Is Google Chrome any good? [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Don Julio Anejo

2009-12-31, 08:24 PM

I've used it and IMO it's meh. I like my Firefox just fine. Only really worth switching to if you've got a netbook (it's more space-efficient) or if you like your tabs since they use the top windows bar instead of a separate toolbar. It's also not significantly faster than Firefox (if you try really hard, you'll notice a difference, but it's not Civic vs. Mazeratti, it's more like Civic vs. Accord).

Water-Smurf

2009-12-31, 10:22 PM

Chrome runs smoothly, almost no matter how many tabs you have running at once. Right now, I have fifteen different tabs, several of them on sites that eat up a lot of bandwith, and my Internet's working fine. I also like it's style (the URL tab is the same as the tab for searching the Internet) and the way it registers your most-visited sites and displays them as options on any new tab.

And they have incognito mode. If you get on it, nothing you search or go to is registered on your Internet history. It's pretty awesome, even if you don't use it. :smallcool:

Zocelot

2009-12-31, 10:56 PM

I'm using Chrome fight now, and I love it. I haven't used Firefox quite enough to make an informed decision, but from the experience that I have Chrome is slightly better. It's really easy to pick up and use, but still powerful.

blackfox

2009-12-31, 11:11 PM

One thing I really like about Chrome, at least the version I've got running on my computer, is that it makes it very easy to search Wikipedia--just type 'wiki' then press Tab, then the thing you're looking up, and it goes straight to the wiki page. Just my 2cp.

Flarp

2010-01-01, 01:04 AM

Chrome is better for the average browser, but Firefox is the technical user's playground.

Firestar27

2010-01-01, 01:10 AM

Chrome is faster and simpler. Firefox is fast, but not as fast as Google Chrome, and Firefox has add-ons. So I switch back and forth, depending on my mood at the time. Sometimes I just want speed and the bliss of simplicity. So then I go with Chrome. Other times, I need my add-ons. So then I go with Firefox.
Also, I've noticed that Chrome doesn't handle leaving your tabs open while you put your laptop in sleep mode or hibernate very well, especially with embedded Flash. But otherwise, I love Chrome.
Get a theme for Chrome. I'm using Splendid. :smallbiggrin:

ApeofLight

2010-01-01, 01:11 AM

Chrome is more stream lined and sleek but a little harder to do more technical stuff.

Magdela

2010-01-01, 01:22 AM

Chrome is faster and simpler. Firefox is fast, but not as fast as Google Chrome, and Firefox has add-ons. So I switch back and forth, depending on my mood at the time. Sometimes I just want speed and the bliss of simplicity. So then I go with Chrome. Other times, I need my add-ons. So then I go with Firefox.
The new Chrome beta has add ons! :tongue:

Now we no longer need to choose and can see the best web browser there is!
Internet Explorer!

I mean, who could want anything else?:annoyed:

I use chrome, it's very clean looking and tabs much easier than firefox.

CarpeGuitarrem

2010-01-01, 01:29 AM

Chrome is more stream lined and sleek but a little harder to do more technical stuff.
Pretty much. I haven't gotten very attached to any Firefox add-ons, and Chrome...it just FEELS faster, slicker, smoother, cleaner. That, and my last experience with Firefox was 3.5, which was painfully slow.

Touchy

2010-01-01, 02:02 AM

raitalin

2010-01-01, 04:22 AM

Chrome is certainly faster and on Linux at least it uses about 1/3 the RAM of Firefox. So if you're running a pathetic 512 like me then you'll noticed a marked improvement.

I have noticed some Flash problems with Chrome, especially with Hulu. Other than that, I've switched to it.

Kjata

2010-01-01, 06:08 AM

Im using chrome right now, and have the following tabs open.

this thread
another thread on GITP
4 tvtropes pages
Turn 12 of Code Geass on revolution anime
2 gamefaqs on pokemon blue
questionable content

This is a light load for me on the tabs, and it never slows down. So like everybody else has said, if you like your tabs it great.

Kobold-Bard

2010-01-01, 07:37 AM

I for one am glad that Google joined Starbucks in their bid for world domination, because Chrome is awesome.

Admittedly my computer never accepted Firefox and refused to work properly (unless Firefox is supposed to take 7 minutes to load properly), but GC is just so simple to use.

Ichneumon

2010-01-01, 08:36 AM

I love chrome, buy I dislike how the interface is different on the chrome version for Mac OS X.

Gamerlord

2010-01-01, 10:17 AM

I am trying it now, wow, you guys are right, it IS faster.

lesser_minion

2010-01-01, 10:24 AM

Chrome isn't especially good in my opinion.

