What do you think of Google Chrome?

[CloudStalker]

Don't know what it is? Here's a link: Google Chrome

CloudStalker is just starting to use it and... well... it's not bad thus far. It's faster then Firefox but unfortunately lacks all the cool add-ons that Firefox has. It does look nicer and cleaner though.

For those of you that have already tried it, what do you think? Would you make the switch, or use it as your main browser with Firefox on the side? Maybe it's too early to tell.

<Post opinions below>

[Arite]

Well the issue with the EULA has been resolved now (see here) which initially caused a bit of a stir up .

As a browser it is OK. Seems fast and easy to use with some neat features (such as resizing of <textarea> fields such as the one I'm writing in now). The Autocomplete is a lot better than Firefox 3's version (I'm still using FF2 as a result of that and a few other things). Also there is a fairly reasonable Firebug equivilant built in - not quite as good a Firebug though . Obviously the main other thing is the V8 JavaScript engine which is a lot faster and more efficient.

I probably won't switch to it since Firefox is quite adequate - maybe some of the design feature such as sandboxing and parallel processes will be implemented in other browsers such as Firefox as a result.

Arite.

[CloudStalker]

Privacy might be a concern for some though. Google's search engine is notorious for for collecting information about the user so as to target them with ads and junk, CloudStalker can't help but wonder what an entire web browser might do, therefore, CloudStalker is not entirely comfortable with it. Being open source however, there's a lot of potential for this browser to function like Firefox, or vise versa.

[Arite]

Yes that is what the EULA issue was about. The usage statistics collected in Google Chrome can be disabled though via the Options dialog box.

Arite.

[joseph5]

I can't try it, it's not available for Windows 2000

[Arite]

I can't try it, it's not available for Windows 2000

You could try this user-agent trick:
http://www.teknobites.com/2008/09/03/ho ... on-win-2k/

No idea if it works since I don't have Win2K.

Also Google Chrome should work fine in Wine on Linux (as of 1.1.4).

Arite.

[Lotesdelere]

Privacy might be a concern for some though. Google's search engine is notorious for for collecting information about the user so as to target them with ads and junk

Indeed

More infos here:
http://groups.google.com/group/chromium ... 3130a4dbf9

And when looking at the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Low Rights\ElevationPolicy you can see that GoogleUpdate.exe has silent elevation rights inside IE which means it can change the privacy policy to Medium at any moment without any notification to the user.
Just to make things easier for the user, of course...

Welcome to the real world

[alexvorn2]

Now it sucks! It get frozen all times.

[CloudStalker]

CloudStalker stopped using it because of privacy concerns. Hopefully though, the look of the interface, in it's entirety, can be developed for Firefox 3. CloudStalker has seen at least one attempt at this but it's still not as good (no tabs at the top, window borders still remain, not as clean cut.

[Isaak]

CloudStalker stopped using it because of privacy concerns. Hopefully though, the look of the interface, in it's entirety, can be developed for Firefox 3. CloudStalker has seen at least one attempt at this but it's still not as good (no tabs at the top, window borders still remain, not as clean cut.

That's also the reason why I don't use the Chrome browser for personal use, I do have it installed though but only because I need to make my web projects compatible with that browser too. However, Firefox is the way to go for me

[DGMurdockIII]

Chromifox is a firefox theme to make firefox look more like google chrome I use it and it is very good https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8782

[CloudStalker]

Yeah CloudStalker is using that theme now. It's alright me guesses but it still doesn't compare the the actually Chrome theme (tabs at the top, no window border, tabs that don't make you scroll, ect).

CloudStalker uninstalled if for now until he can get some reassurance of privacy and some good extensions (thank goodness for AdBlock, No Script! ).

[Lakseninord]

I have now tried Chrome for a few weeks, and i have to say i'm impressed. It works lightning fast with java apps when compared to firefox. However the lack of plug-ins have made me change back to firefox again. I just couldn't live without them I guess Google will be adding support for the same plugins when theay are over the worst launch stress. And then i will no doubt change back to Chrome again, because, as i said, it really impressed me..

[cheapo]

Ok, I'll be trying it from today.
I was checking around for opinions, and saw you guys posting here. I'm not a computing wizz or anything, but I'll give it a try and come back here with an opinion!
I have a new, though not ultra high spec, PC with Vista installed. but I prefer Firefox generally. So here goes.

[Isaak]

I also noticed performance differences using Chrome but it wasn't that much of a difference so Firefox is and will always be my #1. Firefox 3 does have JavaScript performance issues on my computer (only 1ghz) but they said JavaScript performance will be increased in the 3.1 version so as usual they always fix the parts I dislike about Firefox (hated the memory leaks in Firefox 1 => they greatly improved it in Firefox 2 and even more in Firefox 3, I hated the slow starting of Firefox 1 => Firefox 2 started much faster and Firefox starts blazing fast!, Bad JavaScript performance in Firefox 3 => Will be improved in Firefox 3.1 without a doubt). There goes my skepticism

Also, Google released a browser in order to provide even better targeted advertisements, luckily you can "disable" that now but I wonder if it really does disable Google's spying, which Google is known best of. Also, someone probably rang a bell at Google because of the popularity of Adblock with Firefox, this affects Google's main income, which is Adwords.

They said their browser will have add-on support in the future but I really doubt Google ad blocking will be allowed, I even dare to bet my brand new Ferrari (which I don't have) on it.

I used to be an Adblock user but I noticed that by using OpenDNS performance was better, with OpenDNS I can only block malicious ads (adware, etc.) which was my main reason of using adblock. Google ads do provide me with useful links from time to time.

For these reasons: Firefox is da best! (and Opera second best :p) (And darn spreadfirefox for not accepting my post regarding Chrome...)

[Keael]

I know that if I download Chrome, I'd just miss firefox and go back to it ten minutes later. I'd mostly miss all my extensions and themes though. Chrome also just looks too simple. The open screen where it remembers all the websites you go to alot seems annoying too. I don't want it to remember sites I only go to like 3 times then forget about.

[CloudStalker]

CloudStalker would just like Firefox to have a look that's similar to Chrome - a complete skinning of the interface, tabs at the very top of the interface (or bottom even), and to get rid of the scrolling ability for tabs and, like Chrome, have them all visible, at least create another row after x amount of open tabs.

[masanee]

How do I instantly start the incognito browser of google chrome without keying ctrl+shift+n? Normally when you start an incognito browser, you will first start the regular browser of google chrome and press ctrl+shift+n. But how do I put a shortcut on my desktop to automatically start the incognito browser?

[Arite]

Make a shortcut to Google Chrome, and then add -incognito to the end of the shortcut target. So will be e.g.:

Code: Select all

C:\Path\To\Google\Chrome\chrome.exe -incognito

Cheers, Arite.