Google Chrome

[dirtybuck]

I went to my favorite computer store today to check the price of RAM, and was talking to one of the clerks about my dismay with Internet Explorer 8. I told her that my browser of choice was Firefox and that I'm quite happy with it. She told me that at their store, they use Google Chrome and they believe it's BETTER than Firefox.

So, before I go downloading it and seeing for myself, is there anyone on here who uses it? Is it better than Firefox?

Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[danemodsandy]

Big Brother Is Watching...

...Google already retains and sells everything it can learn from your Web searches. Ever wonder how you can be on a European website and an advert for an American car you once looked at online pops up? Google, among other online companies, is how.

Now, do you really want to give them a complete history of every last bit of Web browsing you do?

And, as the Ginsu Knife people say - wait, there's more! Google is now coming out with its own operating system to compete with Windows, which will probably - you guessed it - give them the capability to know Every. Last. Thing. on your computer.

Google products are one gift horse I strongly feel should be looked in the mouth.

 

[whirlcool]

I've used chrome a bit and I don't find it offering anything more than Firefox 3.5 offers. Personally, I don't think Chrome is fully developed yet.

 

[petek]

About a month ago.

I tried it and deleted it within a day or so. It wasn't all that different than IE but there was something about the "history" and the toolbar setup up top I didn't like, can't remember exactly.

 

[scott55405]

Don't remember what it was, but I did try it and wasn't too impressed. It's still on the computer, but since I have re-found "Mozilla Firefox" I am liking it quite well!

 

[DADoES]

A few of my favorite Firefox features:

- Hold CTRL while clicking a link to open it in a new tab.

- Hold SHIFT while clicking a link to open it in a new window.

- the Tab Mix Plus extension adds more functionality to tabs, such as switching to an open tab by pointing the mouse to it.

- Arranging several bookmarks into a subfolder results in an additional selection at end of the list for "Open All in Tabs." For example, I have my favorite forum sections at Gardenweb/THS in a subfolder, and can open them all in separate tabs with two clicks (one to access Bookmarks, and one for Open All in Tabs). SHIFT and CTRL work there also.

 

[scott55405]

I have the Tab Mix add on too and really like it. I still need to play with/work with the bookmarks. I still have mine just in there as a folder from IE.

 

[mattl]

I'm pretty happy with Firefox and ave tried Chrome but found it lacking. I've got about a dozen add on I use all the time and they would be hard to replicate with other browsers. Along with Tab Mix Plus, I HAVE to have Optimoz tweaks. Got to have that sliding favorites list pop out the side when i roll over to it. Hate to use the bookmarks button, too hard to use...

 

[dirtybuck]

Well..

From what I'm hearing, I guess I'll be staying with Firefox a bit longer.

 

[jeffg]

I tell people to stay away from Chrome, not because it's a bad web browser, but because it's a Google product.

Between what they did to Deja's usenet archives (outrageous and arbitrary censoring of newsgroups), their Orwellian terms of service (just a few days ago they were ordered -- yet again -- to remove another half dozen terms from their user agreement, this time by the German government), their "persistent" cookies which continue to track your browsing even after you leave their site, etc etc, by now I trust Google about as far as I can throw them.

Another, for more insidious problem is that the online world has given Google a virtual monopoly on web searching. Every alternative search engine I've seen in the past two or three years has based its results on Google's own results. Or in other words, if Google doesn't like a particular web site, it's basically unreachable and simply ceases to exist on the internet.

Yet another problem is Google's buyout of Youtube. Along comes Time-Warner and the DMCA, and America's legal right to timeshift broadcast material is simply ignored and discarded.

 

[rapunzel]

But...

Mozilla/Firefox uses Google as a search engine. After reading this post I downloaded M/F and searches go through a Google dialogue box - so what's the diff?

rapunzel

 

[DADoES]

That search box can be changed. And although I use Google as a matter of course, I don't go through the Firefox search field ... not that that makes any difference in the end far as Google is concerned.

 

[gizmo]

Opera

I prefer Opera browser, though I am using Firefox at present.

I love the "speed dial" feature of Opera, and the integrated email is nifty, too.

Chris.

 

[perc-o-prince]

the online world has given Google a virtual monopoly on web

I still use Yahoo! for searching, maps, people search, yellow pages, etc.

According to eBay, they don't play well w/Chrome, so we couldn't really use it.

Bing.com has heavy radio ad activity here, touting it as a "solution engine" as opposed to a search engine. Went there for the first time today. In the bottom corner, it's copyright Microsoft!

It's still Yahoo! for me!

Chuck

 

[autowasherfreak]

I used Chrome for a little while then went back to FireFox, and occasionally I will use IE8 but not very often.

 

[j2400]

I liked some things I saw the time or two I played with Chrome. Speed was decent, for one thing. But I also worry about privacy and Google.

I cast another vote for Opera. It's fast even on old hardware, it has lots of smart features. (My favorite: mouse gestures. For example: hold the right button down, move the mouse to the left, and the browser goes one step back in history, just like one clicked the back button.) The only problem with Opera is that it doesn't display all pages properly. That is probably a result of Opera sticking to real standards, rather than ones invented by a software company. (IE was really bad for this...one reason newer versions of IE didn't work as well for some people as older versions.) For "flawed" pages, I use Firefox, which displays pretty much everything.

 

[rolls_rapide]

I have never tried Chrome. I have tried IE8 about a month or so ago and it drove me up the wall, so I downgraded back to IE7.

However, over the past few days, the 'automatic updater' tried to reinstall IE8. Luckily, I pounced upon the computer and wrestled with it before it could do so. Phew!

 

[DADoES]

Mouse gesture add-ons are also available for Firefox.