It isn't particularly efficient (the performance gain compared with any browser except IE on a reasonable connection is a few milliseconds at best, but takes twice as much memory), which makes any advantages gained from having the chrome take up less of the screen completely moot.

Reducing the browser chrome merely reduces accessibility for little benefit (having the browser take up less screen real estate doesn't really help on a netbook with only 1024 mb of RAM when the OS grabs half of that and every single tab you open takes at least 40mb). If people don't want a menu bar, that's fine - I know Opera lets you hide it on Windows.

The only useful thing the Omnibox does is provide you with suggestions when you type in a search.

Another yellow card is the fact that I couldn't find a simple, in-built, and easy to use advert blocker (not that Firefox has one).

It's a reasonable choice, but it isn't the best way to do things by any stretch of the imagination, and it certainly isn't much better than any of the alternatives.

Make sure you're getting a genuine performance improvement as well - it's actual rendering performance is not that much better than anything else available.

Kobold-Bard

2010-01-01, 11:05 AM

...Chrome will not handle proper tab explosions at all (A 50-tab tvtropes binge is small.)

In Google's defence thats more a problem with the nature of TVTropes than Chrome. No browser should have to suffer through such an ordeal :smalltongue:

lesser_minion

2010-01-01, 11:06 AM

In Google's defence thats more a problem with the nature of TVTropes than Chrome. No browser should have to suffer through such an ordeal :smalltongue:

Opera laughs in the face of your so-called 'ordeal'. Firefox wouldn't be particularly happy with you, but it would still be usable.

Chrome would utterly hate you, IE would make your computer start behaving like you're running Vista on a 286, and I'm not sure about Safari.

charl

2010-01-01, 11:13 AM

Chrome is nice, but it lacks an adblock add-on. I really want my adblock.

lesser_minion

2010-01-01, 11:21 AM

Chrome is nice, but it lacks an adblock add-on. I really want my adblock.

All Adblock really adds is the ability to download a ready-made database listing advertising servers.

However, Chrome now includes add-ons, and one of them does stop ads and allow you to use filter lists.

Most web browsers should have a quick and easy-to-use content blocking interface out of the box - I know how to find Opera's (right-click on an empty bit of the page), and I think IE has one.

I'm not sure how reliable this information is, but I've also heard rumours that Google's site blacklists are actually weaker than Microsoft's (if that's true, it also counts against Firefox, IIRC).

Mauve Shirt

2010-01-01, 11:54 AM

I like it less than Firefox, more than Internet Explorer, and much much more than Opera and Safari.

lesser_minion

2010-01-01, 11:57 AM

That's odd...

What do you have against Opera and Safari?

Ichneumon

2010-01-01, 12:00 PM

I'm more of a Camino person actually. Chrome is very good too though.

Jack Squat

2010-01-01, 12:12 PM

Chrome is currently my default, and has been since it came out. Really I just like it because of the whole minimalist appearance of it. Though when I switch browsers, I realize how much I use the whole search-sites-from-the-address-bar thing.

Firefox has some cool privacy-related add ons that I use, and I haven't bothered to figure out how to patch other applications (i.e. Chrome) through ToR, so Firefox has its uses for me still, but I just like the feel of Chrome better, as stupid as that sounds.

In the end though, they're all just web browsers, and they get you to the same place, so for the mystical "average user" it's not going to make any real difference which one you use.

The Extinguisher

2010-01-01, 02:25 PM

I absolutely hate Firefox. I have never ever been pleased with it when I use it. I used to use Opera all the time, because well Opera is just grade A amazing, but I was on a computer I couldn't put it on for the longest time, and ended up using Chrome.

I haven't looked back since. It's so smooth and awesome.

Irbis

2010-01-01, 02:42 PM

The Extinguisher

2010-01-01, 02:59 PM

Um... Chrome sucks (http://boogadget.com/4-reasons-why-google-chrome-sucks) for many reasons? :smallconfused:

And anyway, Google quickly becomes the most evil (as in Big Brother like) corporation in the world, what with the stuff that installs itself without asking (Bonjour, or the Chrome as notes above) and is virtually impossible to remove completely - not mentioning these strange packets its stuff sends to home once in a while.

No thanks.

Wait, are we talking about Chrome or Firefox, because Firefox is sooo hard to get rid of.

Also, those reasons suck.

1. Has never happened to me. I've never had to download anything for Chrome.
2. I've never used that before. Seems pointless. That's why I use bookmarks
3. So it took them a little while longer to do that one, but the did, didn't they.
4. Remember, anecdotal evidence isn't. Chrome hasn't crashed as much for me as other browsers.

