Google Chrome vs. Firefox
Let's poke a beehive with a stick. Or rather, poke the browser wars with one. See, recently I tried to switch to Google Chrome for a bit, to see what's up with it. Chrome is the newest arrival in the browser wars, (relatively) fresh from the labs of web giant Google. If you don't know what Google is, try googling it.
But hold up a second. "Browser wars"? What is this?
"Browser wars" is a catch-all term for arguments between the different web browsers out on the market. Usually, this is between Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and to a lesser extent, Opera. Previously to Chrome's appearance, the web browser scene looked sort of like this video ad:
You can find it on YouTube here.
Back then, the old Netscape browser was more relevant, and Opera was less so, which is why Netscape appears there. In short, the playing field was: Internet Explorer belonged in a sanitarium; Safari was shiny; Firefox was the serious and "good" browser; and Opera/Netscape was an "elitist" browser that its users harp on endlessly about. Plus, Firefox had (and still has) the backing of most of the open source community just because it is one of the most wonderful open source programs ever made.
But then Google Chrome comes on the scene. Its shininess is comparable to Safari's, it's faster than Firefox, and is backed by a giant comparable to the one backing Internet Explorer. Plus, its engine (the part of the program that actually renders the webpage) is open source! That's right, the Chromium engine is completely open source, and the Google Chrome browser is only a Google enhancement upon the already-existing Chromium browser.
Plus, Chromium/Chrome contain a feature no other browser has: separate computer threads for each tab. What this comes down to for most users is that if one tab crashes, the entire browser won't.
As a longtime Firefox user, I was skeptical about this new arrival, and quickly labeled it as Too Good To Be True™. Well, over time, my friends gave it positive reviews, and it gained Linux support, so I eventually decided to try it out as my main browser. The first thing that struck me about it was its space efficiency:
Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox
Chrome doesn't waste space with all the File, Edit, View, etc. menus at the top. It also overrides the operating system's window manager borders in order to do away with the title bar, which essentially would just duplicate the information found in the tabs anyway. It also replaces the status bar along the bottom with a small box in the lower left corner which only appears when it has relevant information (such as "Loading...").
The speed increase was also noticeable. Some Javascript-intensive pages ran much faster, and page load times increased a bit. Plus, my tabs didn't reload when I detached them from a window! Overall, it made a very good impression for its basic features!
But then I switched back to Firefox. Why? Mostly, because of the add-ons. This is the point in my post where Chrome users get indignant and point out that Chrome has add-on support too. Maybe so, but it's nowhere as powerful as Firefox's add-ons. Here's a look at what I use:
- Adblock Plus: Wave goodbye to annoying web ads! These things sometimes take longer to load than the page itself, so why load them and lag yourself down? Adblock actually blocks the loading of ads. In Chrome, the closest thing to Adblock is a version that loads the ads, then sets their CSS to "display: none". Kills half of its usefulness...
- Download Statusbar: Small and sleek download manager that can be used as either a bar across the bottom of Firefox, or as a single icon in the bottom right. Compared to this, Google's unconfigurable download manager is just clunky, even if it's shiny.
- Firebug: The web developer's best friend. A very intuitive app for everything from HTML debugging, to Javascript tracing, to CSS visualization. Chrome supports all of this natively, but its interface was a bit less than desirable.
- Fastestfox: Adds a whole bunch of useful functionality to the browser. My favorite part of it is the automatic loading of the next page in a sequence of pages, like a search or a webcomic archive. It helps me waste time much more efficiently!
Plus, there are a lot of cool plugins I don't use, with features from having the tabs listed vertically on the left, to Firefox being a FTP client, to it being a 3D photo manager. The way add-ons are currently done in Chrome, this is impossible.
All of this, combined with the fact Firefox is completely free and open source, plus me bein gused to its interface more, is why Firefox still holds its "default browser" status on both my computers.
Hey, don't blame me. It's not a fsufitch post if I didn't have a cat, and this is what came up most when I googled "firefox cat".
