Like many of you I eagerly waited to try Google Chrome yesterday. But to be very honest, I wanted to find flaws with it.
I felt somewhat guilty about using a browser other than Firefox. When I first started using FF 0.8 in 2004, the underlying technology and architecture of Firefox was so different than what was around. Firefox raised the bar and I wanted to support the team for doing so. Over the years I’ve come to rely on various add-ons such as FireGestures, CookieSafe, FireFTP, Firebug, GmailManager, and Web Developer.
With that in mind, you’ll understand why I originally gave up on Google Chrome after using it for ~2 hours yesterday. But, as I started to write this post, I remembered that I was an Opera fan before I became a Firefox user. The initial transition was tough; largely because FF didn’t support mouse gestures initially. But, the notion of a lightweight, modular browser that I could tailor to my own needs was reason enough to make the switch to Firefox.
As much as it pains me to say, I’m going to make the switch to Google Chrome as my primary browser. I’ll deal with the lack of mouse gesture support and the lack of functionality equivalent to CookieSafe, etc. But I’ll also enjoy some new benefits like not having to shut down FF because one of the sites (of the 20+ tabs) that I have up is blowing up. I have to remind myself that Chrome is a 1.0 release (well, beta, but so is GMail right?). Supporting (third-party) add-ons is a natural next step for Chrome.
At the end of the day, I’m making the decision to switch to Google Chrome for the same reason that I originally switched to FF. The underlying technology and architecture of Chrome is so different than its competition. Chrome has raised the bar and I want to support the team for doing so.
I suspect others have made or will make the same choice for similar reasons. It pains me to say this, but Chrome isn’t going to steal from IE share as much as it will cannibalize Firefox share. The only people who will try Chrome are the same people who initially tried Firefox.
It is possible that Firefox will adopt some of the technology that underlies Chrome, such as the V8 JavaScript engine. Or maybe the folks at Firefox will use Chrome as impetus to take their game to the next level? Mozilla is claiming that their new JavaScript engine is faster than V8. Interesting….
Who knows, maybe I’ll switch back to FF. But for now, Google Chrome just leapfrogged everything else on the market (from a geeky underlying technology standpoint). BTW, how cool is it that the Google Chrome Task Manager has a “Stats for nerds” link???
09.04.08 at 3:50 pm
Chrome didn’t even get going for me. It found I was living in Spain and downloaded the Spanish version despite the fact I requested English (why did it bother to ask). I changed the language within Chrome, and then I got Chrome and Google Search in a mixture or English and Spanish.
As I don’t understand much Spanish, its back to IE7.
09.04.08 at 3:53 pm
Chrome sounds good from a security point, however remember this is only a beta and there are a number of risks, I lost four hours today when one of my web design programs crashed five times, technical support suspect that Chrome over wrote application data folders causing Microsoft Visual C++ runtime error Abnormal Program Termination. When I uninstalled Chrome was the first chance to communicate with Google there is no report a bug option in Chrome unlike other Beta programs.
09.04.08 at 4:07 pm
You stole my words. Its really painful to bid such a wonderful browser like Firefox adieu.
09.04.08 at 4:21 pm
I too downloaded and tried Chrome and after it crashed logging into my internet banking and I got sick of viewing all the ads I went back to Firefox, somehow I doubt AdBlock Plus will ever work with Google Chrome, anyway I sure hope everyone else uses it so that it drives more traffic to my website.
09.04.08 at 4:35 pm
Hi John, that’s too bad (since you’re a potential IE user that Google could have won). It is just a beta…not sure that’ll make up for your lost time.
Hi Antony, that’s very interesting…doesn’t seem like good app behavior to overwrite data folders…
Hi Amiya, agreed…painful. But hey, FF is still installed so I can use it whenever I feel nostalgic ;-) or a site isn’t working with Chrome.
Hi Cynic, agreed re. AdBlock Plus, but I’m sure that once they allow third party add-ons, ABP will find its way over to Chrome
09.04.08 at 7:03 pm
One thing you may have overlooked, Savio, is the amount of information that Chrome collects about your surfing habits and transmits back to Google.
I’m sure it’s benign – but I don’t like having my browser spying on me.
After trying Chrome for two hours I went back to Firefox. And I’m sure Mozilla will have a Chrome-killing response in a very short space of time.
09.04.08 at 7:37 pm
Hi Sue, do you mean info like this:
http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=96817&hl=en-US
Because I had originally unchecked the “Help make Google better by automatically sending usage statistics and crash reports to Google” checkbox. (Unchecked is the default setting)
But after reading what data is sent back, I’m okay with checking it.
Agree, let’s hope that Mozilla can leapfrog Chrome!!!
09.04.08 at 10:50 pm
My Firefox crashed after I downloaded Version 3, so I’ve been using IE in the interim. I’m going to have to delete FF and reinstall. I’ve been following the Crome debate. I let others test things first. This morning’s papers said that Chrome meant that everyone had signed up to Google having copyright over your web site contents. That has now changed, but that is not a good start in terms of your privacy. Nevertheless, if FF keeps crashing for me, I’ll be changing to Chrome.
09.05.08 at 4:34 am
I’ve heard too many concerns about privacy. Lets face it, Google isn’t our biggest concern, it’s our ISP’s that can do a lot more damage.
On Chrome… I just don’t like it. It doesn’t seem to be any faster than IE7 or FF. I haven’t installed FF3 yet, as 2 still crashes on me and I’ve heard that 3 is even worse. I think all this competition is actually even better for Microsoft.
09.15.11 at 10:50 am
Well, prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.
Chrome has in fact cannibalized IE, rising from near-zero when this posting was written to 25% three years later (in the last year, growing 1% per month), as IE has dropped from almost 65% share to only 45%. Meanwhile, Firefox usage has remained fairly steady in the high 20s. Chrome has changed the game from IE in the overwhelmingly dominant position it has held since 2002 to three strong contenders. Source: StatCounter data as graphed by Wikipedia.