Ichneumon

2010-01-01, 03:00 PM

Um... Chrome sucks (http://boogadget.com/4-reasons-why-google-chrome-sucks) for many reasons? :smallconfused:

Ehm, those are just 4 reasons and not very good ones.

The first complaint is about about having to install a Java update. I don't see the real problem when an update is available... I understand people might get a little annoyed, but I wouldn't consider this a reason why a browser sucks...

The second reason they give "why chrome sucks" is that you there isn't a "history" button. Please, with the ability to go to a list of your history by visiting the "home"-page AND the ability to directly search for things in your history by typing them in your URL-bar, I don't see this as a problem.

The third reason would be that it isn't available for others platforms other than Windows.... they are being developed or are already developed and in beta release.

Touchy

2010-01-01, 03:04 PM

Um... Chrome sucks (http://boogadget.com/4-reasons-why-google-chrome-sucks) for many reasons? :smallconfused:

And anyway, Google quickly becomes the most evil (as in Big Brother like) corporation in the world, what with the stuff that installs itself without asking (Bonjour, or the Chrome as notes above) and is virtually impossible to remove completely - not mentioning these strange packets its stuff sends to home once in a while.

No thanks.

Those are horrible and outdated reasons, you seem to have an anti-Google agenda, so I'm going to assume you assume everything is evil. I never ever heard one single thing about it downloading anything without your permission. I'm not sure what you mean by packets, I'm going to assume you mean it sends browser data back to Google, this is used for their search engine, not your crazy "big brother" view of Google you have. As for the reason in the website, it is no longer crashy as hell, Java works fine, They now have a mac and I believe a linux version(if memory serves correct), and if hold down the back, I get a dropdown list.

lern2checkarticledates :smallamused:

Edit: Well someone beat me to it.

Jack Squat

2010-01-01, 03:08 PM

Um... Chrome sucks (http://boogadget.com/4-reasons-why-google-chrome-sucks) for many reasons? :smallconfused:

None of those seem like legit complaints to me, they're also generally outdated, as Chrome's updated significantly since it's release (and when this article was written in 2008). to counter:
1) if you don't want to install more, possibly superfluous crap on your system, why have more than one browser? Also, software updates are quite normal and should be expected with just about anything these days.

2) There's a link on the homepage that says "view full history" as well as it showing up when you start typing in your address bar. Even if those options are unavailable, how hard is it to hit ctrl+h? All in all, this is pretty insigificant

3) Versions are available for all now. Took awhile for them to release, but it's there now.

4) I personally haven't crashed that many pages. Besides, I'd rather have a page kill itself rather than just lock up and stop loading. Biggest problems for crashing I had for awhile was when it was loading .pdfs. Of course, that happened no matter what browser I was in. Finally updating Adobe fixed it.

And anyway, Google quickly becomes the most evil (as in Big Brother like) corporation in the world, what with the stuff that installs itself without asking (Bonjour, or the Chrome as notes above) and is virtually impossible to remove completely - not mentioning these strange packets its stuff sends to home once in a while.

No thanks.

Could you provide sources? I didn't see anything in that link saying any of that. I mean, I know it installs Google Updater, but I don't often hear complaints about other software doing similar.

If you don't like it, you don't have to use it by any means, but at least use something other than a poorly researched, out of date blog post for your information.

EDIT: How many more before this officially becomes a dog-pile?

Gaelbert

2010-01-01, 03:51 PM

While I do use Chrome and a number of Google products, I must say I have heard that their products send information about the user back to Google HQ from a few independent sources. It's entirely possible these are inaccurate, but I'm just throwing it out there.
As for those 4 reasons, none of those were very much of a deal to me. Especially not the toolbar history one, I actually like that they got rid of it.

Klose_the_Sith

2010-01-01, 04:39 PM

I use Chrome cause it's smoother to navigate with and use ... that's about it. I can appreciate everyone's different choices in this respect, but for me Chrome is utterly wondrous.

Also - Google Calendar is way scarier in terms of potential identity theft then any browser history.

Dragoa

2010-01-01, 04:52 PM

I prefer it to firefox, just because it doesn't bloat. Each page is it's own process, so one page crashing won't lose your giant hoard of tabs, unlike most other browsers where if one page crashes and closes the browser, the entire thing goes with it.

