Google Chrome vs Firefox 3
Google Chrome vs Firefox 3
A new contender in the browser war, google unveiled their new browser today.
It’s called ‘google chrome’ and boasts sophisticated web browsing but does it live up to the standards of firefox 3, really the flagship of the internet browsing world.
Google Chrome
Google chrome is the new browser that combines minimal design with ’sophisticated technology’ to make the web faster, safer and easier. Chrome comes with plenty of nifty new features and at only 450kb is quite a wonder. With the new ‘incognito’ mode chrome gives users the ability to browse the web without storing any personal information, ie history, it basically does not store any information for that session. To access this mode you can press the little page at the top right hand corner and select ‘New incognito window’.
Dynamic Tabs
Google has also implemented ‘dynamic tabs’ in chrome allowing the user to manipulate the open tabs, for example making them into an individual window or moving them around. I found this too be pretty handy if you accidentally open a new window instead of tab, you can just drag it into the browsers tab bar and it will automatically dock itself nicely. Another thing to note is that, each tab functions independantly in the window so basically if one tab stops responding or there is a memory leak of some sort the whole application isn’t going to fail and crash. Google has also created a new tab page in chrome, every time you open a new tab, you’ll see a visual sampling of your most visited sites, most used search engines and recently bookmarked pages and closed tabs. I have found this to be conveniant from time to time, especially with the history search bar but it really isn’t anything more than a gimmick.
Safe browsing
Like most of the other major browsers google has taken on the safe browsing feature, basically what it does is warn you if you’re about to visit a suspected phising, malware or unsafe website. Nothing new here.
One box for everything
Again, very similar to all the other major browsers the address bar allows you to peform web searches, web history searches and it gives you suggestions as you type. If you have been using opera or firefox which I assume you have, you would have expected this to be the norm.
Application shortcuts
Probably the last ‘cool’ feature I will talk about before I mention the flaws with chrome. Application shortcuts are probably the only new and innovative feature of the browser, simply put it allows the user to access web apps without opening the browser. Shortcuts are created within Chrome and then placed on the desktop. A user can then click on that shortcut and it will take him/her straight to the page on which the shortcut was created.
- There were quite a few things I didn’t like about chrome, one of the more predominant ones being the lack of an integrated rss reader or at least none that I have found. I personally am subscribed to a ton of rss feeds, ranging from my favorite blogs to gaming websites to news and sport information. And this is the feature that will most likely see me not using chrome as much as I had hoped. When I heard of it’s arrival I was hoping that it would have some kind of great and innovative rss reader, to my dismay there is none. So I guess this will be a let down to all those who subscribe to rss feeds directly in your browser.
Another thing that got to me was the complete lack of support and integration of opera in chrome. For example chrome gives you the ability to import bookmarks, history, search engines from browsers. However, it only supports IE and Firefox. I understand that they are two most used ones, but regardless it should have been implemented. I myself use opera as my primary browser and then firefox so not being able to import my bookmarks from opera is a disappointment.
Conclusion
Google chrome is a sleek and speedy browser and it definately has the potential to get better seeing as it still only in the beta stages. The browser boasts a sophisticated look and feel and has great visuals. However, due to lack of an rss reader and really not that much else it is still not up to par with firefox 3. It barely uses any cpu memory which is a good thing for those that require a quick browsing experience. In conclusion google chrome still has a while to go before it will become something that will really make heads turn and jaws drop.
Firefox 3
With it’s new Gekko 1.9 engine and an arsenal of add ons firefox 3 remains the browser of choice by most internet users today. ‘Firefox 3 touts faster rendering, vastly reduced use of system resources (unlike previous versions), clever new data mining tools for your bookmarks and browser history and more security features than ever before.
Whether it being the need to check the weather via a widget of some sort or for the mere light feel that it posses’ firefox 3 is probably tied first for the guru web browser position (alongside opera 9.52). There really isn’t that much left to say regarding firefox as it basically contains almost everything mentioned above and more. I assume most of you would have used it at some stage or another anyway.
Conclusion
Chrome definately packs a punch being new and all, and for such a small browser still posses’ numerous amounts of useful features, although still not up to par with the more primary browsers I highly recommend you guys check it out. Regardless, of what is written above you remain the sole decider of which you will use as your internet browser.
September 7th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
good writeup. i agree that it’s worth recommending and i’m glad you aren’t hating on it like many others. it’s just the first version and only a few days old but it’s done in 1 version that took 7 versions of IE to get right.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:38 am
I suppose at this time no browser beat up firefox, but the ball is still rolling, what google has put on to chrome as a basic is awesome and as an open source project no body knows what going to happen t chrome…
September 10th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
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October 27th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
the problem here is not that Chrome is good or bad, or that Firefox or IE are good OR bad. To each their own far as I care. MY issue is that now there’s yet ANOTHER browser that some will prefer and some will not and STILL, after 10 years of standards definitions and arguing about those standards NOT ONE SINGLE BROWSER on the planet supports the standards. For the sate of peak people – either SUPPORT the standards or leave the browser wars for those CAN DO IT.