Edit: Dywon Davis had something to say about Chrome's multiple processes:
(11:11:19 AM) Dywon Davis: filip; blog fail (11:11:34 AM) Dywon Davis: chrome isnt the only browser with seperate processes per tab (11:11:43 AM) Dywon Davis: IE8 actually has that too, lol (11:14:33 AM) Dywon Davis: lol, oh and one more thing; if you try to kill one of the tab processes, IE automatically restores it and goes "haha, you thought you could kill meh! FAIL"
Be that as it may, I'm too lazy to confirm it right now, and I've had IE freeze enough times on me that it really doesn't raise its status in my eyes.
@jwalsh: rofl. I have never had that problem, but I don't doubt it. Also, wrt to the minimal interface, your computer seems to render chrome less space efficiently than mine. You seem to have half a title bar still. I have less than 2 pixels between the top of tabs and the top of the screen, and less than 5 between the bottom of the _ X buttons and the bar. I am also a fan of how I can put (addon) notifiers as icons between my omnibox and my menus - I have a number there showing how much unread crap I have (gvoice+gmail+gwave+greader, expands upon click), and a countdown time to my next class (or LAN party) tied into gcal.
Actually, Craig, if you keep Chrome maximized it's rendered more space efficiently. The screenshot I took was non-maximized, in order to be readable in its scaled-down form.
And, regarding addons, that sounds like a pretty sweet setup. Though I'm pretty sure I can make that up in Firefox too if I look hard enough for an addon.
I'd like to know more about why it's impossible to do the cool plug ins because of how Chrome does plug ins.
I pretty much agree with you about everything and I'm glad Ive found someone who hasn't become a Chrome convert.
The way Chrome's extension system measures up to Firefox's is interesting. Because it's Javascript and Chrome's Javascript engine is amazing, Chrome extensions are generally faster and more responsive than Firefox ones. However, Chrome limits what you can do with extensions to a large degree.
You can make Firefox into an IRC client or a music player. You can add another layer of functionality like AdBlock which can stop some actions (like requests to download ads) from happening. You can change Firefox's tab colors based on which one was most recently viewed. You can hide Firefox's tabs to prevent people from seeing a more NSFW tab you have up along with your "work" tab. You can download .flv movies from things like YouTube easily using add-ons. Heck, you can make it look and behave like the vim text editor [addons.mozilla.org]! (this one I simply must try out)
In short, Chrome does not allow you to modify or remove functionality that's built in. You can only add on top of it. That's cool though, because using its extra speed and multithreading abilities you can make a physics engine out of it... if that's what you want out of a browser.
And Arthi, you might want to create an account on my site, so your name can always be back-linked to your site :)
Testing with the same comment because I tried like 50 times with the captcha right...
Filip, about the addons / extensions you mentioned:
- AdBlock is in Chrome, though it might render the ads then hide them. I never noticed. https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom and https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb
- Download Statusbar: There is no equivalent for Chrome, but that's because the Chrome download manager is so similar.
- Firebug: As you mentioned, already native in Chrome. I actually don't mind the layout of it... Also: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bnbbfjbeaefgipfjpdabmpadaacmafkj
- Fastestfox: The auto-loading pages: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/mmgagnmbebdebebbcleklifnobamjonh
As a side note, I use Firefox. I broke Chrome. I can't fix it. Trust me, I've tried...
Google chrome is the best
easy to use
fast
better sugestions on the link bar
the best way to bookmark a page
etc...
I pick using Firefox for 2 reasons
1) It has earned my fidelity for a very long time
2) it doesn't store my data in extraneous locations.
Don't get me wrong, I love Chrome(ium) and I love google, however, their practices have made me very, very wary. I do not like the idea of vans patrollling my streets and copying wifi data (source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/googles-wi-fi-snooping-earns-it-class-action-lawsuit-629), [infoworld.com] nor do I like the idea of everything in my browser being google's intellectual property (remember that?)