As for the people complaining about how stuff is sent back, a lot of companies will do this just to collect information about how the user uses the programs, some are more upfront with it, some will just sneak it in to the ELUA, on the whole it isn't particularly sensitive information, but more information about how you use the product(Like how many times you use the 8 most recent tab pages, how often you use menus, how often you use certain features) just trying to get a feel for what features are good and being used, and which ones can be improved or cut out of future releases.

lesser_minion

2010-01-01, 05:27 PM

Um... Chrome sucks (http://boogadget.com/4-reasons-why-google-chrome-sucks) for many reasons? :smallconfused:

Well, Chrome isn't great, but that article whines about everything.

Most of its complaints aren't actually valid, in the same way as the article's complaints about Firefox aren't.

Beta software isn't guaranteed to be stable, and bugs happen all the time. A crash in a piece of beta software shouldn't reflect poorly on the final product.

It isn't Chrome's fault if a page reports that it needs an additional plugin to run, so that is irrelevant and cannot be attributed to Chrome (once you have the JRE, it installs ActiveX and Netscape plugins which cover every significant graphical browser).

Sun don't try to install OpenOffice on your system while you install Java, they display one tiny little advert. Seriously, there is nothing remotely unreasonable about this, so why does he whine about it?

The lack of drop-down history is irrelevant. It's a user interface change, stop whining.

And, finally, not every browser is usable on every platform. Software should be judged on its merits, not on how many different operating systems it supports.

unlike most other browsers where if one page crashes and closes the browser, the entire thing goes with it.

More accurately, they get restored perfectly when the browser restarts and you don't lose anything from the sad tab either.

Oh, and you were using a tenth the memory in any event.

If four blank tabs in a browser use as much memory as eight real tabs do in Firefox, then we aren't talking about an efficient browser here.

xyzzy

2010-01-01, 05:40 PM

With regards to sending information to Google, all of those are opt-in --- by default, you send nothing.

Support for plugins was the only thing holding it back, but it has those now. Speed, security, and a better feature set than any other browser. Seems pretty obvious.

Lupy

2010-01-01, 05:41 PM

I'll let you in on a little secret:

Chrome is faster than our beloved and holy Firefox out of the box, but Firefox can be made faster if you put some effort into it. Check out adblock and fastest-fox if you want to speed it up some. It's really just preference.

lesser_minion

2010-01-01, 05:55 PM

Speed, security, and a better feature set than any other browser.

You're basically paying four times as much and the only benefit you actually get from it is a pointless increase in rendering speed.

Chrome certainly isn't especially secure (it never has been and never will be), and doesn't have a very good feature set.

I don't see where you're coming from here. Google Chrome doesn't have much of an advantage over other browsers - it's good enough that you aren't necessarily wrong to choose it, but it is by no means the be-all and end-all of web browsing.

The Demented One

2010-01-02, 06:42 PM

I just switched over from Firefox as a result of this thread, and...good god damn. The amount of memory this is taking up is a good tenth of what Firefox was doing. Shiny. Now, as I tweak it and get used to it, a question–does anyone know a way to get a bar of some sort at the bottom of it? A preference, an add-on, something? Having the window just suddenly terminate is a bit unnerving.

Schlega

2010-01-03, 03:58 AM

Does Chrome have anything analogous to the NoScript Firefox extension?

lesser_minion

2010-01-03, 10:29 AM

Not a quick and easy GUI, I'm afraid.

There's the traditional set of options to simply disable JavaScript and the like, and there probably will be a NoScript port once Chrome extensions come out of beta, but I don't think it's happened yet.

Vaynor

2010-01-03, 07:13 PM

I've started using Google Chrome recently, and I'm pretty sure the low memory use is deceptive. Yes, the Google Chrome application uses up an insignificant amount of memory (usually 2-5%), but it also launches other applications called "Google Chrome Helper" that run at about 10x that amount of memory use. As it stands, it's using just as much, if not more memory than Firefox used, and significantly more than Safari (I'm running Chrome on a Mac).

Maybe this is just because I'm running Hulu at the moment (when I pause a video my memory use goes down significantly) but the "Google Chrome Helper" application is still running at much more than the main application.

lesser_minion

2010-01-03, 08:00 PM

Every tab in Google Chrome is its own process.

For an accurate report on Google Chrome memory use, you should look at the browser's task manager.

IIRC, it takes about 15mb to open a blank tab.

Memory use isn't always a good measure, however, and memory leaks aren't always obvious - for example, Opera, by default, decides on its own how much memory to use for caching pages. With 3.5 Gb of memory, it will look like it's leaking like a sieve. With 192mb, it would probably not bother with a memory cache at all.

Chrome might do something similar.