socialmedian: Why I switched from Firefox to Chrome

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Submitted by Netxm from blog

Nov 25, 2008

Summary

Sorry if it sounds like I'm drinking the Google Kool-Aid here, but I switched from Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome as my default browser for the very reason Google's executives said we should: speed.

News.com Poll

Why switch to Chrome?

What would it take to get you to switch to Chrome? If there's no way you would, say why in the comments below.

Faster, faster, faster

Plug-ins and easy RSS support

A Mac OS X version

A Linux version

Better privacy from the Googlebot

Support from company's internal Web tools

Other: share a comment why

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Years ago, Firefox won me over chiefly with plug-ins, tabbed browsing, and some security advantages. But using Chrome removed a bit of friction from Web I hadn't realized was there. It felt like discovering I'd been driving with the parking brake on just a bit.

Here's what coaxed me away: Chrome starts way faster than Firefox. Web pages load faster when

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Comments (24)

Svartling,

Nov 25, 2008

An interesting read.

Nishith,

Nov 26, 2008

@netxm @svartling Surprisingly I find Chrome slower than firefox. Firefox renders bits and pieces of the page much faster than chrome, or so it seems to me.

Svartling,

Nov 26, 2008

I am using Firefox still, because I must have some of the extensions. Chrome is faster than my Firefox though.

Nishith,

Nov 26, 2008

@svartling I'm on a comparatively much slower broadband connection. So possibly chrome might be faster in general, but firefox might be 'perceived' to be faster on slower connections since it starts rendering the page much sooner - as soon as it starts getting some data.

Kara,

Nov 26, 2008

I switched to Chrome the minute it came out. Every time I'm on a PC running Firefox I realize why I changed over. LOVE LOVE LOVE CHROME...so fast and simple. Plus, since I google something every 2 seconds it saves me a lot of time!

Spuds,

Nov 26, 2008

Chrome has become my browser of choice. I still use firefox occasionally.

Mholzinger,

Nov 26, 2008

I use Firefox 80% but set up Chrome for Blogging ...

Dilbert Dave,

Nov 26, 2008

I still get some browser crashes with Chrome but then I have not updated for a while. Maybe it's more stable now.

Techwatcher,

Nov 26, 2008

I use chrome for web apps and save the application shortcuts for quick launch. This feature is great!

Despil,

Nov 26, 2008

I installed Chrome. Almost never use it.
In my experience it is about as fast as a Firefox without plug-ins.
When I ass plugins, Flock and Firefox slows down, true. On the other hand Chrome has no addons, so has less functionality. That does not worth the gain of speed.
And if you will have add-ons, it will get slower too.

Drublee,

Nov 26, 2008

I agree Chrome is Fast Yes but better than Fire Fox NO WAY.. better than Internet Explorer YES but that doesn't take much....

Greghollingsworth,

Nov 26, 2008

Add-ons. Chrome is nice, but it can't even use the Google Toolbar, which seems silly. I would give up way too much browser functionality by switching to chrome.

Udi,

Nov 26, 2008

actually, i have just done some testing of chrome and firefox for speed. chrome loads a blank page 40% faster than my firefox setup and a saved session with 62 tabs 110.1% faster but as far as speed rendering pages is concerned, firefox is the surprising winner (by 3.85%). given that my sessions last for days and i browse hundreds of pages, firefox is the overall winner.
i wouldn’t give up firefox with my 36 extentions and if i did, opera would be my second choice. i am keeping an eye on chrome though – it may yet turn out to be a winner.

Sina,

Nov 26, 2008

@udi Do you have stats for Safari and Opera in comparison to Chrome and Firefox?

Udi,

Nov 26, 2008

@Sina sorry no.

Josh Miller,

Nov 26, 2008

I used Chrome a bit when It first came out but quickly returned to Firefox. Creature of habit I guess.

Antoine Bertier,

Nov 26, 2008

I now tend to prefer Chrome for all the Google apps (igoogle, gmail, googlereader,...), and more and more friendfeed or socialmedian. Now I still prefer Firefox for actual browsing mainly due to the extensions, but I found it less stable (perhaps also due to extensions) for me recently while Chrome did not crash so far.

Dannytatom,

Nov 26, 2008

Like almost everyone else has said, I'd love to use Chrome full time(I love it's design a lot more than FF), but I can't live without my extensions.

Twitizen,

Nov 26, 2008

I sped up my Firefox with a few tweaks I found on the web so it's very comparable to Chrome in that respect now. I don't use other Google web services except gmail, which works real well in FF btw, fast and clean so I'm not feeling the need to have Google any further in my business than it already is.

Onemorebaker,

Nov 26, 2008

I have 2 simple words for why I stay on firefox "stumbleupon toolbar" Anybody else with me?

Billso,

Nov 27, 2008

I'll give Chrome a try when I reinstall Parallels and Windows XP on my Mac.

Dpontzer,

Nov 27, 2008

For the last few days my hard drive disk light would flash on and off continuously. I ran a suite of spybot killers, virus scanners and add stoppers, all with no success. Then I began to "end processes" in the Task Manager one at a time. When I stopped the "GoogleUpdater" process the disk access light went out. After a bit of research I discovered that this "infection" came with my beta download of the new Google Chrome Browser and to get rid of it you have to uninstall Chrome and WAIT A FEW HOURS for Google to pull the "infection" off of your machine. I found these instructions on Google forums website.

There is no other easy way to get rid of it. You can delete the app in Documents and Settings but it will juist come back in a few hours. For me, this is a breach of trust on the part of Google and its customers, loading a process on your machine without permission, that continually communicates with Google all in the name of "keeping your apps up to date". No thanks Google, this is my computer not yours.

Despil,

Nov 27, 2008

@Dpontzer, I did not realize it, thanks for the head up, uninstalled Chrome.

Desormeaux,

Nov 27, 2008

Hmm...an interesting read, but I still do prefer Firefox (for now). While Chrome does have many advantages over Firefox, it is not enough for me to transfer my blogoholic habits over to the other side of the fence.