Google just released a official new version of Chrome 4.0 and I’ve updated my PC accordingly. With this new update Chrome now supports extensions (AdBlock!!) and a bookmark sync which will mirror your bookmarks across any PC you use when you log in with your Gmail account.
I have been a Firefox user for a long time and while it’s no longer as clean or fast as it once was my complaints are very few. I also have IE 8 installed but it very rarely gets any use, it’s mostly just for very rare compatibility issues and for the occasional guest user who happens to want to use it.
A few weeks back I got my hands on a new Sony Vaio laptop and it came with IE 8 and Chrome installed and I didn’t want to bother installing Firefox since it was a shared PC. As a result I started using Chrome more frequently and getting comfortable with it. I still stuck with Firefox on my desktop since the lack of AdBlock on the laptop was a shortcoming, so I suppose I was a browser bigamist for a stretch there.
Now that Chrome has AdBlock and other extensions I see little reason to stick with Firefox. I’m probably going to give Chrome a try as my full time browser of choice. We’ll see if it sticks.
*Note: Yes, I realize that this poll has been done to death around here but the browser landscape is constantly changing and with this reasonably significant upgrade to Chrome I figured it was worth revisiting. If it serves as an excuse to inform folks of the new Chrome version available and an avenue to discuss and compare browsers then it’s served a valid purpose. *
In order to promote more discussion I thought I’d mention what I like best about Chrome and why I’m at least temporarily ditching Firefox for it.
The biggest plus for me is how little screen real estate it takes up. On my 4:3 desktop monitor I was never really bothered by the size of the browser at the top and bottom of pages, but on a 16:9 laptop screen it became a lot more cumbersome. I really like the way the Chrome compromises on the status bar on the bottom by hiding it the majority of the time but popping up a minimal version of it when you hover over a link or load a page. I also love that they did away with the Menu Bar at the top, this isn’t revolutionary since IE actually came up with this first (to much negative response oddly enough) but the implementation here just feels better.
Another plus is the use of the New Tab screen in the way it displays bookmarks and recently visited/closed tabs. It’s very handy and another nice compromise to hide the persistent Bookmarks Bar on FF and IE. I do occasionally miss having a bookmarks button on an existing tab though since I don’t always need a new tab. That should probably be a custom option, though an extension could fix it.
I will miss the Firefox option to delete the last hour, 2 hours or 4 hours of your browsing history. It was handy. Chrome lets you delete just the last day’s history, not allowing you to crop any more discretely.
I tried Chrome. Didn’t care for it but maybe it’ll improve. I am so pleased with Firefox I don’t really see any reason to change. I don’t notice any speed issues at all, and if I need something I can only get with IE it has this handy little plug-in to open a page in IE without the hideousness of IE.
My favorite part of FF is Kidzui. There’s a K on the menu and that’s all it takes to set my little girl up for her computer time. She has all sorts of kids’ sites to enjoy without worrying about her accidentally clicking on something bad.
I have both and have used Firefox a few times, but I find it absolutely no different from Safari. I don’t know why I gravitate toward Safari except that I’m more familiar with its avatar or logo or whatever on my desktop and so click on it automatically.
Seriously, what’s so great about Firefox? I don’t see any difference at all.
I was one of the last Netscape holdouts… then I was a regular IE user up until about two months ago, when my company moved their corporate standard to Firefox. So far I’m happy with Firefox. I’d used it for a bit way way back, don’t remember why I ended up using Netscape more than Firefox back then.
I’ve heard lots of good things about Chrome, particularly that it consumes far less memory than other browsers.
I stick with Firefox because of the addons. I love adblock and flashblock and I feel like I can’t function without Snaplinks. I love the way Delicious integrates with FF too.
If there were a Snaplinks equivalent on Chrome, I’d give it a shot.
Well, to put into terms you probably understand, what’s so great about the iPhone? It’s almost exactly the same thing as the Droid, Nexus One and Palm Pre, hardly any difference at all.
Well… except for Apps.
iPhone has tons of great apps because it was first to market. Firefox has a ton of plug-ins because it was first to market. Everything else is largely aesthetics, which to be fair is a perfectly reasonable yardstick.
There are some functionality and compatibility differences between the browsers (and smartphones/mobile OSes) but those really only affect a small percentage of users.
You do know you can customize Firefox, right? This is how I have it set up, for example. Very little wasted space. I don’t even remember how the default looks, though; I just remember getting rid of a bunch of stuff - but I think the top part was at least twice as large.
