chrome bundles Adobe Flash

Anyone who follows tech news has already read that Google’s launching a new web browser today. While it’s way too early to pass judgment on a beta product, other than to say they’ll have an uphill battle in securing marketshare, I’ve gone ahead and tested a few media-rich sites. XM’s online guide and music streaming work fine. As do Flash-based YouTube and Hulu video playback. Though Netflix Watch Instantly throws up an incompatible browser error. Which doesn’t necessarily rule out eventual support for Microsoft DRM… but I wouldn’t bank on it in the near-term. Related, good luck finding a Microsoft Silverlight plugin – no NBCOlympics.com for you. Any other successes or failures we should know about?

Update Google documentation indicates broader plugin support. It’s probable web pages like NBC Olympics are hardcoded for specific user agent strings, thus preventing recognition and playback. Instead of reinventing the wheel, has Google leveraged existing Mozilla/Firefox plugins?

Currently, Google Chrome supports the most popular plug-ins necessary to display the Web correctly, including Flash, Acrobat Reader, Java, Windows Media Player, Real Player, QuickTime, and Silverlight.

31 thoughts on “Google Chrome bundles Adobe Flash”

  1. I’ve confirmed Pandora’s running too.

    Of course, none of this is enough to get me to use a new browser. But it does remind me what my iPhone is NOT currently capable of. Come on, Jobs – how about some Flash on the go?

  2. I visited CNN.com – they appear to have installed a *Firefox* WMV plugin. The first launch of CNN video resulted in a “plugin crash”, but I’m streaming video from LAX now.

  3. I’m using Chrome to write this point. I had hoped webkit would make it faster than it is. It’s only marginally faster than Safari on my rig.

    It’s inability to open multiple tabs with one click and its inability to write over existing tabs when opening new tabs is a deal killer for me.

    It took us months to get that bug worked out of Firefox 3. See here if interested:

    http://www.daleisphere.com/fix-for-firefox-3s-open-in-tabs-overwrite-bug/

    If its solved on Chrome (or an add-on comes out that deals with this issue) I’ll take another look. Otherwise, tabbed browsing, the way I browse, is too painful on Chrome.

    …Dale

  4. I have to say for a 0.2 version of a web browser, that thing is polished. I cant wait to see a 1.0 of it(Granted it will prob be 3 years away, the way google does things). Anyway, who can complain about another open source browser to put a nail in IE’s coffin.

  5. using chrome right now – so far… fast… enjoyable… only irritant is the bookmark system leaves a lot to be desired for someone who clicks many bookmarks…

  6. As a web developer I have found a major concern. when evaluating the returned XML object in an AJAX callback the node elements are not in sync with Firefox. This is an issue considering the navigator.appName returns “Netscape” when evaluating which objects to access for a nodes values. Such as…

    if(IsIE)
    val = (elem.text != null) ? elem.text : “”;
    else if(IsNetscape)
    val = (elem.firstChild != null) ? elem.firstChild.nodeValue : “”;

    If someone has the skinny on this please let me know.

  7. How well is Chrome integrated with Google’s other features? They should make it work seamlessly with GMail, GDocs, Picasa, and all the other products.

  8. Ivan, they have an App mode which right now allows you to run Google apps (Gmail, Maps, etc) in dedicated Windows without browser “chrome” and place shortcuts on the desktop – I assume their hope is that other web services will utilize this. At this point, the browser is too minimalist for me to use – even when it’s further along, I wonder if I’ll have a compelling enough reason to switch? JavaScript speeds aren’t enough, not to mention Firefox 3.1 will have a new JS engine as well.

  9. I’ve been happy using chrome with everything OTHER than flash. With flash video I have problems. I find it locks up when I don’t have enough bandwidth, say for watching high quality youtube videos.Only ctrl-alt-del gets me free.

  10. Writing this with Google Chrome, I cannot view youtube or any other Flash enabled website. I tried installing netscape/mozilla/firefox/safari/opera flash plugin to no avail. First time flash said installed sucessfuly, second time there was an install error.

  11. Yeah, I’m having trouble also. I can see youtube and Hulu video, however I can’t hear a thing. Very annoying. End up having to fire up Fx :(

    Please must be fixed!

  12. I can’t view youtube either. Tells me to download new player. When I do, it says choose your browser and chrome isn’t one of the choices. Isn’t that wierd?

  13. For me, Flash works fine for awhile, but then I’ll be watching videos with no sound and the only fix is to uninstall and then reinstall Flash. I checked on IE, and when I can’t get sound on Chrome, IE tells me that Flash doesn’t exist or has been disabled. The hell? This has happened three of the last four days.

  14. I have problems with Chrome and flash, too.
    At some video sites, flash is not recognized and it asks for a (new) install. At other sites, The video plays, but the sound skips. Sometimes it plays ok.
    It feels like a bandwidth limitation, but I can’t believe that.
    Any help?
    Thanks in advance-

  15. There is no uniqueness as to why Flash does not work well with Chrome. I have a 6 year-old single-core laptop that has Chrome/Flash problems, as well as a quad-core server workstation with the same issues. Being that Google Chrome is still Beta, I am sure this problem will be corrected in the near future. For now, we will just have to wait…or use something else.

  16. for me i cannot play you tube videos in Chrome.

    some how i can scroll page down in chrome but cannot page up using my dell scroll pad.

  17. Every time I open Chrome adobe gives me a message that Adobe Flash 9 cannot continue with major slowdown. Other than that I like it a whole lot when I can get it to run Adobe flash

  18. Supposedly Google has fixed the Flash problem for almost all cases win Chrome. Anyone still having problems?

  19. For those who Flash works for a while, I notice when it stop working you have to click out of the Flash movie and then you can click again inside the movie, but just one time, then you have to click outside again… and so on.

    Cheers!.
    Sergio

  20. Okay well i have chrome.. anywhere where theres a video/ flash animation.. it brings up a promp at the top that says install plug in.. i try but it always ends up in an error..
    It mostly happens on myspace.
    What do i do?
    someone e-mail me the answer=]

  21. Yes…extremely irritating. Flash will not work on my Google Chrome browser. Guess I’ll join those who need help!

  22. Ich kann bei Google Chrome keine Plug-in installieren, keine Spiele spielen und auch keine Videos schauen und immer wenn ich einen Flashplayer installieren möchte geht es nicht kann mir jemand helfen?

  23. confirmed google chrome works on out of 100 users 60% with the flash 40% not. as well its missing alot other features that are listed in firefox. also the time load on both firefox and google chrome is identical on my machine. page loads as well as starting the application for first time. this is not saying much good concidering there is no flash rendering chrome should be alot faster with being there is alot less to load or render.

    also google is famous for invasion of your privacy on what you visit and where you go. I will be sticking to Firefox. theres no ill motive behind this project. Sure there be plenty of tools push chrome forward into the market though.

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