What I like is sandboxing, and quick rendering. Chrome wins at these.
That being said... I breathe a sigh of relief to load FF, even if it is marginally slower. I have all the addons I wnat (like xmarks, I use no less than 4 PCs per day) and Adblock, along with a couple of others.
Everyone gets their choice. Cheers.
Also, in the article I linked, it mentions "payload".
For laymen, 'payload' equals the entire message. Not just a few packets, but everything in its entirety. Imagine you're reading a letter, but its scrambled halfway thru. That's how things would ordinarily be, but if the packets are full payloads, you'd get all the data, plus all the addressing. Thanks google. Glad you're checking up on us, along with the 2 petabytes of data you index every day . . . . . .
X, you may want to check my latest entry, which is just on that: http://blog.opensourcenerd.com/google-streetview-lawsuit-privacy-oh-no [blog.opensourcenerd.com]
Here's a good article showing some brief reasons why Chrome is becoming better than Firefox.
http://www.premierethemes.com/tips-and-tricks/2010/06/why-i-love-google-chrome/ [premierethemes.com]
Your forgetting the i-cool app for Mozilla. Turns the silver to black. Makes things so much cooler.
McGuyverMan, Firefox has all the features listed there, other than perhaps as great speed as Chrome. :)
With HideCaption, HideMenubar, TabsOnTop, OmniBar, and autoHideStatusBar addons Firefox has the most space efficiency so far.
May seem a bit cumbersome to add all these addons but just proves the customizability of the browser look & feel.
Other than that, my only concern so far is speed. I love the fast startup of Chrome and that's why it is set as my default browser.
Chrome lacks of too esential things:
1) Find As You Type (FAYT) functionality. http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=150 [code.google.com]
2) Multiple search engines.
Those are the 2 reasons why I don't use Google Chrome. And well, IE it is IE... I don't have to give any other reason why I don't use it.
Firefox is still IT, but it still has a few bugs now and then. I hear that chrome is now support ADblockPlus, so I'm about to give it another shot. I came to the exact same conclusion when I first tried chrome.... GREAT NERDS THINK ALIKE!!
one thingthat got me shifted to google chrome is the memory leak of firefox... thats it,
would no one like to mention the fact that chrome download is about 190 MB larger than Firefox??
If add-ons/plug-ins/extensions make no difference to me and I only make use of a few simple ones, which might I like better?
Chrome has all the extensions I need. I used firefox, it was slow clunky and awkward, but the extensions kept me going back. Its like Windows, sucks stock, but add a few programs and its fabulous. Now that Chrome has every extensions I needed and some I didn't know I needed, I will use it instead.
You are joking on the extensions, right?
Adblock Plus Chrome has Adblock plugin which functions very similar to the ABP extension.
Download Statusbar An integrated feature of chrome, and much more polished than the FF extension
Firebug Try The developer tools in chrome (Ctrl+Shift+I). Chrome is developed by a web company as opposed to software companies and they seriously provide some good tools to debug CSS/JS errors
Fastestfox Ofcourse thereis no extension called fastestfox in Chrome ;-), there is an extension called Fastestchrome, which is ofcourse completely different than the Fastestfox extension (because it has a chrome, and no fox)
FF keeps on annoying me every few days that do you want to update the extensions. If I do want, it will keep me waiting until it finishes downloading the extensions one by one (downloads are not parallel, awful if u have slow internet.). It can't just download them silently and ask me later to install them. I know some people would say that would be a breach of privacy, but it could provide an option for people who think otherwise
the browser firefox crashes more often than chrome...so chrome is better in this way
but when you r filling forms...say university exam forms or any bank form then google chrome fails more often to display full size form....moreover surfing yahoo is crashy on chrome than firefox..
and as mentioned chrome downloader is very tough to be integrated to any download manager....which makes downloading tough if file size is big, as you u might need to turn off pc and restart download
oh and there's the small fact that chrome would segfault if i tried to open buzz. >.>